The Role of Women's Colleges in the Twenty-First Century

Women’s colleges comprise a more diverse set of educational institutions than has been commonly recognized. This chapter details their diversity and summarizes research that shows that students have benefited from attending women’s colleges in ways that would have been less available to them in coeducational institutions. Some of the benefits reported include having greater self-confidence, being more like to obtain a degree in the physical sciences, and experiencing greater career success.