Going Coed: Women's Experiences in Formerly Men's Colleges and Universities, 1950-2000

Section I: The History of Coeducation

1 SECTION I The History of Coeducation The two chapters in this introductory section provide a context for the case studies that follow. In Chapter 1, Miller-Bernal traces major developments in higher education for women in the United States from pre–Civil War times until the beginning of the twenty-first century. As this volume focuses on women’s experiences since the mid-twentieth century, however, she devotes considerable attention to the developments in women’s access to higher education after World War II. Many formerly men’s colleges opened up to women during the tumultuous late 1960s, due to demographic trends, financial factors, and cultural changes. Chapter 1 also discusses the limitations of coeducation or the ways in which coeducation does not necessarily mean gender equality. In Chapter 2, Poulson and Miller-Bernal focus on the history of coeducation in Catholic colleges and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). As the authors show, both types of institutions have played important roles in enabling women to have access to higher education. Catholic institutions have mainly been single-sex until recently, however, whereas most black institutions were founded as and remained coeducational. Concerns about religious morality encouraged the separation of women from men at Catholic institutions; at HBCUs, cultural support for coeducation, as well as financial restrictions, resulted in coeducational institutions. Regardless of their historical roots, Catholic colleges and HBCUs found that they were affected by some of the same trends in higher education that made many men’s colleges become coeducational around 1970. Their different histories, however, meant that they faced some unique challenges as well. CoingCoedFinalPages.indd 1 5/26/04 4:53:11 PM CoingCoedFinalPages.indd 2 5/26/04 4:53:11 PM ...