Why has every men's college gone co-ed while there are still many women's colleges?

College Search & Selection
21

That makes sense to me. My son is heterosexual, but he would have liked an all-male college. He considered Hobart and William Smith, because it technically is two colleges under one institution, separated by sex. He also looked at some of the others mentioned. In the end, he chose a small coed college, but he ended up joining a fraternity the first year because he really wanted to have those friendships and support of other males.

In the 1960s, as men’s colleges started going coed, the male population demanded coeducation. One of the holdouts for many years was Haverford, which had a close relationship with sister school Bryn Mawr, but even they switched to coed by 1979, under pressure from both current students and applicants. Women’s colleges were also under pressure to go coed in the 1960s, and many did, but there was still enough demand for women’s colleges due to the ways in which women continued to be marginalized and treated as less than in the world at large. That is still true today, and many of the women’s colleges with the strongest reputations, such as Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr, are seeing very strong applicant classes.

22

I don’t see a problem with all men colleges. However I think most teenagers boys want to go to school with girls and it would be hard for an all male school to keep up enrollment. Which is probably why most of them went co-ed. So if you looking for a reason why it so few all men colleges blame teenage hormones.

23

“My guess is there’s almost no demand among straight men to attend an all male college, excepting the extremely religious.”

I was going to respond to the above quote and point out some reasons why one might want to attend an all male school without being either gay or “extremely religious,” but OP already has posted his own reasoning.

@Ulixes , your being so well prepared in your rebuttal remarks make it appear as if you are looking for a debate on the issue rather than actual advice, but nonetheless here is mine. My boys go to an all boys high school. Its benefits are similar to those you espouse: they can concentrate on their academic work without distraction and they can receive more value-based instruction on what it means to be a man for others. And of course, they are not cut off from exposure to females. They socialize with females, participate in extracurricular activities (like theatre club etc…) with females, etc… The school has served them well. But at some point, specifically college and beyond, you do need to learn to work and play with the opposite sex so that you can successfully navigate the world we inhabit. After several years not competing and working with women, it is easy to forget that they do compete with you equally, and requires some adjustment to get used to working with them again. You might be better served by a coed college that has all male social groups you can join. But of the all male college options in this thread, I would recommend Hampden Sydney. Excellent school.

24

There are no plans as of now for Wabash, Morehouse, St John’s, or HSC to become coed. The situation at Deep Springs is totally different from theirs. In addition, because Morehouse has a sister college (Spelman), you can be 100% sure it will not become co-ed, same thing for St John’s (their sister college is St Benefict), so these two should be easy on your list.

I don’t think that’s what Bly was about at all.
But strictly speaking, what you mean is that men have lost masculine character traits (in most of the Western and Middle Eastern civilizations, it meant nobility, ability to protect, ability to cry, loyalty to others, sense of honor with regards to one’s name, words, and oaths). However feminity is not treated like the normal, default way - it’s just that those masculine character traits, which were seen as uniquely masculine, are now considered unrelated to gender, and are now instead related to character (ie., you’re decent or you’re not. For instance, if you’re a good leader, you don’t harass coworkers, be they men or women - your harassing them has nothing to do with your being male or female, but is 100% on choosing to be a creep/jerk. When someone selflessly saves another person, it’s not ascribed to their gender, they’re noble and courageous regardless of gender.) Wouldn’t you say that being a good parent, a good role model, being kind, polite, efficient, creative, thoughtful, respectful… all those qualities are important for both men and women?
Masculinity does exist (Bly for instance thinks boys needed fathers and father figures, as well as a rite of passage) and boys have been struggling to understand what being a man means for thousands of years - the earliest “coming of age” novels involve boys. Wanting to be around a diversity of men in order to learn from them is perfectly okay, too, and I’m not sure who made you think it wasn’t. However I can’t see why you think being a man is not perfectly acceptable socially, in fact it’s often still a “default mode” for many people.
Unless what you call “masculinity” is toxic masculinity or behaving like a neanderthal, in which case yes it’s not acceptable and likely won’t be at men’s colleges either. Note that Bly would have vigorously opposed toxic masculinity.

What you need is probably a double environment - one where you’re able to live in single sex male dorms while also getting accustomed to women as classmates, authority figures, leaders, etc. Even if you’re gay, you won’t be able to live a life purely with men, there’ll be women in your life, and your ability to be yourself around women will be very important to you as you grow into the man you can be.
I understand that you have no problem working in a co-ed environment so being in a coed university with single sex dorms may be a compromise for you, so you can add more universities to your list. You already have a few possibilities, ranging from the super selective (Deep Springs) to moderately so (Wabash, StJohn’s, Morehouse, HSC) to in-between (Hendrix).
For all co ed universities, the existence of a male-only freshman dorm can be a dealbreaker for you - you can email Admissions at every coed college you’re willing to consider and ask them directly whether they have single sex male dorms for freshmen. Cross out any where the answer is “no”.
In the end, once you’re comfortable with college, living in a co-ed dorm (perhaps, by floor only) will help you get accustomed to living with women, which is likely to be part of your daily life. This way, it’ll make you less socially akward or more comfortable in that part of your life, too (ie., outside of class/work). But it doesn’t have to be right away as you start college.

25

“After several years not competing and working with women, it is easy to forget that they do compete with you equally”

Exactly

26

Most women’s colleges—every one I can think of----allow cross-registration with coed colleges. So females at Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Scripps, etc., can expect to see a few males in some of their classes, like it or not. Hampden-Sydney is truly all male to my knowledge, FWIW.

27

This is a very interesting topic, imo. We have a male friend who was a teacher at an all-boys high school and he said the problem with his school was that there were no females around to civilize the boys. I always found that comment interesting. Anyway, different strokes for different folks, but I do agree with the person above who said that at some point you have to join the world and workplace and be prepared to work harmoniously along side women.

28

Demand. The top male applicants these schools wanted to attract increasingly wanted a co-ed environment.

If you are really interested in the history, read “Keep the Damned Women Out” by Nancy Weiss Malkiel.

29

Depending of course on how you define “masculinity”, many would call this progress. Boorish, offensive, creepish, male-dominant behavior that was not just socially acceptable a few generations back, but was the norm, is now absolutely treated as a character flaw - but it still permeates too many areas of our society, and sadly dominates too many other cultures around the world.

Do any of these all-male colleges offer courses in Men’s Gender Studies - as Women’s Gender Studies seem to be offered at the all-women’s schools, as well as a significant portion of the top co-ed schools?

What you’re complaining about above as “femininity being treated like the normal” is the problem. What is actually happening is that society is deciding that HUMANITY should be treated as the normal, default way of 100% of the population. Many men and women alike recognize that equality is NOT an attempt by women to assert superiority over men. Perhaps OP will get there, to, if and when he grows up.