We leverage variation in the timing of women's colleges' transitions to coeducation throughout the 1960s-2000s to study how exposure to a gendered social environment affects women's human capital investments. Applying event study and synthetic control analyses to newly collected historical data, we find that the share of women majoring in STEM at…

This essay examines women's commencement addresses presented from 1910 to 1915 at Vassar College. These addresses are significant because they reveal the students' rhetorical education and the "available means" upon which these women drew in developing a public voice. By prompting reflection and the potential for change, the commencement…

This dissertation is a qualitative case study of how three liberal arts colleges rationalized and provided physical education courses despite a trend in higher education to reduce or eliminate physical education from the curriculum. Kalamazoo College, Bennett College for Women, and Barnard College for Women continue to provide physical education…

Many undergraduate liberal arts institutions offer computer science majors. This article illustrates how quality computer science programs can be realized in a wide variety of liberal arts settings by describing and contrasting the actual programs at five liberal arts colleges: Williams College, Kalamazoo College, the State University of New York…

As this report goes to press, the nation's capital is in the midst of a six-moth, city-wide celebration of William Shakespeare. With this celebration as a backdrop, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) researched how Shakespeare fits into English curricula at 70 of the nation's leading colleges and universities. ACTA surveyed English…

Examination of foundings of four-year women's colleges in three states, 1855-1968, reveals that institutional forces (presence of elite women's colleges, development of Catholic women's colleges, and enactment of the suffrage amendment) increased the founding rate, but rising organizational density later decreased the rate. Argues that…

A case study of an anonymous college that experienced the threat of failure but managed to revitalize its operation is presented. Participant observation, interviews, and document review were used in the study that focused on the period just prior to closing and the period since its reopening. (MLW)

The modern college for women, evolving by rapid growth from recent simple beginnings to its present highly complex state, is unquestionably still in the process of development. A glance over the changes already accomplished brings conviction that the present situation is but a stage in the life history of a virile institution. That present…

Chapter XIX of Volume 2 introduces the volume's statistical tables and discusses the 1907 education census, and American education types and variations. Chapter XX provides state common school statistics on population, school age, enrollment, attendance, school term, teachers, revenues and expenditures, and finances. Chapter XXI covers city school…