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Abstract
This study traces the development of coeducation at Boston College from the time women were first admitted in 1924, to the early nineteen eighties. It explores the decisions that were made to admit women to the various colleges and schools of the University, and looks at the results of those decisions on women and on the university community.
In order to place this case study in the context of the larger society, the study capsulizes the story of women and higher education in Western cultures, and includes the impact of Catholic higher education, and, specifically, Jesuit higher education on opportunities for women.
Boston College, founded as a man's school in 1863, followed a tortuous route toward coeducation. From the first summer program for nuns of the diocese, to the integration of the College of Arts and Sciences, a full half century passed.
The question to admit women or not to admit women was debated throughout the years with decisions being made in situational contexts rather than by adherence to a carefully-thought-out belief or philosophy about the education of women. Not unlike other Catholic institutions, Boston College admitted women for reasons of societal benefit; to fill a desperate need for teachers, nurses, or social workers of Catholic background for leadership positions, or to civilize the men students. These societal needs were sometimes made known to Boston College by the bishop of the archdiocese in which the University is located. In some instances, the administrators found themselves caught between wanting to admit women to a particular school and the Jesuit proscriptions toward coeducation.
Conspicuously lacking during the University's history was any indication that Boston College made decisions through the years to educate women for their own sakes. Regardless of intent, the University did, eventually, provide women with another educational alternative; that is, access to a large, Catholic, coeducational institution in New England.
