1. Women’s Colleges
Scott Millington & Michael Wood

2. The History
- Started in the early 1800s, when female seminaries became a place where
women can study at.
- In 1836 Wesleyan College received the first charter for a women college.
In 1837 Mount Holyoke College (formerly known as Mount Holyoke
Female Seminary) opened its doors.
- The period between 1870 and 1890 was an ideal time for outfitting new
campuses.
- At the peak there were approximately 300 women colleges in 1960 and
now there are fewer than 45 institutions today.
-

4. The History
- The make up
- The Seven Sisters
- Their Roles
- The climate on the campus.

5. Changes - Amounts of Colleges
- By the turn of the twentieth century coeducation had been become the
norm for women.
- Arguments about why women colleges were still around?
- The 1970’s saw a shift away from single-sex intuitions and towards
coeducation institutions.
- The women’s colleges that survived the decline in the 1970’s transformed
themselves from women’s colleges to “colleges for women.”
- The Women’s College Coalition was created in 1972.

6. Changes - Why are they attending?
PAST
- Educational options for women were limited prior to the Civil War.
- So women would attend women’s colleges because they had no other
choice if they wanted to be educated.
NOW
- Small chance for harassment and discrimination.
- Higher self-esteem.
- Family History

7. Current Issues
- Enrollment numbers were down
- 86,000 in 2010, and are still dropping.
- The lack of funding has affected the enrollment rate.
- Mainly private 4-year institutions.
- Location of these schools.
- Most institutions are located in the Northeastern

8. Course Readings
Fitting Form to Function - by Rudolph H. Weingartner
Importance of budgeting
- Colleges were closing due to the lack of finances based off enrollment.
- Change their mission, and eventually who they were. They kept Women’s
Colleges running by allowing Men to enroll.
- This in short alters the overall budget planning of the institution as a whole.

9. Course Readings
If a current Womens College is deciding to make the
change in allowing the admittance of Men in becoming a
co-ed institution, in hopes of increasing their numbers in
terms of enrollment, then they will have to deal with the fact
of possibly losing support and status among their current
faculty.

10. Reference List
Bernal, L. (2006). Challenged by coeducation women's colleges since the 1960s. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Harwarth, I., Maline, M., & Education, L. (1997). Women's colleges in the United States: History, issues, and challenges. Washington, DC:
National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning, U.S. Dept. of Education.
Renn, K. A., (2014). Women’s colleges and universities in a global context. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Thelin, J. A., (2011). A history of American higher education (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Weingartner, R. (1996). Fitting form to function: A primer on the organization of academic institutions. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press.
Wolf-Wendel, L. E, (2002). Women’s Colleges. In A. M. Martinez Aleman & K. A. Renn (Eds.), Women in higher education (pp. 61-67).
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC- CLIO.