1792: Sarah Pierce establishes first institution in America for higher education of women, in Litchfield, CT, Litchfield Female Academy, which remained open until 1833.

1833: Oberlin College (the first U.S. coed college) opens and soon begins enrolling women.

1836: Georgia Female College, now Wesleyan College, chartered as first all-women’s college. Opens in 1839.

1840: Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana founded by the Catholic Sisters.

1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes first licensed woman physician.

1852: Mills College founded in California.

1861: Vassar College founded.

1870: Hunter College opens as public women’s college in New York City.

1875: Smith College and Wellesley College open.

1879: Harvard “Annex” opens for women. President F.A.P. Barnard calls for women to be admitted to Columbia University. Voted down.

1881: Spelman College, first black women’s college founded.

1884: Columbia creates off-campus program for women.

1888: Bryn Mawr College opens; Mount Holyoke Seminary becomes Mount Holyoke College.

1889: Barnard College founded; Columbia program for women closes.

I hope that this answers your question. Feel free to contact your local public library — or me — if you’d like further information or clarification. -Meg.

The College traces its roots to the Bethlehem Female Seminary, which was founded in Germantown, Pennsylvania by Benigna, Countess von Zinzendorf in 1742 and is the oldest institution of higher education for women in the United States (the Countess was the daughter of Count Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, who was the benefactor of the fledgling Moravian communities in Nazareth and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania).

founded Troy Female Seminary (September 1821 in New York),

First U.S. Women’s College.

Many of the first generation of the female reformers and women’s rights activists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, attended her school.

For opening the doors of education to women decades before Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke College or Oberlin College, Antioch College, and other institutions of higher education became co-educational and for making advanced education for women economically viable for both the provider and the student and socially acceptable, Emma Hart Willard exerted a profound on American women and on America. Eventually her vision of intellectual equality for men and women would be exported around the world and schools, colleges, and universities around the world would be opened to women.

Reference

E. T. James, J. W. James, and P. S. Boyer, Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary [Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971] pp. 610-613

2)Salem College founded in 1772 in Winston Salem, North Carolina as the Little Girls’ School. In 1802, it became a boarding school for girls and young women; in 1866, it was renamed Salem Female Academy. In 1907 the name was officially changed to Salem Academy and College and to this day both Salem Academy and Salem College share the campus in Old Salem.

***Mount Holyoke College – South Hadley, Massachusetts, founded as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837 by Mary Lyon, it became Mount Holyoke Seminary and College in 1888 and Mount Holyoke College in 1893. It is the first of the Seven Sisters and was chartered as a teaching seminary in 1836.***

dg