Talk:Women's colleges
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[edit] Now 2 lists
There are now two lists of women's colleges, one here and one at List of women's colleges in the United States. Still, I think we can make a distinction -- the list there seems to be of those currently all-women, whereas this can be an historical list.
That said, I think that while the "other" list is sorted by location, it would be nice to sort this one by date. **BUT** the problem is that colleges like to exaggerate their founding dates, using the founding date of an affiliated prep school (or something) to make themselves seem older. To take an example from non-women's colleges, Bradford College, which has now closed, was founded in 1971, but claimed a founding date of 1803 (!), because Bradford Academy existed from 1803-1932, Bradford Junior College from 1932-1971, and Bradford College from 1971-2000.
On the women's college front, Judson College claims [1] to be the sixth oldest women's college, with a founding in 1838, whereas this says that Oread Institute, founded in 1849, was the first college made exclusively for women. Mount Holyoke College was founded as a seminary in 1837, but didn't grant degrees until... when?
Which leads to the question. I think to make this article good, we need to sort by date. But to sort by date, we have to agree on some basic principles, viz., what date should be applied to a school? The date that some affiliated high school came into existence? The date when post-secondary women were admitted? The date when degrees were first granted? The date when the school was chartered or incorporated? etc. --Rjyanco 16:29, 24 May 2004 (UTC)
- Between the list of women's colleges in the United States and the list in the article on coeducation, I'm not sure if there's a need for another list of colleges... however, more history of women's education as distinct from coeducation would be a welcome addition to this article, and some of the dates you discuss (founding of colleges, beginning to grant degrees, etc.) could be incorporated into a timeline on the subject. How about a timeline/history of women's higher education, instead? -- Rbellin 17:58, 24 May 2004 (UTC)
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- I think more historical information and even a timeline would be great additions to this article. However, I'm pretty sure coming up with "real" dates for the founding of many women's colleges will be impossible. I am not sure what "chartered" means exactly. "Degree-granting" could work, but is there agreement on what this means? What I think we would be trying to get to the heart of is, when did a particular institution stop being a girl's etiquette and finishing school, and when did it start offering a rigorous academic curriculum comparable to the education then being offered to men? Mount Holyoke claims to have implemented an academic curriculum before they were chartered or became degree-granting. Yet many prestigious women's colleges (my alma mater included) continued to be known for their "MRS" degrees right up until the 1960s (or, one might argue, the present day). I just don't think "when did this institution become rigorous" is documented or knowable for most colleges, beyond the "no, we were first!" propaganda they all seem to put out. —Bsktcase 21:06, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Village pump proposal
I've got a proposal up on Village pump to reorganize and overhaul the list on this page, plus the existing categories and the other list page. If you are interested, please go check it out. I would appreciate feedback! —Bsktcase 21:03, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- It's all done! The list of colleges on this page has been moved to its own new page. Complete progress report available at Village pump. Enjoy, I hope. —Bsktcase 04:00, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Help! Women's colleges in Japan
I'm finding a huge list of women's universities in Japan. Some have English-language pages; many don't. Should we list them here (or on whatever this page becomes)? Or only on a Japanese wikipedia page? The systemic bias crusader in me is wondering if we should include them here/on the new list.
I don't know a thing about the accreditation process in Japan or the college & university system there, and on the Japanese-only pages I usually can't determine where the institution is located. There are a few I've found that might be co-ed now (they don't include "Women's" in their English names on their websites). I suppose if I can't figure them out, I should omit them.
I've got a list saved locally until we can get some consensus on whether I should add it here or elsewhere or leave it to people who actually know something about Japan. :) Same question applies to other, say, non-English-speaking women's colleges, if I find any. —Bsktcase 04:41, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Plural title?
Can someone offer the rationale for changing the title to the plural case? In addition to being unorthodox in terms of the MoS, it's created a lot of unnecessary redirects. Unless this can be explained, it really ought to be changed back. (And just for the future, renames for pages with lots of traffic and in-links are supposed to be discussed first.) Beginning 00:10, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
