Agency, Voice, and the Evolution (AVE) of Women at Saint Mary’s, 1920-2023: Spring 2023

Women's Colleges in the 1970s

Women’s colleges in the 1970s and the 1980s were shuttering or becoming co-educational. By the late 1970s women’s enrollment rates in college exceeded that of men’s, but women were increasingly turning to co-ed institutions for their education. During the mid 1970s, over 90 percent of colleges and universities admitted both men and women students. Women's colleges were beginning to fade from the educational landscape. Auden Thomas writes that “between 1960 and 1986 the number of women's colleges declined by nearly two-thirds dropping from 233 to just ninety colleges. More than 60 U.S. women's colleges either adopted coeducation or closed the doors all together during the five-month period between June and October 1968" (568-9).

The Women's College Coalition was founded in 1972 to help bolster surviving all-women's institutions. Thomas writes that "the WCC carefully crafted press releases that pitched women’s colleges as progressive institutions for women while simultaneously avoiding strident feminist tones that potential students and their parents might find off-putting” (572). In short, women’s colleges had to adapt to survive, with many becoming more focused on career preparation and leadership development.

An those that have remained have tangible markers of success that they can point to. According to the Women's College Coalition, for example, alumnae of women's colleges “have a higher level of satisfaction with their college experience than women attending co-ed institutions,” and, “they benefit significantly from an academic environment that acknowledges their collaborative teaching and learning preferences” (Women's College Coalition, "Our History," par. 3).

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