Giese served as director of the Michigan Project on Equal Education Rights (PEER), a division of the National Organization for Women's Legal Defense and Education Fund, from 1978 to 1984. The collection also contains files on Michigan women in high school athletics, vocational education courses, math classes, and science classes. Other files relate to legal cases on sex discrimination, the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, and all-male academies in Detroit.
The papers of Elizabeth Giese have been divided into six series: Biographical File, PEER Files, Subject Files, Legal Cases on Sex Discrimination, Women's Rights Organizations, Math and Science, and Vocational Education. The bulk of the material in this collection relates to the activities of Michigan PEER. However, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish materials related to Giese's role as a citizen, activist and consultant from materials collected in her official capacity as an employee of Michigan PEER. The organization of the collection occasionally reflects this fact. Some of the series, and some individual files, are organized around particular subjects, rather than Giese's professional or personal activities.