Dr. Josephine Massyngbaerde Ford (1928-2015) was a professor emerita of theology at the University of Notre Dame, and the first female Notre Dame faculty member to receive tenure.

Born in Nottinghamshire, England, she graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1957. After a brief career as a nurse, she then earned a master’s degree from the University of London and a doctoral degree from Nottingham in 1963.

When Ford came to the University of Notre Dame in 1965 as a New Testament and Rabbinic scholar, she and Suzanne Kelly, O.S.B. become the only two women on the faculty. Three years later, in 1968, Ford became the first female Notre Dame faculty member to be granted tenure.

In 1978, Ford filed a sex discrimination suit against the University, arguing that men with lesser qualifications than herself were being promoted. Her suit became part of a class-action suit which was settled out of court in 1981, with Notre Dame granting tenure to another woman professor and agreeing to renew the university's commitment to promoting and granting tenure to women faculty at the same rate as men. Ford reached a separate settlement agreement with the university, under which she was promoted to the rank of full professor.

In addition to her 33-year teaching career, Ford wrote numerous articles in theological journals and was the author of several books, including “A Trilogy on Wisdom and Celibacy,” “Wellsprings of Scripture: A Thematic and Rabbinic Introduction,” “The Spirit and the Human Person,” “We Are Easter People” and “Which Way for Catholic Pentecostals.”