In 1968, Nancy Okowitz, Barbara Dibble, and the rest of their Freshman class at a small women's college in New York were greeted by the Juniors and Seniors with a lively rendition of "I want to get married; I want to be a wife. I'm sick and tired of this darn college life. Talk, dark and handsome, or short, ugly and fat, I want to get married, and that's the end of that!"
Okowitz and Dibble were shocked as the girls flashed their engagement rings and announced their distain for academics. Men's colleges were just considering opening their doors to women, and women's colleges were in the process of transitioning from a finishing school-style environment into institutions focused on the academic preparation of women who wished to work outside of the home.
While women attending these colleges in the 60s may have seen a transitioning of schools with the changes in women's roles in society, the most recent graduates of women's colleges have a very different impression of what it means to be educated at a women's college. Instead of pearls, high tea, and rigid rules, they associate their colleges with small classes, beloved traditions, and empowerment.
A Brief History
Seminaries (women's private secondary schools) were first established in the early 1800's, in order to provide women education, as they were not allowed into men's colleges at the time. Women's colleges were founded several decades later, with the idea of providing women with educational preparation more similar to that which men received.
Young female graduates in the late 19th century were not necessarily trained for a career. Historian Louise Boas wrote of Wheaton College's founders' expectations that the school "was to train some of its pupils to be teachers but its training would be mainly for those who would become wives and mothers. For them education was of the greatest importance that they might live their own lives intelligently; and intelligently guide the lives of those who would be entrusted to their care." Recent graduates refer to their colleges in years past as being "steeped in southern upper class tradition" and "a place to get a worthless liberal arts degree and meet a nice Cornell boy."
Throughout the 20th century, as women moved into the workforce, women's colleges became more plentiful and more academically- and career-focused. However, in the late 60s, traditionally men's colleges began to admit women, and many women's colleges also became coeducational. Those colleges that chose to continue to admit only women adapted to emphasize that their institutions allow women to "enter any sphere, including those traditionally reserved for men."
How Students Decide to attend Women's Colleges
Dibble described Marymount College shortly before she arrived as "where the nouveau riche plunked their daughters to get them educated and marry well." Her freshman year the school had already begun to transition and bring in new talent with "a huge influx of scholarship kids." At that time, women's colleges were a popular choice for women who wished to pursue higher education.
Now it is commonly estimated that only about 3 percent of women planning to attend college will even consider a women's college, and women's colleges have presented a little over 1 percent of all diplomas in recent years. Of those students who do consider attending a women's college, the decision is often based on the individual school, not necessarily whether that school is all women or coeducational.
Women's colleges often have smaller classes and a more close-knit atmosphere than coed institutions, and these factors in and of themselves can make a great difference to the women visiting the campuses. Ferrelle Lyles, a 2007 Sweet Briar College graduate, said, "The fact that it was all women or co-ed did not make a difference for me. … When I decided to go to an all women's college, it really came down to the close knit environment and courses offered along with the professor-student ratio that made up my mind for me." Ariel Merkel, a 2005 Wells alumna, expressly did not want to attend a women's college – until she visited her alma-mater. She stopped by Wells on her way to a coed institution and changed her mind. "I immediately saw the difference between wells and the other coed schools I was visiting," she wrote.
Unlike Lyles and Merkel, Eleanor Stephenson, a 2007 graduate of Agnes Scott College, specifically looked for women's colleges when she chose her college. She had initially been talked out of attending a women's college by male friends and family members, but after her first semester she transferred from her co-ed university to Agnes Scott, a women's college. She writes, "I felt I had made the wrong decision. I have nothing against co-ed universities, but for me I really wanted to experience what a women's college had to offer."
The Benefits to Women's Education
At the time Okowitz and Dibble were attending college, the U.S. society had a very different perception of the role of women than it does now. At women's colleges, those rules of conduct were circumvented and women were likely to take active leadership roles. Dibble said, "I did a lot of things [at a women's college] that I would have deferred to boys," such as organizing a strike against the Vietnam War on campus.
Recent graduates of women's colleges feel that women still become more actively engaged and involved in their education when they are without men. Cecily McAndrews, a 2007 Mount Holyoke graduate, described her classmates as an "incredible collection of smart, savvy, well-traveled women" and said that "the professors actively encouraged us to speak." Stephenson explained this trend as a result of women feeling "more comfortable in an academic setting without men and are therefore better able to speak their minds." Linsey Holmes, a 2007 graduate of Randolph Mason Women's College, agreed, stating, "I think the presence of guys changes women."
Lyles experienced coed college education while taking summer courses at Georgetown University. "Those women who regularly attended women's colleges were just as engaged and outgoing as the men, and much more so than the female students from regular co-ed institutions," she writes. This trend has also continued after college, as "in the workplace now, I find that my education in an all women's institution inadvertently prepared me to be a stronger and more confident woman in a workplace dominated by men. Because I know I can hold my own in a single-sex environment, I know that it is no different than in a co-ed one."
The Drawbacks of Women's Education
While Okowitz and Dibble were in college, on the weekends the girls would be bussed to nearby men's colleges for dances. Dibble described it as "an unnatural experience," but over her years there, most women stopped attending these dances in favor of other forms of entertainment. For Okowitz, this unnatural interaction with the opposite sex contributed to her decision to transfer to a coeducational university for her last two years.
Some of the recent graduates from these institutions express similar feelings about the lack of interaction with the opposite sex; however, overall they are happy with their experience. McAndrews writes, "I'm sad I don't have more male friends, and sometimes it felt a bit claustrophobic, but overall I was very happy there." Holmes originally considered transferring, because "I hadn't really found a niche and felt there weren't enough social events." However, now she's content with her experience; "I didn't date, but I feel there's time for that. Perhaps I do feel somewhat uncomfortable around guys my age, but this should pass. …I don't know how I would be different had I attended a big co-ed university, but I value the education I was given and the community in which I was allowed to grow."
Recent graduates also disagreed on whether the all-women experience produced "cattiness." Stephenson found that "the women I encountered were incredibly competitive, and sometimes that was detrimental to the classroom environment." However, Merkel contends that "the concept that women are catty and backstabbing all stems from the competition women put themselves in with other women as a result of patriarchy."
The Coed Transition
Women's colleges began transitioning to coeducational institutions in the early 70s, when the first men's colleges began accepting women. While there were over 300 women's colleges in the 1960s, now there are only around 60 in the country. Some of the former women's colleges, such as Vassar and Wheaton, have become independent coeducational institutions. Others, like Radcliffe, merged with nearby traditionally men's schools. Barnard became an "independent affiliate" of Columbia University, and several women's colleges in Boston have developed programs allowing cross registration with neighboring coed institutions.
However, not all women's colleges have been able to survive the transition. After a partnership with Fordham University, Marymount College, Dibble's alma mater, closed in 2007. The campus was taken over by Fordham for their degree programs, and current students were offered the opportunity to transfer to another Fordham program or another institution.
In 2004, Wells College made the decision to admit men the following fall. The students responded by holding a week-and-a-half long protest against the decision. A 2005 Wells alumna, part of the last class to graduate while it was still a women's college, wrote, "It was a devastating decision. Not because I am against coeducation, but because I felt it was the wrong move for Wells. …If it does [survive the transition], it will be a new Wells, and not the one I attended." Many students transferred, and the Freshman class that entered in 2004 only had one year of 'women's education' before the college became coeducational.
Holmes' alma mater will also become coed this fall. "It's kind-of sad," Holmes writes, "but I'd rather it continue as a college than become a nursing home, etc." She has noticed a lack of understanding of the history and situation at schools that have recently changed, "It's weird to talk to girls who attend a recently co-ed school and don't really care that the women's institution 'died.'" Lyles described this phenomenon as "The spirit of the place is lost in the transformation" to coeducation and women at coeducational institutions cannot understand what was lost. While many graduates of women's colleges understand the financial pressures that the schools are under, which is often alleviated by admitting men, they value their college experiences and see a continuing need for women's education.
