The most significant advances in Women's Studies have been in research and research methodology. We know so much more about women and about how to study ourselves than we did in 1970, when Sister Prudence Allen and I co-taught the first Women's Studies university course at Sir George Williams University, now Concordia in Montreal. At that time the texts were mainly The Second Sex and The Feminine Mystique plus many "obscure" almost unreadable dittoes and broadsheets, many of which were later to be integrated into the publications of famous feminists. It was the era before book displays; at conferences we would collect faintly Gestetnered works from display tables and avidly read them on the way home. What a discovery and confirmation! There were others who thought like we did and who thought beyond us as well! Until about 1974, it was even possible to keep up with most of the publications on women in both English and French. This is absolutely impossible now. There is simply much more published material available for study and inspiration; each year brings with it immeasurable progress and refinement in the process of building Women's Studies on the foundation of an evolving epistemology.

The epistemological questions raised by feminist scholars have challenged the male academy but, it must also be admitted, these questions have made hardly a dent in the male hegemony. Perhaps that is why so many feminist scholars debate whether Women's Studies should be integrated into all disciplines until there is no need for a separate one called Women's Studies. However, most existing disciplines integrate partially into others while at the same time developing their own disciplinary characteristics and criteria. While Women's Studies must make an impact not only on all other disciplines but on the structures and practices of the academy itself, it also has developed the characteristics of an independent discipline and should be supported as one.

In the past few years, Secretary of State, Canada, has endowed Women's Studies chairs in universities in five geographic regions: British Columbia, the Western Provinces centred in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. The Chairs are located at Simon Fraser University, shared by the Universities of Manitoba and Regina, shared by The University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and at Laval and Mount St. Vincent Universities (1). While the creation of these Chairs provide a concrete legitimization of the accomplishments of Canadian Women's scholars, they are too few, too demanding and too poorly financed. The women occupying these positions are not only expected to teach, do research, and be general savantes at their institutions, but also to participate in the community activities of women spread over very large geographical regions. Most frequently our Chairs are not supplied with the resources they need to fulfill their mandates properly, nor are the departments hosting them given sufficient resources to absorb the extra work inevitable with their presence. As usual, then, with great fanfare women have offered a tremendous prize only to discover that it may be a Trojan horse which will seduce us into dissipating our limited energies by adhering to impossible and contradictory demands.