In higher education, particularly in the United States, a women's college is a college (that is, a primarily undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institution) whose students are exclusively women. The Seven Sisters are among the best-known women's colleges, though only four remain single-sex and independent of other colleges and universities. Some women's colleges admit small numbers of male students in their graduate schools or to part-time undergraduate programs, but all serve a primarily female student body. The University of Cambridge is an institute of higher learning. ... The term college (Latin collegium) is most often used today to denote an educational institution. ... In some educational systems, an undergraduate is a post-secondary student pursuing a Bachelors degree. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Image of a woman on the Pioneer plaque sent to outer space. ... The Seven Sisters are a historic group of American womens colleges. ... Having a degree conferred is a requirement of (post)graduate school. ...

History

Women's colleges filled the need for higher education for women, because most early colleges in the United States admitted only men. (The first coeducational college was Oberlin College, founded in 1833; by 1860, only five colleges or universities were coeducational.) Among the first all-women's colleges in the United States were the Oread Institute, founded in 1849, which closed in 1881, Wesleyan College in Georgia, founded as the "Georgia Female College", in 1836, and Saint Mary's College (Indiana), founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1844. Coeducation is the integrated education of men and women. ... Oberlin College is a small, highly respected liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. ... 1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... The Oread Institute, founded in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1849 by Eli Thayer, was the first all-female college in the United States, and only the second college to admit women (the first being Oberlin). ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Wesleyan College is a private, liberal arts college for women located in Macon, Georgia. ... Charles Darwin 1836 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Saint Marys College is a private Roman Catholic womens college founded in 1844. ... 1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

See also

• List of current and historical women's universities and colleges

This is a list of current and historical womens universities and colleges. ...

References

• Lynn D. Gordon. "Women's Colleges." In Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. Ed. Wilma Mankiller et al.. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
• Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, Elizabeth DeBra. "Women's Colleges in the United States: History, Issues, and Challenges: Executive Summary." U.S. Department of Education National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning.
• Rosalind Rosenberg. "The Limits of Access: The History Of Coeducation in America." In Women and Higher Education: Essays from the Mount Holyoke College Sesquicentennial Symposia. Ed. John Mack Faragher and Florence Howe. New York: Norton, 1988.

The United States Department of Education was created in 1979 (by PL 96-88) as a Cabinet-level department of the United States government, and began operating in 1980. ... Mount Holyoke College, (founded as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1837), is the oldest liberal arts womens college in the United States. ...

External links

• Making the Case for Girls' Schools: Today's single-sex institutions are separate and equal
• Women's College Coalition - an association representing women’s colleges in the United States and Canada