Synopses & Reviews
More than a quarter-century ago, the last great wave of coeducation in the United States resulted in the admission of women to almost all of the remaining men's colleges and universities. In thirteen original essays, Going Coed investigates the reasons behind this important phenomenon, describes how institutions have dealt with the changes, and captures the experiences of women who attended these schools.
Review
[Miller-Bernal and Poulson] bring into better focus one part of the larger story about educational equality than has previously been scattered. [...] GOING COED is essential reading for all interested in educational arrangements that produce equal opportunities for all students, faculty, and administrators associated wth higher education.
--Teachers College Record
Review
Careful organization and wide coverage constitute impressive strengths of this book. . . . Going Coed is a strong and important addition to literature on gender in higher education and to the small corpus on post-World War II educational history.
--The Review of Higher Education
Review
Careful organization and wide coverage constitute impressive strengths of this book. . . . Going Coed is a strong and important addition to literature on gender in higher education and to the small corpus on post-World War II educational history.
The Review of Higher Education
Synopsis
More than a quarter-century ago, the last great wave of coeducation in the United States resulted in the admission of women to almost all of the remaining men's colleges and universities. In thirteen original essays, "Going Coed investigates the reasons behind this important phenomenon, describes how institutions have dealt with the changes, and captures the experiences of women who attended these schools. Informed by a wealth of fresh research, the book is rich in both historical and sociological insights. It begins with two overview chapters--one on the general history of American coeducation, the other on the differing approaches of Catholic and historically black colleges to admitting women students--and then offers case studies that consider the ways in which the problems and promise of coeducation have played out in a wide range of institutions. One essay, for example, examines how two bastions of the Ivy League, Yale and Princeton, influenced the paths taken by less prestigious men's colleges. Among the topics addressed in other chapters are how the presence of women affected schools with strong masculine traditions, such as Virginia and Dartmouth; how prior cooperation with a women's college eased Hamilton College's transition to coeducation; and how institutions outside the liberal-arts tradition, from West Point to for-profit vocational schools, have incorporated women students. In exploring specific cases, the essays illuminate such key issues as the impact of the women's movement and the development of women's studies as an academic discipline, the pressures exerted on institutions by economic necessities and legal challenges, and the strategies women have utilized inadapting to formerly all-male environments. In their conclusion, the editors synthesize some common trends among the case studies and assess what remains to be done to achieve gender equity in higher education.
About the Author
Leslie Miller-Bernal is a professor of sociology at Wells College and the author of Separate by Degree: Women Students' Experiences in Women's and Coeducational Colleges. Susan L. Poulson teaches history at the University of Scranton. She is now collaborating with Miller-Bernal on a study of how women's colleges have responded to the challenge of coeducation since the 1960s.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
Section I
The History of Coeducation
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
Coeducation: An Uneven Progression
Leslie Miller-Bernal
Chapter 2
Two Unique Histories of Coeducation:
Catholic and Historically Black Institutions
Susan L. Poulson and Leslie Miller-Bernal
Section II
Coeducation before the Late 1960s
Chapter 3
To Coeducation and Back Again:
Gender and Organization at the University of Rochester
Christine Lundt, Susan L. Poulson, and Leslie Miller-Bernal
Chapter 4
A Historically Black Men's College Admits Women:
The Case of Lincoln University
Leslie Miller-Bernal and Susan Gunn Pevar
Section III
Conversion to Coeducation in the Ivy League
Chapter 5
A Friendly Rivalry:
Yale and Princeton Pursue Parallel Paths to Coeducation
Marcia Synnott
Chapter 6
"Men of Dartmouth" and "The Lady Engineers":
Coeducation at Dartmouth College and Lehigh University
Mary Frances Donley Forcier
Section IV
Masculine Cultures and Traditions
Chapter 7
Women's Admission to the University of Virginia:
Tradition Transformed
Elizabeth L. Ihle
Chapter 8
Coeducation but Not Equal Opportunity
Loretta Higgins
Section V
Structural Arrangements
Chapter 9
A Religious and a Public University:
The Transitions to Coeducation at Georgetown and Rutgers
Susan L. Poulson
Chapter 10
Coeducation after a Decade of Coordination:
The Case of Hamilton College
Leslie Miller-Bernal
Section VI
Coeducation beyond Liberal Arts
Chapter 11
"Toxic Virus" or Lady Virtue:
Gender Integration and Assimilation at West Point and VMI
Diane Diamond and Michael Kimmel
Chapter 12
Women's Movement into Technical Fields:
A Comparison of Technical and Community Colleges
Regina Deil-Amen
Chapter 13
Conclusion:
Coeducation and Gender Equal Education
Susan L. Poulson and Leslie Miller-Bernal
Contributors
Index