Based on Anne Gardiner Perkins book Yale Needs Women, this elevated drama series explores the first years of coeducation at Yale University, starting in 1969. Occurring as the United States contended with seismic change — the growth of the women’s liberation movement, an increasingly organized counterculture hippie movement, and the rise of the Black Panther Party — the shift to coeducation proved that even an elite institution was not immune to the social movements of the time. The series focuses on the friendship between two roommates, a white girl from the Midwest interested in politics and an African American girl from New Haven with a passion for theater. The first female undergraduates were trailblazers, but also simply college students seeking out their tribe of friends, navigating the dating scene, all while trying to determine their futures. The series will follow these pioneers and their allies as they make waves across campus — a push that reflected the larger national unrest, the echoes of which still resonate loudly today.
