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HISTORY Women's colleges filled the need for higher education for women, because most early colleges in the United States admitted only men. (The first Coeducational college was Oberlin College , founded in 1833 ; by 1860 , only five colleges or universities were coeducational.) Among the first all-women's colleges in the United States were Salem College (founded as a school for girls in 1772, an academy in 1866 and a college in 1890), Wesleyan College in Georgia (originally ''Georgia Female College''), which was first chartered in 1836, but did not open its doors to students until 1839, Mount Holyoke College (originally ''Mount Holyoke Female Seminary'') founded by Mary Lyon in 1837, the Oread Institute , founded in 1849 (now closed) and Saint Mary's College (Indiana) , founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1844 . The Seven Sisters were all founded between 1837-1889, though they were not grouped together until 1927. Bennett College and Spelman College are Historically Black women's colleges. Bennett was founded in 1873 as a Normal School to provide education to newly emancipated slaves. It became a women's college in 1926. Spelman College was founded in 1881 as the ''Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary''. It was renamed ''Spelman Seminary'' in 1884 and ''Spelman College'' in 1924. Bennett has been described as the Vassar of the South and Spelman as the Radcliffe College of historically black colleges. Women's colleges and coeducation One debate which developed in response to Second-wave Feminism revolves around the question of Coeducation . During the early 1970s , all of the Ivy League schools, which had formerly only accepted men, became co-ed. Some women's colleges also responded by becoming coeducational, such as the seven sister college, Radcliffe College , which merged with Harvard University . In addition, another seven sister college, Vassar College , as well as the women's colleges Connecticut College and Sarah Lawrence College , also became co-ed during the late 1960s . Additional women's colleges (such as Wells College , which became co-ed in 2005) have more recently adopted co-education. Other schools responded to the tenets of second-wave feminism by promoting the importance of maintaining their single-sex status. Since 1900, the seven sister college, , Bryn Mawr College , and Smith College remain unaffiliated women's colleges. In addition, historically prominent women's colleges such as Spelman College , Agnes Scott College , Bennett College , and Scripps College have maintained their single-sex status. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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