Some campuses are exemplars for best practices for racial inclusion in higher education, and they offer a vital opportunity to understand how to better include Black students. This critical life story analysis of Black college alumnae who graduate from a historically Black, women's institution, Spelman College, demonstrates the importance of…

To better understand how White college women understand and are influenced by whiteness, we discursively analyzed data from interviews and focus groups with 25 White seniors at two Catholic women's colleges. Findings suggest that participants understood whiteness through discourses of insignificance, nominal difference, responsibility, and…

Based on national longitudinal surveys, demonstrated the effectiveness of women-only colleges in cultivating students' desire to influence social conditions, mainly due to the socially active and altruistically oriented student climate of women-only colleges. Also illustrates how a model for studying institutional effectiveness and a multilevel…

The influence of attending a women's college on early career attainments was assessed through a national sample of college students. When controlled for individual background and aspirations and for college selectivity and size, the net impact of attending a women's college on five measures of attainment was reduced to nonsignificance. (Author/MSE)

The history of Spelman Seminary (Georgia) for African-American females is reviewed as an example of education as an instrument of socialization for southern women to their prescribed roles. The discussion covers the missionary role, Georgia in the 1880s, the institutional mission, school founding, debate over classical versus industrial roles of…

Recently many religious colleges have become more secular and single-sex colleges have become coeducational. By contrasting environmental and financial data of a matched sample of colleges that made these changes with a sample of colleges that have not, it was possible to assess the impact of those policy decisions. (Author/LBH)

Selective single-sex colleges provide a more favorable environment than comparable coeducational institutions for influencing White, middle-class, academically capable undergraduates of both sexes to disregard conventional occupational prescriptions based on gender. Sexually segregated academic settings are instrumental in reducing male-female…

The results of this longitudinal study support the hypothesis that, after controlling for background characteristics, women's colleges relate positively to a variety of measures of student satisfaction, perceived changes in skills and abilities, and educational aspirations and educational attainment. Contact with the faculty and administration is…

Drawing on national and longitudinal survey data, a study of 3,249 students from coeducational colleges and 387 from women-only colleges found that women-only colleges had a positive impact on academic ability and social self-confidence. Students did not differ by school type in preparation for graduate or professional schools, but coed students…

A longitudinal study investigated differences in the experiences of women at women's colleges (n=160) and women at coeducational colleges (n=764) as they related to a variety of outcome variables. Results confirm the important role of institutional climate, student involvement, and the particular priorities and goals often found at women's…

A study using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 compared effects of attendance at a women's college for one to six years (n=125) with attendance at only coeducational colleges (n=1832). Findings indicated significant occupational achievement benefits were realized for each year of attendance at a women's…

A study of 547 science and mathematics majors graduated from a leading women's college found that cohort, major, number of undergraduate science courses, parental encouragement, and career advice from faculty were key factors associated with persistence in science and mathematics after college. (Author/MSE)