Three recent books ("In the Company of Women,""Alma Mater," and "Women in College") focus on very different but interrelated topics: the general history of women in higher education in America, the history of women's colleges, and the shaping of women's identities through higher education. (MSE)

Reviews literature on the history of women in higher education in the United States, focusing on colleges for women (specifically Bryn Mawr and Wellesley) in comparison with each other and coeducational colleges (specifically Oberlin and the University of Michigan). Discusses women's access at the community college level. (DMM)

Discrimination against women in U.S. society and the academic world is detailed in the eight chapters of this book. Inconsistencies in American society, and arbitrary societal standards that have perpetuated discriminatory behavior toward women are examined. Part I focuses on the socialization process that women undergo as Americans and as women…