20 Facts About Susan Cayleff

Susan Cayleff was born on 1954 and is an American academic and emeritus professor at San Diego State University, having taught there from 1987 to 2020.

Susan Cayleff was one the inaugural members of the National Women's Studies Association Lesbian Caucus and served on the organization's Coordinating Council between 1977 and 1979.

Susan Cayleff founded the Women's History Seminar Series at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, Texas; the Graduate Women's Scholars of Southern California in 1989; and was a co-founder of the SafeZones program at San Diego State University.

Susan Cayleff analyzed both how cultural and traditional beliefs shaped women's quest to find health solutions and the difference between beliefs and how institutional medical policies impacted women.

Susan E Cayleff was born in 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts to Freda "Fritzi" and Nathan Cayleff.

Susan Cayleff had one sister, Joanie and the family lived in Brockton, Massachusetts, where the sisters' father operated a hardware store.

Susan Cayleff stated that though her parents were committed to the Civil Rights Movement and activism against anti-Semitism and for Native American and women's rights, she left home in 1973 because of her parents' homophobia and settled in Provincetown.

Susan Cayleff was elected to serve on the Coordinating Council as part of the Lesbian Caucus, along with Tucker Farley, Elisa Buenaventura, and Toni McNaron from 1977 to 1979.

In 1978, Susan Cayleff earned her master's degree in women's history from Sarah Lawrence College.

Susan Cayleff's study evaluated women as both users and providers of health therapies and how the traditions regarding their bodies and the environment were perceived and shaped by social norms which defined the doctor-patient relationship.

Scholar Beth A Robertson noted that Cayleff saw this extreme control and scrutiny as a driving factor in American and Canadian women's search for medical alternatives.

In 1983, Susan Cayleff was hired as an assistant professor of medical humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, Texas.

Susan Cayleff was the founder of the Women's History Seminar Series at the medical branch's obstetrics of gynecology department in 1984.

Susan Cayleff's course included making medical students aware of the different needs that their Chicana patients might have.

Susan Cayleff worked in Texas until 1987, when she took a post as an associate professor at San Diego State University, in California.

Susan Cayleff founded the Graduate Women's Scholars of Southern California in 1989 to facilitate networking for women scholars.

In 1993, Susan Cayleff became a professor in San Diego State's women's studies program and was promoted to its chair in 1996.

Susan Cayleff retired in 2020 and that year to recognize the work she and Carrie Sakai had done on inclusiveness, San Diego State created the Susan Cayleff and Sakai Faculty Chair for the university's Pride Center.

Susan Cayleff wrote six books and numerous articles about women's health.

Susan Cayleff sold the movie rights to a film based on the book, and in 2014 screenwriter Donald Martin was working on the project.