99-630: Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts , that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard College . The college was named for the early Harvard benefactor Anne Mowlson (née Radcliffe) and was one of the Seven Sisters colleges . For the first 70 years of its existence, Radcliffe conferred undergraduate and graduate degrees. Beginning in 1963, it awarded joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas to undergraduates. In 1977, Radcliffe signed
198-493: A September 17, 2006 editorial for the Washington Post ) that it was not economically feasible for the college to remain single-sex as young women are no longer interested in attending women's colleges. In response, a number of presidents of women's colleges challenged Worden's article, arguing that other women's colleges are still doing well and attracting students. Randolph-Macon Woman's College students protested
297-559: A chance to study landscape design before it was a course of study at the Harvard Design School, and in a less formal environment. Radcliffe first granted PhDs starting in 1902. Between 1894 and 1902, multiple students completed all course and thesis requirements for a PhD degree in the department of zoology, working in the Radcliffe Zoological Laboratory , without receiving the title. Beyond
396-399: A coeducational graduate program in 1980, admitted its first male undergraduates in 2003. Beginning in late 2004 the debate concerning coeducation resurfaced when, citing decreased enrollment, Wells College announced that it would adopt coeducation. In response, there were student protests on campus. Parents of students also became involved in the protests, as did many alumnae. Some of
495-520: A daily basis while still having their own institution, student organizations and activities, and space. In the 1950s, an era of "in loco parentis" at many postsecondary institutions, it was common at women's colleges for housemothers to keep diligent watch of the time when women returned to their dorms, locking the doors when check-in hour had arrived and punishing women who missed their check-in times. Radcliffe students, by contrast, had their own dormitory keys and filled out sign-in sheets when they arrived in
594-449: A disproportionate number of women who are nurses, and that denying admission to men "lends credibility to the old view that women, not men, should become nurses, and makes the assumption that nursing is a field for women a self-fulfilling prophecy." The ruling did not require the university to change its name to reflect its coeducational status. In 1972, Texas Woman's University allowed men to its health science graduate school. In 1994,
693-651: A formal "non-merger merger" agreement with Harvard, and completed a full integration with Harvard in 1999. Within Harvard University , Radcliffe's former administrative campus, Radcliffe Yard, is home to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study . Former Radcliffe housing at the Radcliffe Quadrangle , including Pforzheimer House , Cabot House , and Currier House , has been incorporated into Harvard College's house system. Under
792-426: A large city, and enjoys the further privilege of being front-fence neighbor to Harvard University , Radcliffe alone has had from the first the strength of a university faculty....Thus, from the beginning, Radcliffe has been a woman's Harvard. It is still a separate institution, with its own corporation, receiving from Harvard no financial aid." Because it had a university – as opposed to "collegiate" – faculty, Radcliffe
891-464: A laundry called for our dirty clothes every week and returned them carefully washed and ironed; we ate off of china in our own dining room and sat in drawing rooms that resembled those of a good women's club." "Pluck" was a quality attributed to some Radcliffe students. Beth Gutcheon of the class of 1967 wrote in a reminiscence that "One night a classmate of mine was leaving the library alone at eleven when somebody jumped her from behind and knocked her to
990-561: A leader in the movement to provide women with higher education, who hailed from the University of Minnesota and Smith College , became the college's third president. She was a key figure in the college's early 20th-century development. Speaking of her, one alumna remembers that "we were in awe of 'Miss Comstock... and knew even then that we had been touched by a vanishing breed of female educator. Ada Comstock had an extraordinary presence—she radiated dignity, strength, and decisiveness." In
1089-495: A lengthy debate under the presidency of David Truman over the issue of coeducation. On November 6, 1971, "after reviewing an exhaustive study on coeducation, the board of trustees decided unanimously that Mount Holyoke should remain a women's college, and a group of faculty was charged with recommending curricular changes that would support the decision." Smith College also made a similar decision in 1971. In 1969, Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College (then all-female) developed
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#17327807726531188-532: A member of the Radcliffe class of 1944, noted that "the senior (Harvard) professors were less than thrilled to have to repeat their lectures at Radcliffe. The lower rank faculty members, who were sometimes detailed off to teach the introductory science courses at Radcliffe instead of teaching Harvard students, felt even more declasse." Marion Cannon Schlesinger, Radcliffe Class of 1934, noted that "there were, to be sure, certain professors who looked with horror at
1287-532: A model for other women's colleges in the U.S., and both Vassar College and Wellesley College were patterned after Mount Holyoke. Vassar College was the first of the Seven Sisters to be chartered as a college in 1861. In 1840, the first Catholic women's college Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College was founded by Saint Mother Theodore Guerin of the Sisters of Providence in Indiana as an academy, later becoming
1386-552: A new school—the first real college for women. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary opened on November 8, 1837, in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The town had donated the land and main building. Lyon's layout of the campus provided a widely imitated model for the higher education of women by providing a physical environment that supported a rigorous and comprehensive curriculum equivalent to that of men's colleges. Lyon's innovative goals set her Seminary apart from other female seminaries of
1485-400: A smorgasbord of elective courses available to each student; James B. Conant worked to introduce standardized testing; Derek Bok and Neil L. Rudenstine argued for the continued importance of diversity in higher education. At Harvard's founding it was headed by a "schoolmaster", Nathaniel Eaton . In 1640, when Henry Dunster was brought in, he adopted the title of president. Since Harvard
1584-683: A system of sharing residential colleges. When Haverford became coeducational in 1980, Bryn Mawr discussed the possibly of coeducation as well, but decided against it. In 1983, Columbia University began admitting women after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College for a merger along the lines of Harvard and Radcliffe (Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia since 1900, but it continues to be independently governed). Wellesley College also decided against coeducation during this time. A few historically black women's colleges became coeducational: Barber-Scotia College adopted coeducation in 1954; Tillotson College (a women's college from 1926 to 1935)
1683-413: A time when higher education for women was a sharply controversial topic, Gilman hoped to establish a higher educational opportunity for his daughter that exceeded what was generally available in female seminaries and the new women's colleges such as Vassar and Wellesley . These schools were in their early years and had substantial numbers of faculty who were not university trained. In conversations with
1782-497: A university faculty competed with Bryn Mawr's own academic ambitions. Between 1890 and 1963, Radcliffe awarded more than 750 PhDs and more than 3000 masters degrees to women. During the 1950s, the school conferred more PhDs to women than any schools other than Columbia and the University of Chicago . In 1955–56, the college produced more female PhDs than any other institution in the United States. Because Radcliffe's faculty
1881-576: A venue to return to academe, Bunting was recognizing that traditional academic institutions were premised on a male life trajectory where a scholar's domestic concerns were taken care of by someone else (usually a wife). The Radcliffe Institute, later renamed the Bunting Institute , was an institution premised on the needs of a female life trajectory, providing opportunities that might otherwise have been truncated by women's decisions during early adulthood to leave academia to raise children. In
1980-581: A women's college." The following year, the University of Saint Joseph in Connecticut, the last women-only school in the state and last Catholic women's college in New England, voted to become fully coeducational, with the first men admitted to the daytime undergraduate program in August 2018. Much like Midway, the daytime undergraduate program had been the last Saint Joseph component to be women-only;
2079-636: A women-only school in 1905. This is similar to the establishment of Douglass Residential College (Rutgers University) , which was founded as the New Jersey College for Women in 1918 by Mabel Smith Douglass . Other notable women's colleges include the Seven Sister colleges in the Northeast of the U.S., historically black female educational institutions , small Catholic women's colleges in the United States (SCWCs), and women's colleges in
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#17327807726532178-404: Is now coeducational Huston–Tillotson University ; Hartshorn Memorial College merged with Virginia Union University in 1932; and Mary Allen Seminary became coeducational in 1933. Bennett College , founded as a coeducational school, became a women's college in 1926. Many public women's schools also went coeducational in the postwar era. One of the first schools to make the transition in this era
2277-560: Is to convey to our students and through them to others that there is no basic conflict between being intellectual and being feminine." Bunting also established the Radcliffe Institute in 1961. The institute – a precursor to the current Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study – gave financial support, access to research libraries and facilities, and recognition to scholarly women who had taken time away from intellectual pursuits to focus on home and family. In providing women with
2376-473: Is to yet to be seen whether the women have the originality and pioneering spirit which will fit them to be leaders, perhaps they will when they have had as many generations of thorough education as men." In 1904, a historian Mary Caroline Crawford wrote the following about the genesis of Radcliffe College: "...it set up housekeeping in two unpretending rooms in the Appian Way, Cambridge....Probably in all
2475-696: The Bolton Hill neighborhood under its longtime president Nathan C. Brooks , until closing in the late 1880s. Another early women's school was the Moravian College , originally Bethlehem Female Seminary, founded as a female seminary in 1742 in Germantown and later moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania . It began to grant undergraduate degrees in 1863 and became the Moravian Seminary and College for Women in 1913. In 1954, it merged with
2574-515: The Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, many women's colleges have decided to accept males. Following a peak of 281 women's colleges in the 1960s, the number of such schools has decreased dramatically. Two of the Seven Sister colleges made transitions during and after the 1960s. The first, Radcliffe College , merged with Harvard University . Beginning in 1963, students at Radcliffe received Harvard diplomas signed by
2673-517: The University of Mary Washington , in 1970; Radford College, now Radford University , in 1972; and Longwood College, now Longwood University , in 1976. In North Carolina , the Women's College of the University of North Carolina was converted to the coeducational University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1963, at the same time as women were finally admitted to all programs of its rival school,
2772-482: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . In 1967, the school then known as the Women's College of Georgia became coeducational; it is now Georgia College & State University . Mississippi University for Women changed its single-sex admissions policy to include men in 1982 following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan . The court found that
2871-558: The "first" women's college. A number of 18th or early 19th-century female seminaries later grew into academic, degree-granting colleges, while others became notable private high schools. Being a female seminary at an early date is therefore not necessarily equivalent to having been a women's college at that date. Mary Lyon developed her ideas on how to educate women when she was assistant principal at Ipswich Female Seminary in Massachusetts. By 1837 she had convinced sponsors to support
2970-408: The 1930s, Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell took a dim view of Radcliffe, maintaining that the time Harvard professors spent providing lectures to women distracted the faculty from their scholarship, and providing Radcliffe women access to research facilities and Harvard museums was – in his view – an unnecessary burden on the university's resources. He threatened to scuttle the relationship between
3069-735: The Cliffe Clefs, and later the Radcliffe Pitches), etc. (located in the Radcliffe Yard). Radcliffe had greater diversity in housing options than Harvard, with college-owned frame houses, an apartment building, and co-operative housing for students who were not interested in immersion in dormitory life or life within the House System. Women%27s colleges in the United States Women's colleges in
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3168-800: The Fair Graduates". Students seeking admission to the new women's college were required to sit for the same entrance examinations required of Harvard College students. The committee persevered despite Eliot's skepticism. The project proved to be a success, attracting a growing number of students. As a result, the Annex was incorporated in 1882 as the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, widow of Harvard professor Louis Agassiz , as president. This society awarded certificates to students but did not have
3267-642: The Globe could headline a story: "Sweet Girls. They Graduate in Shoals at Radcliffe. Commencement Exercises at Sanders Theatre. Galleries Filled with Fair Friends and Students. Handsome Mrs. Agassiz Made Fine Address. Pres Eliot Commends the Work of the New Institution." The Globe said, "Eliot stated that the percentage of graduates with distinction is much higher at Radcliffe than at Harvard" and that although "[i]t
3366-616: The Jordan Cooperative Houses, an option for students to engage in more communal living, with student responsibility for shopping for food, preparing meals and housekeeping, were built, and the college purchased Wolbach Hall, an apartment building also known as 124 Walker Street, in 1964. Radcliffe constructed Hilles Library in 1966 and the Radcliffe Quadrangle Athletic Center in 1982. Also in 1961, then President Mary Bunting reorganized
3465-637: The Quadrangle, and in the Radcliffe Yard, the administrative building Byerly Hall (1932) and the classroom building Longfellow Hall (1930). Mary Almy was the architect. English professor Barrett Wendell warned his colleagues about continued cooperation with Radcliffe, saying that Harvard could "suddenly find itself committed to coeducation somewhat as unwary men lay themselves open to actions for breach of promise." In Wendell's view, Harvard needed to remain "purely virile." In 1923, Ada Comstock ,
3564-530: The Southern United States . Early in 1942, during World War II, debate arose concerning the role of colleges and students during the War. The Selective Service age had been lowered to 18 and a few questions arose: which men would go to college, which ones into the U.S. Army , U.S. Navy , or the U.S. Coast Guard , how the college students would be trained, and whether the colleges would be run by
3663-496: The United States are private single-sex U.S. institutions of higher education that only admit female students. They are often liberal arts colleges . There are approximately 26 active women's colleges in the United States in 2024, down from a peak of 281 such colleges in the 1960s. Education for girls and women was originally provided within the family, by local dame schools and public elementary schools, and at female seminaries found in every colony. Access to this education
3762-475: The United States have produced a number of important alumnae in the arts, business, politics, and in the sciences. President of Harvard University The president of Harvard University is the chief administrator of Harvard University and the ex officio president of the Harvard Corporation . Each is appointed by and is responsible to the other members of that body, who delegate to
3861-530: The Women's Education Association of Boston. During these seven years, 107 women participated; 36 received certificates. The low number of certificates received by women led Harvard to change the exam in 1881. At the time, women could also be admitted into the "Harvard Annex", the women's version of a college education. The "Harvard Examinations for Women" included subjects such as history; literature of Shakespeare and Chaucer; languages such as Latin, French, and German; botany; and mathematics. These tests were similar to
3960-428: The admittance exam given to men applying to Harvard College. When a woman passed a subject, she would receive a signed certificate from Harvard's president acknowledging her passing mark. The Harvard Examinations for Women were ended two years after "Harvard Annex" officially became Radcliffe College, the women's equivalent to Harvard College. When confronted in 1883 with the notion of females receiving Harvard degrees,
4059-816: The answer to a maiden's prayer at Vassar, but we did not have to wait for ceremonial weekends for our entertainment: there were those among the Harvard population who recognized our "merits." A student from the early 1960s picked up on this theme, contrasting the Radcliffe experience with that of Smith. "There are smart girls at Smith, all right," she said. "But they don't seem to get much out of them there. Four years later they don't seem to be any brighter. And they have this crazy week-end system. You spend all week in Bermuda shorts, with your hair in curlers, worrying over who's going to take you to Amherst or New Haven Friday night. It seems to me that sort of thing actually retards you in
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4158-487: The autonomous Radcliffe dormitories into "houses," mirroring Harvard's houses and Yale University 's residential colleges. The three houses (North, South, and East) were eventually consolidated into two (North and South). In 1970, the college completed construction of Currier House , the first Radcliffe House designed with the "House Plan" in mind. South House eventually was renamed Cabot House in 1984 while North House became Pforzheimer House in 1995. Bunting felt that
4257-835: The boys school, Moravian College and Theological Seminary, and became coeducational. The Moravians of Salem, North Carolina began what is now Salem College in 1772 in Winston-Salem . Georgia Female College, now Wesleyan College opened in 1839 as the first Southern college for women. While there were a few coeducational colleges (such as Oberlin College founded in 1833, Guilford College , in 1837, Lawrence University in 1847, Antioch College in 1853, Bates College in 1855), and Cornell University in 1865, almost all colleges and universities at that time were exclusively for men. The first generally accepted coordinate college, H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College ( Tulane University ),
4356-518: The capacities of the female sex. Only after generations of civil freedom and social equality will it be possible to obtain the data necessary for an adequate discussion of woman's natural tendencies, tastes, and capabilities...It is not the business of the University to decide this mooted point." From 1874 to 1881, Harvard administered the Harvard Examinations for Women to increase women's educational opportunities, after being pressured by
4455-564: The chair of Harvard College 's classics department, Gilman outlined a plan to have Harvard faculty deliver instruction to a small group of Cambridge and Boston women. He approached Harvard President Charles William Eliot with the idea, and Eliot approved. Gilman and Eliot recruited a group of prominent and well-connected Cambridge women to manage the plan. These women were Elizabeth Cary Agassiz , Mary H. Cooke, Stella Scott Gilman, Mary B. Greenough, Ellen Hooper Gurney, Alice Mary Longfellow , and Lillian Horsford. Building upon Gilman's premise,
4554-543: The college. The college became co-educational in 2015. Some early women's colleges failed to survive. These included Oread Institute , chartered as a college for women in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1849, and the Baltimore Female College, also founded in 1849 at St. Paul Street and East Saratoga Street in downtown Baltimore . The latter later relocated to Park Avenue/Park Place and Wilson Street in
4653-681: The committee convinced 44 members of the Harvard faculty to consider giving lectures to female students in exchange for extra income paid by the committee. The program came to be known informally as "The Harvard Annex." The course of study for the first year included 51 courses in 13 subject areas, an "impressive curriculum with greater diversity than that of any other women's college at its inception. Courses were offered in Greek, Latin, English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish; philosophy, political economy, history, music, mathematics, physics, and natural history." The first graduation ceremonies took place in
4752-436: The decision and two lawsuits were filed by Preserve Education Choice (PEC), a non-profit organization composed of students, faculty, and alumnae. The Lynchburg Circuit Court dismissed both lawsuits on January 23, 2007. The Virginia Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals in both the student contract and charitable trust cases. The Court affirmed the trial court's decision in both cases in opinions issued June 6, 2008. The school
4851-403: The early 1940s, she negotiated a new relationship with Harvard that vastly expanded women's access to the full Harvard course catalog. David McCord set the college apart from the other Seven Sister institutions, saying "there is one respect in which Radcliffe differs from her sisters, and this should be made clear. Although she divides with Barnard , Bryn Mawr , and Wellesley all advantages of
4950-660: The early 19th century, many as teaching seminaries . As noted by the Women's College Coalition : The formal education of girls and women began in the middle of the 19th century and was intimately tied to the conception that society had of the appropriate role for women to assume in life. [This education]... was intimately tied to the conception that society had of the appropriate role for women to assume in life [preparing] girls for their future role as wives and mothers... [...] Academic education prepared girls for their role as community leaders and social benefactors and had some elements of
5049-594: The education of women...feel some obligation but there are many professors who think it their duty NOT to teach there, in which opinion some of the Corporation and Overseers agree." Eliot was strongly against co-education, saying, "The difficulties involved in a common residence of hundreds of young men and women of immature character and marriageable age are very grave. The necessary police regulations are exceedingly burdensome." In December 1893, The Boston Globe reported, "President of Harvard To Sign Parchments of
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#17327807726535148-676: The education offered boys. [...] Many early women's colleges began as female seminaries and were responsible for producing an important corps of educators. Authors Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, and Elizabeth DeBra further note that the founding of women's colleges responded to a need for advanced education at a time when most institutions did not admit women. Early proponents of education for women included Sarah Pierce ( Litchfield Female Academy , 1792); Catharine Beecher ( Hartford Female Seminary , 1823); Zilpah P. Grant Banister ( Ipswich Female Seminary , 1828); Elias Marks ( South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute , 1828); and Mary Lyon . Lyon
5247-566: The entire Harvard catalogue to Radcliffe students, in exchange for which Radcliffe made a payment to Harvard of a fixed portion of Radcliffe tuitions. President Comstock noted that the agreement was "the most significant event since our charter was granted in 1894." All Harvard faculty, whether interested or not, had a legal obligation to teach Radcliffe students. In practice a few holdouts on the Harvard faculty maneuvered around this obligation by announcing that their classes had "limited enrollment" and then limiting enrollment solely to male students. At
5346-534: The evening. Their lives were not as cloistered as those of some of their counterparts at the sister schools, and according to an article in Mademoiselle Magazine , "it was the richness and freedom of life at Radcliffe" which left its mark on the student body. One graduate of the class of 1934 noted, "We were getting the best education in the country, and besides, we weren't banished to the sticks to rusticate. Weekends at Yale and Princeton may have been
5445-518: The extent it has prevented the president from focusing on substantive issues in higher education. Each president is professor in some department of the university and teaches from time to time. The university maintains an official residence for the president's use, which from 1912 until 1971, was President's House , and since then has been Elmwood . Harvard presidents have traditionally influenced educational practices nationwide. Charles W. Eliot , for example, originated America's familiar system of
5544-585: The first two decades of the 20th century, Radcliffe championed the beginnings of its own campus, consisting of the Radcliffe Yard and the Radcliffe Quadrangle in Cambridge, Massachusetts , not far from Harvard University . The original Radcliffe gymnasium and library, and the Bertram, Whitman, Eliot, and Barnard dormitories were constructed during this period. With the 1920s and 1930s, dormitories Briggs Hall (1924) and Cabot Hall (1937) were built on
5643-435: The foundation of the office in 1994, the university's provost ), and grants tenure to recommended professors. However, the president is expected to make such decisions after extensive consultation with faculty members. Recently, however, the job has become increasingly administrative, especially as fund-raising campaigns have taken on central importance in large institutions such as Harvard. Some have criticized this trend to
5742-438: The girls admirable—indeed, the average has been higher in my mathematics classes in the Annex than in my classes at the college. In March 1915, The New York Times reported in 1915 that all of the prizes offered in a playwriting competition at Harvard and Radcliffe that year were won by Radcliffe students. One of the Harvard contributions received honorable mention. In the early 1960s, the newspaper also reported that "taking
5841-775: The ground. She yelled, 'Oh, Christ, I don't have time for this. I have an exam tomorrow!' and after a disappointed pause, her attacker got up and went away." Throughout most of the college's history, residential life and student activities at Radcliffe remained separate from those at Harvard, with separate dormitories and dining facilities (located on the Radcliffe Quadrangle), newspapers ( The Radcliffe News , Percussion ), radio stations (WRRB and WRAD, a.k.a. Radio Radcliffe), drama society (The Idler), student government (Radcliffe Student Government Association and later, The Radcliffe Union of Students), yearbooks, athletic programs, choral associations (The Radcliffe Choral Society,
5940-495: The grounds. Lyon rejected the goal of the men's colleges to promote individualism and independence and instead fostered the collective ideal of a united team of women could match the success of nearby men's colleges like Amherst and Williams. The curriculum allowed women to study subjects like geometry, calculus, Latin, Greek, science, philosophy, and history, which were not typically taught at female seminaries. Institutions of higher education for women were primarily founded during
6039-485: The history of colleges in America there could not be found a story so full of color and interest as that of the beginning of this woman's college. The bathroom of the little house was pressed into service as a laboratory for physics, students and instructors alike making the best of all inconveniences. Because the institution was housed with a private family, generous mothering was given to the girls when they needed it." In
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#17327807726536138-446: The house system would give Radcliffe students an intellectual community comparable to what Harvard students were getting, bringing together faculty and students in a way the free-standing Radcliffe dormitories did not, and allowing all to see with greater clarity the aspirations, capabilities, and interests of undergraduate women. Speaking generally about her philosophy for Radcliffe, President Bunting noted that "part of our special purpose
6237-493: The incursions of women into the sacred precincts of Harvard College , even at the safe distance of the Radcliffe Yard, and would have nothing to do with the academic arrangements by which their colleagues taught the Radcliffe girls. Professor Roger Merriman, for example, the first master of Eliot House and a professor of history, would not have been caught dead teaching a Radcliffe class.". During World War II , declines in male enrollment at Harvard and heightened sensitivity about
6336-620: The institution already had male graduate students, plus male undergraduates in a special evening program for adult students. When this transition was announced, Saint Joseph's president cited the same surveys as Midway's president had in 2016. A number of women's colleges have taken steps to adopt policies inclusive of transgender students . As of June 2015, seven women's colleges (Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mills College , Mount Holyoke College, Simmons University , Scripps College, and Smith College) have articulated admissions policies regarding transgender applicants. Women's colleges in
6435-659: The last half of the 2010s. Midway University in Kentucky announced in May 2016 that it would admit men into its daytime undergraduate program, the last component of the institution that remained women-only, effective that August. In announcing the move, the school's president noted that many surveys indicated that only 2% of high school girls wanted to attend a women-only school, and added, "We see this change as strengthening our historic mission to educate women by broadening our reach to that 98 percent of young women who would never consider
6534-492: The library of Longfellow House on Brattle Street, just above where George Washington's generals had slept a century earlier. The committee members hoped that by raising an endowment for The Annex, they could persuade Harvard to admit women directly into Harvard College, but the university resisted. In his 1869 inaugural address as president of Harvard, Charles Eliot summed up the official Harvard position toward female students when he said, "The world knows next to nothing about
6633-558: The life of the mind, another appeal of Radcliffe was the comparative freedom that its undergraduates enjoyed compared to students at other women's colleges. Cambridge and Boston provided diversions that were denied to women at more geographically isolated institutions. In his history of the college, David McCord noted that "the music, theaters and museums were surprisingly close." While students at many women's colleges only had social interactions with men on weekends, Radcliffe students saw men in town and, after 1943, in classes and laboratories on
6732-446: The long run." (Conversely, the greater seclusion of places such as Smith, Vassar and Mt. Holyoke sometimes made these latter institutions more attractive to socially conservative families.) Reflecting on her time at Radcliffe, writer Alison Lurie stated that "most of the time we were in a mild state of euphoria...our lives were luxurious by modern undergraduate standards...We had private rooms, cleaned and tidied by tolerant Irish maids;
6831-474: The men are going through'." The Women's College Coalition (WCC) was founded in 1979 and describes itself as an "association of women's colleges and universities – public and private, independent and church-related, two- and four-year – in the United States and Canada whose primary mission is the education and advancement of women." With several Supreme Court cases in the 1950s on the appellate court level determining that public single-sex universities violated
6930-682: The military organizations or by educators? The status of women and women's colleges also entered into the debate: "Urging a National Service Act for women, the American Council on Education's President George Zook said: 'It is clear that women students cannot expect to pursue college as usual while their brothers and male friends are rushed off ... Courses for women are going to be shortened and they are going to be directed toward preparation for specific types of war service. ... These War jobs are going to appear to college women to be hard and distasteful. Stronger words could be used for what many of
7029-433: The period, offering a curriculum equivalent to those at men's colleges. All the students worked in one building with little privacy. There was close contact with the all-female faculty, and daily self reports on their personal strengths and weaknesses. The college cut staff to the minimum as the 100 or so students each performed one hour of work a day, handling most of the routine chores like cooking and cleaning and maintaining
7128-511: The power to confer academic degrees. In subsequent years, ongoing discussions with Harvard about admitting women directly into the university still came to a dead end. Instead, Harvard and the Annex negotiated the creation of a degree-granting institution, with Harvard professors serving as its faculty and visiting body. This modification of the Annex was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Radcliffe College in 1894. By 1896,
7227-475: The president the day-to-day running of the university. Harvard's current president is Alan Garber , who took office on January 2, 2024, following the resignation of Claudine Gay . In August 2024, the Harvard Corporation announced he would be in the position until mid- 2027. The president plays an important part in university-wide planning and strategy. Each names a faculty's dean (and, since
7326-483: The president was created with the incorporation of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in 1882. The society became Radcliffe College in 1894. Radcliffe staff were invested in assisting women graduates with career planning and placement, as well as providing a number of different programs to provide post-graduate study for women. The Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration
7425-503: The presidents of Radcliffe and Harvard and joint commencement exercises began in 1970. The same year, several Harvard and Radcliffe dormitories began swapping students experimentally and in 1972 full co-residence was instituted. The departments of athletics of both schools merged shortly thereafter. In 1977, Harvard and Radcliffe signed an agreement that put undergraduate women entirely in Harvard College. In 1999 Radcliffe College
7524-488: The same courses and exams as Harvard, 60 percent of Radcliffe's girls [sic] were on the Dean's List as compared with 42 percent of Harvard men [sic]." Dorothy Howells noted that, "Allegations were made that Radcliffe was a "vampire" and a "temptress" enticing the teacher from his career-advancing research and publication with the lure of additional income." Ruth Hubbard , a member of the Harvard faculty from 1974 to 1990 and
7623-555: The students stated that their protests were patterned after those at Mills College in the early 1990s. A website called Wells for Women was also established. When the decision to adopt coeducation was approved, students filed a lawsuit that was eventually rejected. Wells became coeducational in 2005. A few other colleges became coeducational in this period. Immaculata University and Lesley College also announced that they would adopt coeducation around this time and became coeducational in 2005. In 2006, H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College
7722-567: The students. At one point, nearly 300 students blockaded the administrative offices and boycotted classes. On May 18, the Trustees met again to reconsider the decision, leading finally to a reversal of the vote. The trend toward coeducation continued in the 21st century. Notre Dame College in Ohio admitted its first men in 2001. In Pennsylvania, Seton Hill University went coeducational in 2002, and Chestnut Hill College , which had established
7821-439: The terms of the 1999 consolidation, Radcliffe Yard and the Radcliffe Quadrangle retain the "Radcliffe" designation in perpetuity. The "Harvard Annex," a private program for the instruction of women by Harvard faculty, was founded in 1879 after prolonged efforts by women to gain access to Harvard College. Arthur Gilman , a Cambridge resident, banker, philanthropist and writer, was the founder of what became The Annex/Radcliffe. At
7920-489: The time, both Harvard and Radcliffe were adamant in telling the press that this arrangement was "joint instruction" but not "coeducation." Reacting to the agreement, Harvard President James Bryant Conant said, "Harvard was not coeducational in theory, only in practice." Indeed, Radcliffe continued to maintain a separate admissions office which, by general acknowledgment, was more stringent in its academic requirements of applicants than Harvard's. Most extra-curricular activities at
8019-540: The two colleges remained separate. Following World War II, Radcliffe negotiated a higher ceiling on its student enrollment. This success was orchestrated in tandem with additional housing construction. Moors Hall was completed in 1949, Holmes Hall in 1952, the Cronkhite Graduate Center in 1956, and Comstock Hall in 1958. The added dormitory space and national recruiting campaigns led to an increasingly national and international student body. In 1961,
8118-463: The two institutions. Radcliffe was forced to agree to a limitation on the size of its student body, with 750 spaces for undergraduates and 250 for graduate students. A ceiling on enrollment of women when compared to the enrollment of men was renegotiated upward at various points throughout the relationship with Harvard and remained constant in Radcliffe's operations until it began its ultimate incorporation into Harvard University in 1977. The office of
8217-471: The university opened all programs to male students. Despite the university accepting male students, the university's mission is still to serve primarily women. Today, the student body is approximately 90% female and is led by a woman chancellor. On May 3, 1990, the Trustees of Mills College announced that they had voted to admit male students. This decision led to a two-week student and staff strike, accompanied by numerous displays of non-violent protests by
8316-507: The university would violate the Fourteenth Amendment 's Equal Protection Clause if it denied admission to its nursing program on the basis of gender. The 5-4 opinion was written by Justice O'Connor , who stated that "In limited circumstances, a gender-based classification favoring one sex can be justified if it intentionally and directly assists members of the sex that is disproportionately burdened." She argued that there are
8415-459: The university's treasurer stated, "I have no prejudice in the matter of education of women and am quite willing to see Yale or Columbia take any risks they like, but I feel bound to protect Harvard College from what seems to me a risky experiment." In 1888, Harvard President Eliot in 1888 communicated to a faculty member he intended to hire that "There is no obligation to teach at The Annex. Those professors who on general grounds take an interest in
8514-580: The use of resources called for a new, more efficient arrangement concerning faculty time. Under the leadership of President Comstock, Radcliffe and Harvard signed an agreement that for the first time allowed Radcliffe and Harvard students to attend the same classes in the Harvard Yard, officially beginning joint instruction in 1943. Equally significant, the agreement ended the era in which individual faculty members at Harvard could choose whether to enter contracts with Radcliffe. The agreement instead opened
8613-530: Was Harvard's, in the college's first 50 years, professors from Harvard, each under individual contracts with the Radcliffe administration – duplicated lectures, providing them first for men in the Harvard Yard and then crossing the Cambridge Common to provide the same lectures to women in the Radcliffe Yard. Professor Elwood Byerly wrote that he "always found the spirit, industry, and ability of
8712-612: Was Madison College in Virginia, known since 1976 as James Madison University . The school, founded as a women's college in 1908, admitted its first male day students in 1946, although it was not officially recognized as a coeducational institution until 1966. In 1947, Florida State College for Women returned to its original status as a coeducational institution and adopted its current name of Florida State University . Three other public women's schools in Virginia later followed Madison College in adopting coeducation—Mary Washington College, now
8811-570: Was associated with Hamilton College. While the majority of women's colleges are private institutions, there were a few public colleges. In 1884, the legislature of the state of Mississippi established Industrial Institute & College , (later Mississippi University for Women), the first public college for women in the United States. Other states soon followed. Georgia created Georgia State College for Women in 1889, North Carolina created North Carolina Women's College in 1891, and Florida converted its coeducational Florida State College to
8910-546: Was begun as career training for alums interested in business. It grew to become a vehicle for women to pursue study at Harvard's Business School. Other post-graduate courses of study at Radcliffe grew as the undergraduate women students became more a part of Harvard University. The Radcliffe Publishing Course offered students experience in editing and other skills needed to enter the field of publishing. The Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design gave students
9009-486: Was closing Aug. 25 due to "insurmountable financial challenges." Almost immediately, a legal challenge was mounted by students, faculty, and alumnae to keep the school open. On June 22, 2015, a settlement brokered by the attorney general of Virginia was accepted by the county circuit court that resulted in Sweet Briar College remaining open. The trend of former women's colleges becoming coed continued in
9108-404: Was dissolved and Harvard University assumed full responsibility over the affairs of female undergraduates. Radcliffe is now the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. The second, Vassar College , declined an offer to merge with Yale University and instead became coeducational in 1969. The remaining Seven Sisters decided against coeducation. Mount Holyoke College engaged in
9207-597: Was dissolved as part of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina . In 2007, Douglass College of Rutgers University merged with the coed Rutgers College , changing its name to the Douglass Residential College. While a part of Rutgers, it will offer dormitories and classes exclusively for women. Regis College became coeducational in 2007. Debate increased when Randolph-Macon Woman's College announced that it would adopt coeducation and change its name. Former Interim president Ginger H. Worden argued (in
9306-469: Was founded for the training of Puritan clergy, and even though its mission was soon broadened, nearly all presidents through the end of the 18th century were in holy orders. All presidents from Leonard Hoar in 1672 through Nathan Pusey in 1971 were graduates of Harvard College . Of the presidents since Pusey, nearly all earned a graduate degree at Harvard. The only exception has been Drew Gilpin Faust , who
9405-464: Was founded in 1886, and followed a year later by Evelyn College for Women , the coordinate college for Princeton University . The model was quickly duplicated at other prestigious universities. Notable 19th-century coordinate colleges included Barnard ( Columbia University ), Pembroke ( Brown University ), and Radcliffe College ( Harvard University ). Twentieth-century examples include William Smith College (Hobart College) and Kirkland College, which
9504-430: Was however limited to women from families with the means to pay tuition and placed its focus on "ladylike" accomplishments rather than academic training. These seminaries or academies were usually small and often ephemeral. Founded by a single woman or small group of women, they often failed to outlive their founders. The different trajectories of early women's schools complicate the claims of various colleges to have been
9603-442: Was involved in the development of both Hartford Female Seminary and Ipswich Female Seminary. She was also involved in the creation of Wheaton Female Seminary (now Wheaton College, Massachusetts ) in 1834, which was re-chartered as a college in 1912. In 1837, Lyon founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College ), which was chartered as a college in 1888. Harwarth, Maline, and DeBra note Mount Holyoke's significance as
9702-744: Was renamed Randolph College on July 1, 2007, when it became coeducational . A similar controversy erupted in 2011 when Peace College , in Raleigh, North Carolina, announced its plans to become coeducational beginning the following year. Despite protests from alumnae, William Peace University began admitting men in the fall of 2012. Also in fall 2012, Georgian Court University in New Jersey admitted its first male day students; in 2013–14, that school became fully coeducational, with men being allowed to live on campus and participate in all campus activities. Sweet Briar College announced March 3, 2015, that it
9801-519: Was unique among the Seven Sisters in being able to provide a graduate program with a wide number of opportunities for students to pursue advanced studies. M. Carey Thomas , the second president and chief visionary of Bryn Mawr College, lobbied against the conversion of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women into Radcliffe College precisely because the Cambridge rival's access to
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