Women's colleges have a unique and successful history in fostering women's leadership relying on transformational and feminist leadership frameworks. Yet, their work in creating more inclusive and intersectional campus communities often falls short. This article offers some solutions on how women's colleges can best move forward to advance…

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…

Women's colleges carry an important legacy of access and equity in higher education, even as they faced challenges of dropping enrollments, financial hardships, and the creeping threat of conversion to coeducation at different points in their historical arc. The research on women's colleges has touted the benefits of attending these institutions…

This paper presents the successes and challenges faced in implementing the dual-mode strategy in higher education in the context of feminist theory. Worldwide, women's universities have been established by governments and private organisations to involve women more fully in the country's economic, political and social activities. The establishment…

Based on a qualitative, comparative, multiple case study of the contributions and status of 21st century women's colleges and universities, this article analyzes the topic of women's access to postsecondary education in ten nations. Despite decreasing numbers of women-only institutions in some regions (e.g., North America), the sector is growing…

Sociologist Mabel Agnes Elliott was elected the fourth president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems in 1956-1957 and was the first woman to hold this position. She was an anti-war activist, a feminist and a creative and diligent writer. Yet she experienced many challenges. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept an active file on…

Considers relationship between women's colleges and women's movement. Notes that, although private legal scholars did not perceive women's colleges within reach of proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), popular assumption was that, if passed, ERA would have eliminated women's colleges. Adds that women's colleges were not major players in…

No matter what social goals or federal laws exist, it will be a long time before the informal social environment in America's male-dominated colleges and universities will serve women students as well as men, suggests the president of Smith College. Until then "for women only" institutions are needed. (Author/LBH)

Replicating and updating M. Elizabeth Tidball's 1973 study, this study of 1,307 women achievers corroborates earlier findings that women's colleges produce proportionately more high female achievers than do coeducational schools. Factors that may have contributed to this are discussed. (BJV)

Examined midlife educational, career, and family outcomes of women who attended women's colleges in the 1960s, one with a coed learning environment (CLE) and one with a single-sex environment (SLE). Overall, graduates of both colleges were very accomplished 30 years later. However, those who had experienced a CLE reported more sexism and active…

The origin and development of two women's colleges, Mount Holyoke of Massachusetts and Meredith College of North Carolina, are compared, illustrating some of the early chapters of American higher education, when religious purposes for schools were common, but when schools for women were not. The social, historical, and religious contexts of the…

The reflection of women's image in major programs of the progressive education movement--vocational education, the core curriculum, and women's colleges--is discussed. Reasons for the parallel between image and progressive education are addressed. (LBH)

Princeton's women students have adapted to a world of highly competitive males but a need has been found to provide services to help them in an atmosphere and society where male values predominate. (Author/LBH)

The ideology of higher education for women at Wellesley College in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is discussed in the context of feminism and the women's suffrage movement. "Symmetrical womanhood," a concept emphasizing balance of traditional roles and intellectual and community involvement, was a goal of Wellesley faculty of…

Nannerl Overhouser Keohane, one of a new breed of women presidents of women's colleges, is strongly committed to feminist scholarship and is also working to prepare Wellesley's graduates for the technology of the future. The role of minority students at Wellesley is discussed. (MLW)