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The admission of transgender students to women's colleges in the United States has been a subject of debate. Some colleges have changed their policy in favor of admitting transgender students, but there is little uniformity in definitional details.
In 2013, high school senior Rose (then Calliope) Wong was denied acceptance to Smith College, one of the largest women's colleges in the United States, because she identified as a transgender woman. Wong marked her biological gender identity as male on her FAFSA, despite her self-identification as a woman. Subsequently, Smith deemed Wong inadmissible to the women's college and denied her application. [1] Smith students, led by a trans-activist organization, Q&A, protested the decision and began a Change.org petition encouraging Smith to revise their admissions policy to include trans women. [2] Although Smith was not the first women's college to amend their admissions policy, Wong's story catalyzed a nationwide reconsideration of admissions policies at women's institutions. Smith College amended their policy to include admission of trans women in May 2015. [3]
Mills College, located in Oakland, California, formally published an inclusive policy accepting transgender women and nonbinary students, in 2014. [4]
A 2019 analysis only found two Women's College Coalition (WCC) member institutions without such policies: Meredith College and St. Catherine University. [5] Since then, St. Catherine has revised its policy to admit transgender women and nonbinary students. [6]
The policies at each institution vary. [5] Some, such as Hollins University, [7] Cedar Crest College, [8] and Historically Black Women's Colleges Spelman College [9] and Bennett College, [10] only admit students who live and identify as women, regardless of their gender assignment at birth, but allow admitted students who come out as another gender to continue their studies and graduate.
By contrast, Mills College, one of the first women's institution to adopt "a formal admissions policy regarding transgender and transitioning," does accept trans men who have not changed their legal gender markers. [10] Agnes Scott College published a policy as early as 2011 and updated in 2014 with language that states that they openly admit "students who were assigned female at birth, as well as those who were assigned male or female at birth, but who now identify as female, transgender, agender, gender fluid or non-binary." [11]
In August 2024, Sweet Briar College sent a communication to members of the college's community clarifying the Board of Directors’ May 2024 decision to exclude applicants who were not assigned female at birth and do not identify as a woman at the time of applying. [12] [13] The communication references the college's 1901 charter, arguing that “the Board must honor the dictates of the Will, which imposes the requirement that the College be a place of “girls and young women” – a phrase that must be interpreted as it was understood at the time the Will was written.” [14] This change was protested by students, alumnae, and staff, including a Faculty Resolution on Admission to the College, passed on August 26, 2024. [15]
Ultimately, the differences between the policies are determined by the individual institution's definition of womanhood and their varying degrees of inclusivity and/or exclusivity extended to the transgender community. [16]
Although the exact number of trans women attending women's colleges nationwide is unknown, responses to the revised admissions policies have garnered mixed reactions over the past four years. Mills College, the first women's college to welcome trans students, reports approximately 8% of over 700 undergraduate students identify as transgender. [17] Despite the low visibility of trans women at women's colleges, these institutions continue to face backlash and criticism, specifically from alumnae, who often believe the policies disregard and veer away from the core mission and purpose of women's colleges. Although majority of alumnae, current students and the institutions themselves agree women's colleges were created to educate and empower women, the discrepancies in defining and labeling womanhood fuel the differences in opinions and the revised policies themselves. [16]
Furthermore, with the introduction and adoption of trans-inclusive admissions policies on these campuses, additional challenges include the day-to-day implementation of the policy, such as adequately providing academic and residential resources for trans students while ensuring a welcoming and inclusive collegiate environment. [18] Trans students even face the possibility of potential physical harassment and other forms of discrimination on traditional college campuses. [19]
Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts historically women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of historically female colleges in the Northeastern United States. The college was founded in 1837 as the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary by Mary Lyon, a pioneer in education for women. Mount Holyoke is part of the Five College Consortium in Western Massachusetts.
Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is a member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. Smith is also a member of the Five College Consortium with four other institutions in the Pioneer Valley: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst; students of each college are allowed to attend classes at any other member institution. On campus are Smith's Museum of Art and Botanic Garden, the latter designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is different from the sex assigned to them at birth, although some non-binary people do not consider themselves transgender.
The Seven Sisters are a group of seven private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that are historically women's colleges. Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and Wellesley College are still women's colleges. Vassar College became coeducational in 1969 and Radcliffe College was absorbed in 1999 by Harvard College and now offers programs in advanced study.
Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in 1871 and became the second women's college west of the Rockies. In 2022, it merged with Northeastern University.
Egale Canada is a Canadian charity founded in 1986 by Les McAfee to advance equality for Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people and their families, across Canada.
Sweet Briar College is a private women's liberal arts college in Sweet Briar, Amherst County, Virginia. It was established in 1901 by Indiana Fletcher Williams in memory of her deceased daughter, Daisy. The college formally opened its doors in 1906 and granted the B.A. degree for the first time in 1910. It nearly closed in 2015 but was saved by donations and legal actions by alumnae.
The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is an umbrella organization for 26 national and international women's sororities throughout the United States and Canada. Panhellenic refers to the group's members being autonomous social Greek-letter societies of college women and alumnae.
Women's colleges in the United States are private single-sex U.S. institutions of higher education that only admit female students. They are often liberal arts colleges. There are approximately 26 active women's colleges in the United States in 2024, down from a peak of 281 such colleges in the 1960s.
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health care. A major goal of transgender activism is to allow changes to identification documents to conform with a person's current gender identity without the need for gender-affirming surgery or any medical requirements, which is known as gender self-identification. It is part of the broader LGBT rights movements.
In the United States, the rights of transgender people vary considerably by jurisdiction. In recent decades, there has been an expansion of federal, state, and local laws and rulings to protect transgender Americans; however, many rights remain unprotected, and some rights are being eroded. Since 2020, there has been a national movement by conservative/right-wing politicians and organizations to target transgender rights. There has been a steady increase in the number of anti-transgender bills introduced each year, especially in Republican-led states.
Simmons University is a private university in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established in 1899 by clothing manufacturer John Simmons. In 2018, it reorganized its structure and changed its name to a university. Its undergraduate program is women-focused while its graduate programs are co-educational.
Transgender pregnancy is the gestation of one or more embryos or fetuses by transgender people. As of 2024, the possibility is restricted to those born with female reproductive systems. However, transition-related treatments may impact fertility. Transgender men and nonbinary people who are or wish to become pregnant face social, medical, legal, and psychological concerns. As uterus transplantations are currently experimental, and none have successfully been performed on trans women, they cannot become pregnant.
Eli Erlick is an American activist, writer, academic, trans woman and founder of the organization Trans Student Educational Resources.
Transgender health care includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions for transgender individuals. A major component of transgender health care is gender-affirming care, the medical aspect of gender transition. Questions implicated in transgender health care include gender variance, sex reassignment therapy, health risks, and access to healthcare for trans people in different countries around the world. Gender affirming health care can include psychological, medical, physical, and social behavioral care. The purpose of gender affirming care is to help a transgender individual conform to their desired gender identity.
The participation of transgender people in competitive sports, a traditionally sex-segregated institution, is a controversial issue, particularly the inclusion of transgender women and girls in women's sports.
Deadnaming is the act of referring to a transgender or non-binary person by a name they used prior to transitioning, such as their birth name. Deadnaming may be unintentional, or a deliberate attempt to deny, mock, or invalidate a person's gender identity.
Multiple countries legally recognize non-binary or third gender classifications. These classifications are typically based on a person's gender identity. In some countries, such classifications may only be available to intersex people, born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies."
The term womxn is an alternative spelling of the English word woman. Womxn, along with the term womyn, has been found in writing since the 1970s to avoid perceived sexism in the standard spelling, which contains the word man.
