THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Leslie R. Wolfe, Ph.D.

November 24, 1943 – November 30, 2017

“There was a synergy between Title IX saying to schools, ‘It is against the law to deny women admission to medical school,’ and Women’s Educational Equity Act saying, ‘Here are ways to improve access to medical schools for women, here are ways to change the curriculum, here are ways to reduce sexism and racism’ and so on.”

Pursued equality for women, particularly women of color. President of the Center for Women Policy Studies in Washington, 1987-2015. Director of the Women’s Educational Equity Act program, a government agency that funded career training for women, 1979. B.A., University of Illinois, 1965. M.A., University of Maryland, College Park, 1967. Ph.D., University of Florida, 1970. Known for her 1989 report that exposed gender bias in the SAT college entrance examination that allegedly caused women to score lower on the test than men. 

Photo. Leslie R. Wolfe, right, in 1989 with Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, project director for a conference organized by the Center for Women Policy Studies, at the center’s office in Washington. (Photo by Jose R. Lopez, The New York Times)