MSU Library acquires papers of longtime employee who won a judgment against MSU in 1990

BOZEMAN — Patricia Anderson, a longtime Montana State University employee who was later named one of the university’s “extraordinary, ordinary women,” has given papers documenting her career and efforts to improve working conditions for women at MSU to the MSU Library.

Anderson, who began her employment at Montana State shortly after graduating with a degree in home economics in 1950, worked at MSU for 34 years as an adviser to many student groups. She sued the university over bias against women in the workplace and won a judgment against MSU in 1990 for a pattern of discrimination in pay practices.

Among the papers that Anderson has donated are an oral history documenting that case.

“This collection represents such an important advance for women at MSU,” said Jodi Allison-Bunnell, MSU Library’s head of Archives and Special Collections.

In 2018, in celebration of MSU’s 125th anniversary, Anderson was one of 125 women named to the list of Montana State’s extraordinary, ordinary women by the President’s Commission on the Status of University Women. Honorees were selected from nearly 400 nominations of women who have had an impact on the status of women at MSU and are inspiring or have inspired others by their example.

Her profile on the extraordinary, ordinary women webpage notes that Anderson’s “pioneering efforts helped improve the working environment for women at MSU over the last three decades.”

Patricia Anderson's son, Lindsay Anderson, said he believes his mother's efforts to improve working conditions for women at MSU is particularly important for her granddaughters, Nicole and Kari Anderson, who live and work in the Seattle area.

"My mother’s work to pursue an equal pay case had a much more profound and positive impact on MSU than I ever thought possible,” Lindsay Anderson said. “She is certainly a role model for my daughters and their generation. We are so fortunate that we can have future researchers better understand the case by studying her papers at MSU.”

The MSU Library’s Archives and Special Collections include many unique holdings that tell the stories of regional writers like Ivan Doig; Montana women’s history; the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem; Montana’s agricultural history and numerous other topics. Its collections of records and publications from MSU document the university’s past, present and future, and they are used for teaching dozens of classes each year.

Archives and Special Collections at the MSU Library are open for anyone to visit during library hours. Researchers can schedule a reading room appointment, and library staff are happy to answer questions through the MSU Library’s contact form at lib.montana.edu/archives/contact-form.