Women’s colleges in the United States have made headlines in recent years, either through opening their doors to male students or through announcing their permanent closure.
Recently, Sweet Briar College, a small, 114-year-old liberal arts college in Virginia, has been in the news because it was on the verge of financial collapse and was going to have to shut down this summer. However, due to a last-ditch effort, the college will stay open through 2015-16 after a circuit court judge approved a rescue plan Monday.
Such events have raised questions about the place of women’s colleges in contemporary American society. Indeed, while women’s colleges once offered perhaps the only option for women interested in obtaining a college education, enrollment at women’s colleges today is less than one percent of all women attending college; over the last 50 years, the number of women’s colleges has dropped from 233 down to fewer than 50.
Despite the focus on the sheer number of women’s colleges, there is very little understanding of who exactly attends these institutions. To better understand who women’s college students are today and to identify how they’ve changed over time, UCLA education professor Linda Sax undertook a study in which she examined data provided through the Higher Education Research Institute’s national Freshman Survey.
“Who Attends a Women’s College? Identifying Unique Characteristics and Patterns of Change 1971 – 2011” offers a picture of students at women’s colleges today and brings into focus some of the ways they’ve changed over four decades. The report documents the paths taken by women’s college students over time in relation to women students attending public and private four-year colleges and universities.
To read a summary of the study’s findings, see the Sudikoff Public Forum website.