Although women were allowed to enter the front door of the Michigan Union in 1954, it was not until ten years later that the administrations of both the Michigan Union and League merged. This would later be seen as a major start towards ending gender segregation on the University of Michigan campus. Student life spaces, like the Union and League, began to become more collaborative between genders and other identities. The following is a list gender/sex-equal events that occurred in the years following this merger:

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• 1964: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act disallows employment discrimination based on sex.

• 1968: The first women to serve as an executive officer, Barbara Newell, became the VP of Student Affairs.

• 1970: The curfew requirement for female students living in University residence halls was abolished by the Board of Regents.

• 1970: A new Women’s Advocate Office was established to support female student concerns on campus.

• 1971: Barbara Newell became the first chair of the Commission for Women (CFW), which worked to end sex discrimination at the University of Michigan.

• 1973: The program for Women’s Studies was approved by the Executive Committee of LSA, and five courses were offered in the fall. And in 1975, the program was recognized as an undergraduate major.

• 1973: The University of Michigan started a women’s varsity athletics program for female athletes.

 

This list is not exhaustive, nor does it represent a perfect gender-equal campus. It is important to recognize the steps forward the University has taken in recognizing women’s rights on campus, while not diminishing the need for improvement.

Above information taken from Women at Michigan : the "dangerous experiment," 1870s to the present by Ruth Bordin.