Coeducation at Princeton

Evelyn College

From its inception, this women's institution was associated with Princeton University, and it was hoped that the link would be similar to the Radcliffe and Harvard University relationship. Unfortunately, Evelyn College closed in 1897, due to financial problems and a lack of support from Princeton.

Scrapbook; Historical Subject Files Collection, AC109, Box 332, Folder 1

Faculty Wives and Daughters

For the next half-century, women instead made their presence known in unofficial positions. Wives and daughters of Princeton faculty and administrators succeeded in exerting significant influence on campus life as advocates for students as well as assistants in research. Isabella Guthrie McCosh, wife of James McCosh, the 11th president of Princeton, was deeply involved in protecting the health and welfare of Princeton students. As a result of her unflagging dedication, the first campus infirmary was built and named in her honor. 

Eleanor Cross Marquand, wife of the first chair of Princeton’s Department of Art and Archaeology, became a respected, published expert on the symbolism of the use of flowers and trees in art. She was self-taught. In 1948, Princeton recognized her contributions to the field with an honorary Master of Arts.

McCosh Infirmary; Historical Postcard Collection, AC045, Box 1

Female Scholars

Women were also important forces in the academic world. Margaret Farrand Thorp, wife of English professor, Willard Thorp, often assisted with her husband's research while simultaneously producing her own independent work. Fittingly, she wrote a book entitled Female Persuasion: Six Strong-Minded Women, which was published in 1949. Speaking of her lot as a female at Princeton, Thorp once quipped, “We who practice the pleasant profession of faculty wife are often amused by Princeton University's apparent hostility to the feminine sex. Hostility is probably too strong a word. The situation is, rather, that for the University, the feminine sex does not exist” (See William K. Selden, Women of Princeton, p. 33.)

Female scholars were, in fact, overlooked for official research positions until the 1940s. In 1942 Elda Emma Anderson came to Princeton as a visiting research associate in the physics department. In 1943 five women arrived at Princeton as instructors of Turkish and various European and Slavic languages. Finally, five years later, Helen Baker, Associate Director of the Industrial Relations Section, became the first woman awarded “faculty status with the rank of Associate Professor” by the Board of Trustees.

"Company-Wide Understanding of Industrial Relations Policies," by Helen Baker (78); Industrial Relations Section Records, MC231

World War II - Photogrammetry Course

Along with the influx of female faculty and research associates in the 1940s, female students also began to gradually filter into the University system. Wives and daughters of Princeton faculty and administrators had been sitting in on classes informally for many years, but the first women to be officially enrolled in a University course were given the opportunity to do so during World War II. During the war, 23 women were permitted to take a government-sponsored course in photogrammetry. Later, in 1947, three female members of the library staff, in order to be better prepared to handle an enlarged Russian literature section of the library, enrolled in a class on beginners Russian, side by side with male undergraduate students. Still, more than twenty years would pass before the first co-educational class would walk the stage at commencement.

Unidentified female student with engineering professor Philip R. Kissam, Princeton’s Photogrammetry class, 1942, Historical Photographs Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box MP212, Item No. 5577.

Undergraduate Students

The first full-time undergraduate female students were admitted in 1963 when the Critical Languages Program (CLP) was introduced. This program enabled students from other colleges to spend one year in Princeton studying Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Persian, Russian, and Turkish languages and related regional studies. Five women came to Princeton as part of the CLP, and were subsequently nicknamed “Critters” by resident Princetonians. Although they were full-time students, these women were not eligible for a Princeton degree, as the program encompassed only the students' junior year.

Assistant Dean Allen Kassof talks with two Critical Languages students, ca. 1966-1967. Historical Photographs Collection, Campus Life Series (AC112), Box MP19, Item No. 460.

Coeducation begins with Graduate Students

In 1961 Princeton offered Sabra Follett Meservey acceptance in the graduate program in Oriental Studies. She was the first woman in the University's history to be enrolled as a full-time degree candidate. However, in a not so subtle slip, her letter of acceptance began “Dear Sir.” Meservey later became the first woman to be granted a master's degree from Princeton. In 1962 eight more women enrolled in graduate programs at Princeton, and in 1964 Dr. T'sai-ying Cheng, a student in biochemical sciences, became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Princeton.

Meservey, Sabra Follet (First woman to enter as Princeton graduate student); Historical Photograph Collection: Individuals series, AC067, Box 16, Folder 70

Ph.D.s Earned by Women at Princeton University Prior to Undergraduate Coeducation

Decision to Allow Women 

After contemplating and finally rejecting a proposal to forge an association with Sarah Lawrence University in 1967, President Robert F. Goheen commissioned a study of the possibility of admitting women as full time undergraduate degree candidates. Gardner Patterson, a professor in the Department of Economics, headed the committee. In its final report, issued in July of 1968, the committee noted that “the presence of talented young women at Princeton would enhance the total educational experience and contribute to a better balanced social and intellectual life,” as well as “sustain Princeton's ability to attract outstanding students,” which had been flagging under its rather conservative image. Later that year, the trustees voted 24-8 for the implementation of coeducation.

Photo from Nassau Herald (1970).

Coeducation Begins

Starting in the fall of 1969, Princeton became co-educational, and In September 1969, 101 female freshman and 70 female transfer students joined the ranks of the Princeton student body. Eight women transfer students graduated in June 1970, with slightly greater numbers graduating in the two subsequent years. Women who matriculated as freshmen in 1969 graduated in the Class of 1973, the first undergraduate class that included women for all four undergraduate years.

Women In Upper-Level Positions 

The 1970s not only witnessed the graduation of Princeton's first coeducational class, but also the rise of women in upper-level administration. In 1971 Mary St. John Douglas and Susan Savage Speers became the first two female trustees. The following year, Adele Simmons was appointed Dean of Student Affairs, becoming the first female dean in Princeton's history. In 1977 Nina G. Garsoian became Dean of the Graduate School and Joan S. Girgus, Dean of the College. They were the first women to hold Princeton's second and third oldest deanships.

Finally, in 2001, the first woman was appointed to the prestigious post of president of Princeton University. Shirley M. Tilghman, a professor in the Molecular Biology Department since 1986, accepted the position after being chosen by the very presidential search committee of which she was initially a member. In so doing, she not only broke a 255-year-old tradition, but also came to represent the veritable integration of women into Princeton University.

Eating Clubs Finally Coed - July 3,1990

The eating clubs were one of the last vestiges of male-exclusivity associated with the University. Although most went co-ed immediately after women were accepted in 1969, four refused to do so. In 1979, after failing to gain membership to Cottage, Ivy, and Tiger Inn as a result of these restrictions, third year student Sally Frank filed a lawsuit with the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights. On July 3, 1990—The New Jersey Supreme Court rules in Frank v. Ivy Club that the last two male-only eating clubs at Princeton must admit women.