Women's colleges in the Southern United States are undergraduate, bachelor's degree–granting institutions in the American South with student populations that consist exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Many began as girls' schools or academies. Salem College is the oldest female educational institution in the South and Wesleyan College is the first specifically established as a college for women, closely followed by Judson College in 1838. Some schools, such as Salem College, offer coeducational courses at the graduate level.
History Many American educational institutions for women were established in the early nineteenth century as schools for girls, academies, or female seminaries. In the usage of the era, academies were schools that provided the rough equivalent of a modern secondary education, while female seminaries were secular institutions that trained teachers. The Women's College Coalition noted that: "Seminaries educated women for the only socially acceptable occupation: teaching. Only unmarried women could be teachers. Many early women's colleges began as female seminaries and were responsible for producing an important corps of educators.""The Rise of Women's Colleges, Coeducation" , Women's Colleges
The abolition of slavery in the wake of the American Civil War prompted the establishment of institutions for the education of newly emancipated Black women and girls.Women's Colleges in the United States: History, Issues, and Challenges, US Department of Education The development of Jim Crow laws in the late nineteenth century meant that emerging Black women's colleges developed on a separate, parallel track alongside those for White women. Today, these institutions are classified as historically black colleges and universities (HBCU).
Historically Black women's colleges (HBCU) {| class="wikitable sortable" |- !Educational Institution !Location !Status !Current enrollment(if female institution) !Opened doorto students !Collegiatecharter |- | align="left" |Scotia Seminary | align="left" |Concord, North Carolina | align="left" |CoeducationalBarber-Scotia Collegesince 1954Lost accreditationin 2004 | align="left" |N.A. | align="left" |1867(female seminary)1870 (chartered)1916(Scotia Women's College)1930(Merged with Barber Memorial College) | align="left" |1870(Women's college granted first degree 1874) |- | align="left" |Bennett College | align="left" |Greensboro, North Carolina | align="left" |Women's college | align="left" |780 | align="left" |1873(coeducational) | align="left" |1889 (Becomes women's college in 1926) |- | align="left" |Mount Hermon Female Seminary | align="left" |Clinton, Mississippi | align="left" |Closed in 1924 | align="left" |N.A. | align="left" |1875 | align="left" |Secured in 1873 |- | align="left" |Spelman College | align="left" |Atlanta, Georgia | align="left" |Women's college | align="left" |2,290 | align="left" |1881 (as Atlanta BaptistFemale Seminary) | align="left" |1924(First college degrees awarded in 1901) |- | align="left" |Tillotson College | align="left" |Austin, Texas | align="left" |1881-1926(Coeducational)1926–1935(Women's college) 1935–present(Coeducational)Huston–Tillotson University | align="left" |N.A. | align="left" |1881(coeducational) | align="left" |1926(Women's college) |- | align="left" |Hartshorn Memorial CollegeA Guide to the Hartshorn Memorial College Reunion Collection 1976–1980 | align="left" |Richmond, Virginia | align="left" |Merged withVirginia Union University in 1932. | align="left" |N.A. | align="left" |1883 | align="left" |March 13, 1884(First college degrees awarded in 1885.) |- | align="left" |Mary Allen Seminary | align="left" |Crockett, Houston County, Texas | align="left" |Coeducational in 1933 | align="left" |N.A. | align="left" |1886 | align="left" |N.A. |- | align="left" |Barber Memorial College | align="left" |Anniston, Alabama | align="left" |CoeducationalBarber-Scotia Collegesince 1954Lost accreditationin 2004 | align="left" |N.A. | align="left" |18961930(Merged with Scotia Women's College) | align="left" |1946(Women's college)
Additional current women's colleges in the South Institutions are listed chronologically by the date at which they opened their doors to students. Former names are in italics. 1772: Little Girls' School (now Salem College): Originally established as a primary school, it later developed as an academy (high school), and finally a college. It is the oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college, and the oldest female institution in the Southern United States. 1833: Columbia Female Academy (now Stephens College): Founded as an academy (high school), it later became a college. It is the second-oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college. Missouri is in the Upper South. It was settled by planters along the Mississippi River. 1839: Georgia Female College (now Wesleyan College): This is the oldest (and the first) school to be founded (chartered in 1836) as a college for women. 1842: Valley Union Seminary (now Hollins University): Established in Roanoke, Virginia as a coeducational school, it became a school for women in 1852, and was renamed Hollins Institute in 1855. As the curriculum was developed, it was renamed Hollins College in 1911, and Hollins University in 1998. 1873: Bennett College : Founded in Greensboro, North Carolina as a coeducational school, it became a women's college in 1926. 1878: Georgia Baptist Female Seminary (now the Brenau University Women's College): Despite its name, the college was never formally associated with any church or religious group. Founded in Gainesville, Georgia, it became Brenau College in 1900 and Brenau University in 1992. The university still boasts its robust Women's College on its historic Gainesville campus today, educating women to be, as its motto states, "as gold refined by fire." 1881: Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary (now Spelman College): In 1924 it was the second historically black female institution to receive its collegiate charter, making it the second oldest historically black women's college. 1889: Decatur Female Seminary (now Agnes Scott College): Founded in Decatur, Georgia, it became the Agnes Scott Institute in 1890, and Agnes Scott College in 1906. 1891: Baptist Female University (now Meredith College): Founded in Raleigh, North Carolina, it became the Baptist University for Women in 1891, and Meredith College in 1909. 1901: Sweet Briar College: founded in Sweet Briar, Virginia; announced on March 3, 2015, that it was closing at the end of the 2014–15 school year. The alumnae, current students, and friends of the college took to the courts to battle the administrators' decision. Before the college officially closed, the Virginia Attorney General declared on June 20 that the college is to remain open. Sweet Briar successfully re-opened for the 2015-16 school year and remains open.
Additional former and defunct women's schools 1814: Louisburg Female Academy (now Louisburg College): Founded in North Carolina; Louisburg Female College, founded in 1857. Later merged with Franklin Male Academy. 1818: Elizabeth Female Academy: First female educational institution in Mississippi; it closed in 1843. 1819: Nazareth Academy (later Nazareth College, now Spalding University): Founded as an academy (high school) in Bardstown, Kentucky, it moved to the nearby community of Nazareth in 1822, and first received authority to grant degrees in 1829. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, which has operated the institution from its creation, opened a branch campus in Louisville in 1920. The school became Spalding College in 1969, moved all instruction to Louisville in 1971, admitted its first men in 1973, and became a university in 1984. 1821: Clinton Female Seminary: Georgia. Forerunner to Wesleyan College. 1827: Knoxville Female Academy: Rechartered as the East Tennessee Female Institute in 1846, which granted "Mistress of Polite Literature" degrees; closed in 1911. 1828: South Carolina Female Institute: The word "Collegiate" was added to its charter in 1835. It closed in 1867. 1831: LaGrange Female Academy (now LaGrange College): Founded in LaGrange, Georgia, it became LaGrange Female College in 1851, and coeducational in 1953. 1835: Livingston Female Academy and State Normal College (now University of West Alabama): It became coeducational in 1915. 1838: Judson Female Institute (Judson College): Founded in Marion, Alabama, it became Judson College in 1903, it closed in 2021. 1839: Farmville Female Seminary Association (now Longwood University): Founded in Farmville, Virginia, it became a four-year college in 1860; it became coeducational in 1976. 1841: Asheville Female Seminary: Later renamed Asheville Female College. 1842: Fulton Female Academy (now Synodical College): Founded in Fulton, Missouri, it closed in 1928. 1842: Augusta Female Seminary (now Mary Baldwin University): Founded in Staunton, Virginia, it was renamed as Mary Baldwin Seminary in 1895, Mary Baldwin College in 1923 after curriculum development, and Mary Baldwin University in 2016. It went coeducational one year later. 1846: Greensboro Female College: Charted in 1838 in Greensboro, North Carolina; it is now the coeducational school Greensboro College. 1847: Kentucky Female Orphan School (now Midway University): Became fully coeducational in 2016 when it admitted men into its daytime undergraduate program, the last component of the school that remained women-only. The school had offered coeducational evening/weekend and online programs for several years before going fully coed. 1851: Tennessee and Alabama Female Institute (later Mary Sharp College): It was the first women's college to grant academic college degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men; the college closed due to financial hardship in 1896. 1853: Hagerstown Female Seminary (later Kee Mar College): in Hagerstown, Maryland. It closed in 1911. 1853: Union Female College, in Oxford, Mississippi 1854: Columbia College (Columbia, South Carolina), became coeducational in 2021. 1855: Davenport Female College (later Davenport College): Founded in Lenoir, North Carolina. Chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1859. Merged with Greensboro College in 1938. 1855: Mansfield Female College: Founded in Mansfield, Louisiana, it is claimed to be the first women's college west of the Mississippi River. Merged with Centenary College of Louisiana in 1930. 1857: Athens Female College: Founded in Athens, Tennessee; renamed East Tennessee Wesleyan in 1866. Nowadays Tennessee Wesleyan University. 1857: Charlotte Female Institute: Founded in Charlotte, North Carolina; became the coeducational Queens University of Charlotte after World War II. 1857: Peace Institute (now William Peace University): Founded in Raleigh, North Carolina; changed name first to Peace College, and then to the current name when it became coeducational in 2012. 1865: Ward Seminary for Young Ladies: Founded in Nashville, Tennessee; merged with Belmont College for Young Women in 1913 to form Ward–Belmont College. In 1951, Ward–Belmont was sold to the Tennessee Baptist Convention, under which it became coeducational and its name was shortened to Belmont College (today Belmont University). 1867: Scotia Seminary (now Barber–Scotia College): It was the first historically black female institution of higher education established after the American Civil War. It became a women's college in 1916. It became a coeducational school in 1954. It lost its accreditation in 2004.
1869: Young's Female College in Thomasville, Georgia, was founded in 1869. It had 15 teachers and 115 students in 1906. 1870: Sullins College: Founded in Bristol, VA in 1870, it originally operated a high school as well as a junior college. The high school was discontinued after WW II. The junior college, which offered associate degrees in both liberal arts and fine arts, closed in 1976.