National Women's Colleges in the 1920s
Before 1835, not a single United States college admitted women. The need for women’s colleges came when 19th century women wanted to receive higher education (Carlton). By the 1920s, establishment of women’s colleges was the norm. From 1920-1929, seventeen women’s colleges opened in the United States. These include: Rosemont College, Villa Madonna College, Notre Dame College, the College of Saint Marys, Marymount Junior College, Mount St. Scholastica College, Chestnut Hill College, Albertus Magnus College, Mount Saint Joseph College for Women, Mount St Mary’s College, Mercyhurst College, Sarah Lawrence College, Scripps College, Regis College, and Elms College.
As of 2023, fourteen of these seventeen institutions have become co-educational, with only three remaining women’s colleges. Most transitions to co-educational teaching models tended to happen in the 1960s, 1980s, and the 2000s. Statisically, “between the 1960s and the 2010s, the number of women's colleges declined by over 80%” (Carlton). Many merged with larger colleges or male colleges (“Timeline”). Co-educational institutions ultimately offered something that women’s colleges could not: freedom (Carlton). Saint Mary’s College was over 75 years old by 1920. Next, we will examine what Saint Mary’s College was like in the 1920s. As one of the older women’s colleges in the United States, Saint Mary’s College had established a firm identify and fostered a lively student culture that we can still feel today.