This paper will analyse the development of the Women and Development programme at the ISS, since 1981, when the first MA programme was offered, until 2002, when the programme was drastically changed. The programme was a unique combination of feminist studies and development studies, offered to an international student body, and taught by a multicultural staff. The programme also implemented a number of projects to institutionalize women’s studies at various universities in the South, particularly the UWI, Sudan, Namibia and Bangladesh. Its research focussed on women’s movements, gendered labour relations, migration and trafficking in women. The programme combined an emphasis on feminist theories including epistemology, with gender policy and empirical research. The paper will analyse the academic context in which it functioned, its relations with the wider women’s movement, its internal politics and the factors that led to its eventual demise.