Women's college facts for kids

Scripps College, a college just for women in Claremont, California, United States

Women's colleges are special schools for higher education. They are mostly for women who want to earn a bachelor's degree. These schools often focus on a wide range of subjects, known as liberal arts. While most students are women, some of these colleges might also accept a few male students for advanced studies or in smaller numbers for undergraduate programs.

What's the Difference: College vs. Finishing School?

A women's college is a serious place for learning. It offers many academic subjects like science, history, and literature. The main goal is to give students a strong education.

A finishing school, on the other hand, is different. It teaches social skills like good manners, how to behave in public, and how to host parties. If academics are taught, they are not the main focus.

Sometimes, people mistakenly call women's colleges "finishing schools." Some colleges, like the old Finch College, actually started as finishing schools but later became serious academic schools. Even Miss Porter's School, which began as a finishing school in 1843, now focuses on academics.

It can be frustrating for a women's college to be called a finishing school when it's not. For example, Sweet Briar College has always been a college, but some people still called it a finishing school. This misunderstanding might have even made it harder for the school to attract students, leading to money problems and almost closing in 2015.

Why Are There Fewer Women's Colleges Now?

People sometimes wonder if women's colleges are still needed today. Fifty years ago, there were about 240 women's colleges in the U.S. Now, only around 40 are left. A teacher from Radcliffe College (which used to be a women's college before joining Harvard University) once said that if women's colleges become unnecessary, it shows that women have succeeded in getting equal opportunities in education.

Women's Colleges Around the World

Many countries have women's colleges. Here are some examples:

Africa

Somaliland

• Barwaaqo University, Baliga Cas (started 2017)

Sudan

• Ahfad University for Women

Asia

• Asian University for Women, Chittagong, Bangladesh (started 2008)
• Bethune College, the first women's college in South Asia (started 1879)
• Duksung Women's University in Seoul, South Korea (started 1920)
• Dongduk Women's University in Seoul, South Korea (started 1950)
• Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea (started 1886)
• Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi (started 1924)
• Jinnah University for Women, Karachi, Pakistan (started 1998)
• Keisen University in Japan (started 1988)
• Lady Irwin College, New Delhi (started 1932)
• Lahore College for Women University in Pakistan (started 1922)
• Miranda House, New Delhi (started 1948)
• Women's College, Aligarh, India (started 1906)

Philippines

• Assumption College San Lorenzo, Makati City (started 1959)
• Miriam College in Quezon City (started 1926)
• Philippine Women's University, the first women's university in the Philippines and Asia (started 1919)
• St. Paul University Manila (started 1912)
• St. Scholastica's College Manila (started 1906)

South Korea

• Seoul Women's University in Seoul, South Korea (started 1961)
• Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, South Korea (started 1906)
• Sungshin Women's University in Seoul, South Korea (started 1936)

Canada

Brescia University College is the only university-level school just for women in Canada. It is connected to the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.

Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, started as a women's college in 1875. But in 1967, it began accepting both male and female students.

Middle East

Kingdom of Bahrain

• Royal University for Women

United Arab Emirates

• Dubai Women's College

Kuwait

• Box Hill College Kuwait
• College for Women, a separate part of Kuwait University

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Most big universities in Saudi Arabia have two parts: one just for women and one just for men. These include:

• King Saud University
• Al-Imam University
• King Abdulaziz University
• King Faisal University
• Prince Sultan University

These schools are only for female students:

• Effat University
• Princess Noura University

Iran

• Alzahra University, Tehran

United Kingdom

Mary Astell believed women were just as smart as men and deserved an education. In 1694, she wrote about her idea for a college just for women. The first college to partly make her idea real was Whitelands College, a school for training women teachers. It opened in 1841. Later, two more colleges opened in London: Queen's College in 1848 and Bedford College in 1849.

Girton, which opened in 1869, says it was the first residential college in Britain to offer university-level education to women. Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford opened in 1879.

Here are some women's colleges that are still open:

• Murray Edwards College, Cambridge (started 1954, used to be New Hall)
• Newnham College, Cambridge (started 1871)

Many women's colleges in the UK later started accepting male students. Here are some that used to be only for women:

• Bedford College, London (started 1849, became mixed in 1965)
• Girton College, Cambridge (started 1869, became mixed in 1976)
• Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (started 1878, became mixed in 1979)
• Royal Holloway, University of London (started 1879, became mixed in 1965)
• St Hilda's College, Oxford (started 1893, became mixed in 2008)
• Somerville College, Oxford (started 1879, became mixed in 1994)
• Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge (started 1965, became mixed in 2020)

United States

Early History of Women's Colleges

In the United States, women's colleges grew from private schools for girls in the 1800s. These schools were called "academies" or "seminaries." Women's colleges were created because women needed more advanced education. At that time, most colleges and universities only accepted men.

Some people, like Emma Willard, wanted to improve the girls' seminaries by making their academic subjects stronger. Others, like Catharine Beecher, felt that seminaries were not enough. They believed a stronger, more lasting type of school, a women's college, was needed.

Mary Lyon (1797-1849) was a very important person in this history. She founded Mount Holyoke College. She also helped create other schools like Hartford Female Seminary and Wheaton Female Seminary (now Wheaton College, Massachusetts).

Women's College Coalition

The Women's College Coalition is a group that supports women's colleges and universities. It was started in 1972. This was a time when many changes were happening in the United States, like the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Rights Movement. These changes led to more women going to college. Many schools that used to be only for men started accepting women. This meant women had many more choices for their education.

The Women's College Coalition studies the benefits of attending a women's college today. They share information about why these schools are still important for young women. They want students, families, and others to understand the value of a women's education. Today, more women than men are in college, and women often get better grades and are more likely to finish their degrees.

Women's Colleges and Universities in North America

See also

• Higher education in the United States
• History of higher education in the United States
• Men's college
• Single-sex education