PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine institutional repositories developed in India and Canada containing documents on women's studies.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology consisted of identification of institutional repositories containing documents on women's studies, development of a tool for evaluation, followed by actual evaluation/content analysis of identified repositories.FindingsIt was found that there were 22 institutional repositories in Canada and three in India containing documents on women's studies. The highest number of documents on women's studies were available in the IR of University of British Columbia, i.e. 9,778. About 56 per cent (14) of the repositories contained community on the women's studies.Research limitations/implicationsThose institutional repositories containing documents on women's studies developed in India and Canada were considered for the study.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies focused on issues on women's studies and repositories.