Attention to SEM’s institution-building has been sometimes celebratory, sometimes critical. [Name removed]’s landmark forthcoming book, [title and publication information removed], offers an “eyewitness account” of women’s experiences in SEM’s early years (1952-1963). This roundtable offers SEM a chance to reflect on those years, with a throughline to the present. We will discuss the book and ask: how can it carry us forward? What’s surprising about the stories told… and what isn’t? What stakes are revealed? Given the structural sexism of SEM’s “founding fathers,” can we talk about institutional progress? Since the time of the founding mothers, have shifting gender demographics and a centering of humanistic methods feminized ethnomusicology as a field? [Name removed] dug deep into ten women’s experiences with SEM: she conducted extensive archival research and interviews. Most importantly, she was there. She takes the long view on women’s contributions to SEM, asking provoking questions about whose academic labor counts, and what it means to innovate, trailblaze, and build a field and an organization. Surprisingly, [name removed] concludes that “In contrast with the founding fathers, our founding mothers did not see themselves as a cohesive collective group nor did they ever try to function as one.” The roundtable participants come from three generations of ethnomusicologists. Each has shown sustained commitment to SEM; as thought leaders, they have actively changed the Society. We will run the session as a structured conversation between the participants and the audience, and brief excerpts will be read from the book.