American women in the 21st century have more options from which to select a college education than in the past, yet there are some women who purposely select a women's college. This study examined the culture of women's colleges, specifically Spelman College, a Historically Black Women's College (HBWC) in Atlanta, Georgia, founded by White…

This study was primarily a multiple-case study that incorporated descriptive statistical analysis to examine the contributions that three niche institutions play in the diverse democracy of the U.S. A "niche institution" is a college or university whose role in U.S. higher education is to meet the needs of a specific group and whose…

The 21st century has been a time of major change for women's colleges (Calefati, 2009; Harwarth, et al, 1997; Powers, 2007). From an all time high of close to 300 in operation, now less than 100 exist (Calefati, 2009). The decade of the 1980s saw a convergence of a perfect storm of challenges: declining birth rates that produced fewer…

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…