Award Name
Senior Award Winner
Award Date
4-11-2022
Faculty Sponsor
Roberto Pedace
Description/Abstract
Despite women attending college at a greater rate than men for several decades, women’s colleges have been shutting down—or transitioning to coeducation—at incredibly high rates. Literature demonstrates the importance of women’s colleges due to their benefits on students’ future career success and psychological wellbeing. However, there is less research concerning the decline of women's colleges, and none regarding the economic and quantitative factors influencing their closures. The research I conducted led to the creation of a completely original data set, which I utilized to perform a logistic regression and analyze variables related to the survival of women’s colleges. I find a high statistical significance of an institution's date of establishment, particularly during the Progressive Era. I also determine there is moderate statistical significance for colleges located near metropolitan counties. I then discuss cases of five different former or current women’s colleges and conclude with predictions for the future of women’s colleges and the necessity for investment in them.
Terms of Use & License Information
Recommended Citation
Rivasplata, Alexandra, "The Economic and Social Decline of Women's Colleges Across the United States" (2022). 2022 Claremont Colleges Library Undergraduate Research Award. 1.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cclura_2022/1
