[5] The founders met at the airport after the 1985 International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where "few sessions had considered women and none had been feminist".
[5] The Newsletter was illustrated with the image of a dragon chasing the Virgin Mary as she read a Book of Hours, which was drawn by Megan Brill to avoid copyright infringements.
[5] The group became SMFS in 1992, driven by a desire to establish more formal networks for communication, funding, and with a view to producing publications.
In 2014, SMFS hosted a Wikipedia Write-In at the 49th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies[8][9][10] at Kalamazoo, where members were encouraged to contribute their time and expertise to adding and editing articles in their fields.
[11][12] SMFS members contribute to the maintenance of the Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index, which is hosted by the University of Iowa.