Merle Woo is an American academic, poet and activist who has been described as "a leading member of the Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party".
[5] After completing her degree in 1969 Woo began working at San Francisco State University with their Equal Opportunity Program, where she taught Lesbian Literature, among other classes.
[6] She was later given a job offer by the University of California, Berkeley, where she began teaching in 1978 until she was fired in 1982 due to openly criticizing the way the Ethnic Studies Department was run and stating that they were a result of right wing activities.
[7][8] She fought against the dismissal and was briefly reinstated in 1984, upon which point she formed the Merle Woo Defense Committee to ensure that all issues would be heard.
She also participated in a performance group named Unbound Feet with Nellie Wong and Kitty Tsui, which dispersed in 1981.