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Abstract
The present study traces the influences of women students, and the "woman question," on Western Reserve College during its most critical period of transformation during the Gilded Age. In addition, I also aim to build a second, parallel story: the creation of one of the pioneer coordinate colleges for women in the United States: the Western Reserve University's College for Women. I argue that women students and the question of their presence at Western Reserve College were a significant and integral force behind institutional and campus environment changes in the last quarter of the 19th century, and propelled the transformation of the college into an urban university. Women's presence left traces on at least four critical areas: the campus environments, the college's relationship with the surrounding educational network, institutional change and college reform, and town-gown dynamics. The attempts to accommodate the "woman question" led to the major shifts in co-educational and coordinate approaches as Western Reserve College transformed itself from a small liberal arts college into an urban university. With this study, I join revisionist interpretations of the history of women's presence in colleges and universities in the Gilded Age, employing a lens that looks at women as an axis of institutional change.
