Timeline of women's colleges in the United States

The following is a timeline of women's colleges in the United States. These are institutions of higher education in the United States whose student population comprises exclusively, or almost exclusively, women. They are often liberal arts colleges. There are approximately 35 active women's colleges in the U.S. as of 2021.[1]

The colleges are listed by the date when they opened to students.

First and oldest

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Many of the schools began as either school for girls, academies (which during the late 18th and early 19th centuries was the equivalent of secondary schools), or as a teaching seminary (which during the early 19th century were forms of secular higher education), rather than as a chartered college. During the 19th century in the United States, "Seminaries educated women for the only socially acceptable occupation: teaching. Only unmarried women could be teachers. Many early women's colleges began as female seminaries and were responsible for producing an important corps of educators."[2]

The following is a list of "oldest" and "first" schools, by the date that they opened for students:

  • 1727: Ursuline Academy is the oldest Catholic school and the oldest school for women in the United States. It now provides primary and secondary education for girls.
  • 1742: Bethlehem Female Seminary, (now Moravian University) was the second girls' school, after Ursuline Academy. It became the Moravian Seminary and College for Women in 1807 and later merged with nearby schools to become the coeducational Moravian College in 1952.
  • 1772: Salem College, North Carolina was formed as the Little Girls' School by the Moravian Single Sisters and then renamed as the Salem Female Academy. It is the oldest women's educational institution to be in continuous operation.[3][4]
  • 1787: Young Ladies' Academy of Philadelphia was the first government-recognized institution established for women's higher education in the United States.
  • 1803: Bradford Academy (later renamed Bradford College) was the first academy in Massachusetts to admit women. The first graduating class had 37 women and 14 men. It closed in 2000.
  • 1818: Elizabeth Female Academy was the first female educational institution in Mississippi. It closed in 1843
  • 1821: Clinton Female Seminary was established in Clinton, Georgia. It merged to become Georgia Female College (now Wesleyan College in Macon Georgia) which was chartered in 1836, the first college charted from its inception as a full college for women. It awarded the first known baccalaureate degree to a woman.
  • 1832: The Linden Wood School for Girls (now Lindenwood University) is the first institution of higher education for women west of the Mississippi River. It became coeducational in 1970.
  • 1833: Columbia Female Academy (now Stephens College) was originally established as an academy for both high school and college-aged women. It later became a four-year college. It is the second oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college.
  • 1837: St. Mary's Hall (now Doane Academy) was originally established as a female seminary by George Washington Doane, Bishop of the Episcopal Church of New Jersey. It was the first academic school founded on church principles in the United States. It is now a PK through grade 12 coeducational day school.
  • 1837: Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) is the first and oldest of the Seven Sisters. It was chartered in 1836 and is the oldest school established from inception as an institution of higher education for women (teaching seminary) that is still a women's college.
  • 1838: Judson College for Women was in Marion, Alabama. It was intended as an institute of higher learning from inception. It was the fifth-oldest women's college in the U.S. when it announced its closure in 2021.[1]
  • 1842: Valley Union Seminary (now Hollins University) is the oldest chartered women's college in Virginia.
  • 1844: Saint Mary's College (Indiana) was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. It was the first women's college in the Great Lakes region. It was founded in southern Michigan and moved to its current location in Notre Dame, Indiana in 1855.
  • 1845: Baylor Female College was chartered by the Republic of Texas. It is now the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas.
  • 1845: Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina was the third private college and first women's college in South Carolina. It became fully coeducational in the 1960s.
  • 1848: Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design) is the first and only art school that is a women's college.
  • 1850: Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (now part of Drexel University) trained and graduated the first female physicians in the country and the first black female physicians.
  • 1851: Cherokee Female Seminary was the first institute of higher learning exclusively for women west of the Mississippi River. Along with the Cherokee Male Seminary, it was the first college created by a tribe instead of the U.S. federal government.
  • 1851: Auburndale Female Seminary (now Lasell College) was private institution founded by Edward Lasell. It became the first "successful and persistent" junior college in the U.S. and the first junior college for women. It began offering four-year bachelor's degrees in 1989 and became coeducational in 1997.
  • 1851: Tennessee and Alabama Female Institute (later Mary Sharp College) was the first women's college to grant college degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. The college closed due to financial hardship in 1896.
  • 1851: College of Notre Dame (now Notre Dame de Namur University) was the first women's college in California and the first in the state authorized to grant baccalaureate degrees to women. The university is now coeducational. It became a graduate school in 2021.
  • 1852: Young Ladies Seminary (now Mills College at Northeastern University).
  • 1853: Beaver Female Seminary (now Arcadia University) started in Beaver, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. It admitted boys for a short time at the turn of the 20th century before returning to an all-women's school. By 1907, its name had changed to Beaver College. It moved to its current location in Glenside, Pennsylvania in 1962. In the fall of 1972, the college became coeducational. It changed its name in July 2001, becoming Arcadia University.
  • 1853: Mt. Carroll Seminary (now Shimer College) was a women's seminary started by Frances Shimer. It became coeducational in 1950.
  • 1854: Columbia Female College (now Columbia College) is located in Columbia, South Carolina. It survived the march of General Sherman and three campus fires. Its day program is still all-female, but its evening program is coeducational.
  • 1855: Davenport Female College (later Davenport College) was founded in Lenoir, North Carolina. It merged with Greensboro College in 1938.[5]
  • 1855: Elmira Female College (now Elmira College) is the oldest college still in existence which (as a women's college) granted degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. The college became coeducational in 1969.
  • 1861: Vassar College is one of the Seven Sisters and was established from its inception as a college for women. It became coeducational in 1969.
  • 1867: Cedar Crest College was established in 1867 in the basement of a church. It is now one of the top modern female colleges.
  • 1867: Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College): It was the first historically black female institution of higher education established after the American Civil War and became a women's college in 1946. It became a coeducational school in 1954 and lost its accreditation in 2004.
  • 1868: Wells College is located in Aurora, New York. It went coed in 2005, and closed in 2024.
  • 1869: Chatham University is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was established as Pennsylvania Female College and was renamed Pennsylvania College for Women in 1890, and Chatham College in 1955. Chatham gained University status in 2007.
  • 1870: Wilson College is located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. It was chartered in March 1869 and began instruction in October 1970. It became coeducational in 2014.
  • 1871: Ursuline College was established by the Sisters of Ursuline as a college for women in Cleveland, Ohio. Ursuline College is still a women-focused institution with less than 10% men in attendance.
  • 1875: Wellesley College was chartered in 1870 and opened in 1875 as a college for women. It is one of the Seven Sisters and remains a college for women.
  • 1875: Smith College was chartered in 1871 and opened in 1875 as a college for women. It is one of the Seven Sisters and remains a college for women.
  • 1878: Georgia Baptist Female Seminary (now the Brenau University Women's College) was founded in Gainesville, Georgia. Despite its name, the college was never formally associated with any church or religious group. It became Brenau College in 1900 and Brenau University in 1992. The university still boasts its robust Women's College on its historic Gainesville campus.
  • 1881: Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary (now Spelman College) was the first historically black female institution of higher education to receive its collegiate charter in 1924, making it the oldest historically black women's college.
  • 1884: Industrial Institute & College (now Mississippi University for Women) was the first public women's college. It became coeducational in 1982 as a result of the Supreme Court's Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan case, but maintained its original name.
  • 1884: Vernon Seminary (now Cottey College) was founded by Virginia Alice Cottey in Nevada, Missouri. The college's ownership was transferred to the P.E.O. Sisterhood in 1927.
  • 1885: Bryn Mawr College is one of the Seven Sisters and was established as a college for women. The college's mission was to offer women rigorous intellectual training and the chance to do original research, a European-style program that was then available only at a few elite institutions for men. The college established undergraduate and graduate programs widely viewed as models of academic excellence in the humanities and the sciences, elevating standards for higher education nationwide. It removes women's college
  • 1893: the Woman's College of Frederick (now Hood College) was established when the Potomac Synod purchased the building and equipment from the failing Frederick Female Seminary in Frederick, Maryland to move the women's department from Mercersburg College in Pennsylvania to a spot below the Mason-Dixon Line.
  • 1895: College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University) was the first Catholic women's college in the U.S. to offer a four-year baccalaureate degree.

Timeline

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Colonial-era schools

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Moravian College, originally the Bethlehem Female Seminary
  • 1727: Ursuline Academy is the oldest Catholic school and the oldest school for women in the United States. It now provides primary and secondary education for girls.
  • 1742: Bethlehem Female Seminary was founded in Germantown and later moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It received its collegiate charter in 1863. It became the Moravian Seminary and College for Women in 1913. In 1954, it merged with the male institution Moravian College and Theological Seminary and became the coeducational school, Moravian College[6]
  • 1772: Little Girls' School (now Salem College) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was originally established as a primary school. It later became an academy (high school) and finally a college. It is the oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college and the oldest female institution in the Southern United States.

1780s–1820s

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1830s

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Mount Holyoke College (Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in 1837

1840s

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Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia

1850s

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Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California
 
Peace College in Raleigh, North Carolina

1860s

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1870s

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Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts

1880s

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Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia
 
Barnard College in Manhattan, New York
 
Pembroke Hall at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania

1890s

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1900s

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1910s

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1920s

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Mount St. Mary's College, Doheny campus
 
Scripps College in Claremont, California

1930s

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1940s

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1950s to 1980s

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See also

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Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ a b Garrison, Greg (May 22, 2021). "'Nothing will ever be like Judson': women's college closing stuns those affected". al. Retrieved August 9, 2021.
  2. ^ "The Rise of Women's Colleges, Coeducation". Archived from the original on May 16, 2008.
  3. ^ "Our History | Salem College". salem.edu. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  4. ^ "A timeline of North Carolina colleges (1766–1861) - North Carolina Digital History". Anchor (NCpedia.org). Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Davenport College history". May 1, 2010. Archived from the original on May 1, 2010. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  6. ^ "Moravian College history". Archived from the original on October 9, 2014. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  7. ^ "Mrs. Susanna Rowson's School & Myra Montgomery in Boston, 1805-1808". www.silkdamask.org. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  8. ^ "Stitching Together the History of Litchfield's Female Academy". Connecticut Explored. Summer 2007.
  9. ^ "Campus History & Description". Bradford Alumni Association. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  10. ^ "GeorgiaInfo - Carl Vinson Institute of Government". April 3, 2008. Archived from the original on April 3, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  11. ^ "The Ipswich Female Seminary". Stories From Ipswich and the North Shore. April 3, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  12. ^ "Good Catholics". Good Reads.
  13. ^ Mary Medley, History of Anson County, N.C., 1760-1976 (1976)
  14. ^ "Columbia College History". Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  15. ^ Blandin, Isabella Margaret Elizabeth (1909). History of Higher Education of Women in the South Before 1860. Neale Publishing Company.
  16. ^ "The doors closed 38 years ago but Kee-Mar memories linger on". The Daily Mail. Hagerstown, Maryland. March 12, 1949. p. 6. Retrieved October 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Virginia State Council of Higher Education. The Virginia Plan for Higher Education, January 1974, p. 140.
  18. ^ a b "Ursuline College | The Leading Women's College in Ohio | Ursuline at a Glance". ursuline.edu. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  19. ^ "A Guide to the Hartshorn Memorial College Reunion Collection 1976–1980". Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  20. ^ "Photos". Archived from the original on January 3, 2009.
  21. ^ "Justices scrutinize Newcomb's intent in opening college"[permanent dead link] The Times-Picayune. May 21, 2008
  22. ^ "Tulane wins appeal in Newcomb suit" The Times-Picayune. October 13, 2010
  23. ^ Tulane U. Wins Donor-Intent Lawsuit Over Closing of Women's College, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 21, 2011.
  24. ^ Donor Intent vs. Current Realities, Inside Higher Ed, February 22, 2011.
  25. ^ "Mary Allen Seminary". Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  26. ^ Savage, Cynthia. "University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society. Accessed September 2, 2015.