SERIES I. GENERAL includes writings and speeches by and about feminists from pamphlets dated as early as 1814, to analytical articles written in the 1970s by well-known women's historians such as Gerda Lerner and William O'Neill.

SERIES II. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS includes material relating to significant figures who supported and agitated for women's rights, particularly those who made major contributions to the nineteenth century woman's rights movement, but also more recent feminist activists. Individuals represented include Ida Wells Barnett, Henry Brown Blackwell, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Abigail Kelley Foster, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Marietta Holley, Dorothy Kenyon, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Alice Paul, Ernestine Rose, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Mary Church Terrell. Types of material include articles, memorials, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and photographs, books, and a small amount of correspondence.

SERIES III. CONFERENCES includes an important concentration of published sources documenting women's rights conferences and conventions. Types of material include, correspondence, minutes, newspaper clippings, photographs, planning material, publicity, published proceedings, reports, resolutions, and memorabilia. Under the International Women's Year conference (1977), there are audio recordings of speeches and sessions. Others documented include the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848; the Women's Centennial Congress in New York City, 1940; the Conference on the Role of Women at Smith College in 1947; the Seneca Falls Centennial Convention of 1948; International Women's Year State Conferences held in 1977; International Women's Year Conference in Houston, 1977; and the United Nations Decade for Women World Conference in Copenhagen, 1980. There are also records pertaining to lesser-known nineteenth century woman's rights local conventions in Akron, Ohio, 1851; West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1852; Cleveland, Ohio, 1854; New York City, 1856; Boston, 1859; the New York Church of the Puritans in 1866; and the American Equal Rights Association Convention in New York in 1867, among others.

The long history of struggles related to efforts to pass and ratify the ERA from 1920 to 1983 is well documented in Series IV. EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT with articles, bibliographies, correspondence, legislation, lists, memorabilia, memoranda, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and publicity contained in the collection. There are interviews with feminist activists that were conducted for a 1983 project entitled The Fight for E.R.A.: Leaders, Strategies, and Directions, by Jennifer Jackman and Tamar Raphael. The 28 interviewees include Ruth Adams, Carol Atkins, Kathy Bonk, Pat and Twiss Butler, Susan Catania, Lillian Ciarrochi, Alice Cohan, Mary Jean Collins, Mary Crisp, Diane Cutri, Betsy Dunn, Catherine East, Don Edwards, Vicki Ferguson, Pat Frank, Audrey Ghizzoni, Sheila Greenwald, Mariwyn Heath, Mildred Jeffrey, Beth Leopold, Ann Lewis, Colette Roberts, Reed Gloria Sackman, Eleanor Smeal, Jane Wells-Schooley, Jinx Wingard, and Molly Yard. There are interview notes, and photographs, as well as audio recordings for some, not all, interviews.

SERIES V. LEGAL STATUS documents changes in women's legal status in individual states and in the United States at-large.

SERIES VI. ORGANIZATIONS contains materials generated by women's political and equal rights groups such as the Equity Network, Human Rights for Women, International Alliance of Women, the National Advisory Committee for Women, the National Women's Education Fund, and the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus and the National Women's Political Caucus.

SERIES VII. includes Records generated by the President's Commission on the Status of Women (circa 1960s-70s) and the various state level Commissions on the Status of Women are also a significant part of the collection. Included in this section are published articles, briefs, pamphlets, publicity, reports, meeting agendas, minutes, and correspondence.

[Note: this section is unprocessed and contains many duplicated materials]

SERIES VIII. COUNTRIES includes a small amount of material relating to women's rights in countries outside the United States: Africa, Albania, Asia, Australia, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. International materials can also be found in the files relating to the International Women's Year conferences in Houston, Texas and Copenhagen under CONFERENCES.