論文

Between Tradition and New Expectation:“Gender Diversity”and Trans-inclusive
Admissions Policies in Contemporary
U.S. Women’s Colleges
Maki IKOMA

Introduction
On March 10, 2013, a high school senior named Calliope Wong posted what
she called “the last update letter” titled “Thank you” on her Tumblr blog (“Trans
Women @ Smith”) where she had shared her journey of applying to Smith
College, one of the most prestigious women’s colleges in the United States.1 In
the letter, Wong grieved that Smith returned her application twice because she
identified herself as a trans woman (male to female) and her Free Application
for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) listed her as “male.” Attaching a photo ofSmith’s rejection letter, Wong lamented, “There was never any fair shot for me.”This, however, did not turn out to be her “last” letter shared on Tumblr. Tendays later, Wong posted a new letter titled “Not Done Yet,” in which she shared
her discovery that the sex marker reported in FAFSA does not force a singlesex institution to give up its status. 2 She thus contended that though Smith wasable to “[make] an admission decision for [her] based on [her] credentials,” they
instead “chose” to reject her based on her biological sex. 3
The story she shared on her Tumblr blog quickly spread nationwide on
various media, which later had a great impact on changing admissions policies
in many women’s colleges across the country. HuffPost, USA TODAY, andabcNEWS took up Wong’s story of being rejected by Smith right after she posted
her “Not Done Yet” letter.4 Furthermore, referring to Wong’s story, The New12
3

Calliope Wong,“Thank you,”Trans Women @ Smith (blog), March 10, 2013, https://
calliowong.tumblr.com/post/45074030481/thank-you.
Calliope Wong, “Not Done Yet,” Trans Women @ Smith (blog), March 20, 2013, https://
calliowong.tumblr.com/post/45877663408/not-done-yet.
Wong, “Not Done Yet.”

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論文York Times and TIME both published opinion articles, urging women’s colleges
to take the initiatives in challenging gender norms and making their admissions
policies more trans friendly. 5 In 2014, a few months after these articles were
published, and nearly two years after Wong started her blog entries, Mills
College became the very first women’s college to officially announce its transinclusive admissions policies. Recognizing the evolving understanding of gender,
a number of women’s colleges have followed suit, revisiting the meanings of“women” and including a wider range of gender diversity in their admissions
policies by being trans-inclusive. Today, as of this writing (2021), twenty-two
women’s colleges have announced trans-inclusive admissions policies.6
This has led to a heated debate about the definition of “women” and renewed
attention to the mission of women’s colleges. As their policies have shown, allthese colleges acknowledge that their institution needs to serve not just“women” defined by biological sex but other oppressed gender groups. And yet,their disagreement falls apart when determining who qualifies as a woman andwhich specific gender group(s) they should serve.
This issue of how to determine “who is a woman” has arisen in women’scolleges precisely because it echoes a broad range of debates within feminism
and among much broader cultural contests over gendering social space. While
traditional definitions assumed that biology determined gender, the rise of
second wave feminism in the 1960s, and particularly the pioneering work of
4

5

6

Meredith Bennet-Smith,“Smith College Rejects Female Transgender Student Calliope
Wong; Applicant Ruled ‘Male’ By Admissions,”HuffPost, Published March 21, 2013; Last
modified February 2, 2016, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/smith-college-transgendercalliope-wong_n_2920845.; Natalie DiBlasio,“Smith College rejects transgenderapplicant,”USA TODAY, March 22, 2013, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/
nation/2013/03/22/smith-college-transgender-rejected/2009047/.; Susan Donaldson
James,“All-Female Smith College Returns Transgender Woman’s Admissions
Application,”abcNEWS, March 25, 2013, https://abcnews.go.com/Health/female-smithcollege-returns-transgender-womans-admissions-application/story?id=18805681.
Kiera Feldman, “Who Are Women’s Colleges For?” The New York Times, May 24, 2014,
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/opinion/sunday/who-are-womens-colleges-for.
html.; Avi Cummings and Dean Spade, “Women’s Colleges Are on the Wrong Side ofHistory on Transgender Women,” TIME, June 9, 2014, https://time.com/2848822/
womens-colleges-transgender-women/.
As of August 2021, there are thirty-four remaining women’s colleges in the U.S. To findout the existing women’s colleges in the U.S., I checked the resources provided by
Women’s College Coalition (https://www.womenscolleges.org/colleges) and information
provided by the website of each college.

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Between Tradition and New Expectation:“Gender Diversity”and Trans-inclusive Admissions Policies in Contemporary U.S. Women’s Colleges

Judith Butler, led to increased acceptance of gender as socially constructed andself-identified.7 The subsequent emergence of “intersectionality” in the 1980s
further contributed to diversifying definitions of women that explored themeaning of gender as created at a nexus of social contact points, including race,class, and sexuality. 8 These insights led to a revolution in understanding gender
as a socially constructed and maintained identity, which has recently engaged
women’s colleges in re-thinking how to address their core values and mission.
The implications for these insights have spread widely across the U.S. culturallandscape in conflicts over transgender women in women-only social spaces,such as women’s restrooms and women’s sports,9 as well as conflicts within thefeminist movement about the inclusion of transgender women in the broader
categorization of women’s identity. Women’s colleges are therefore hardly alone
in confronting a large range of complicated questions surrounding redefining
the concept of gender.
Women’s colleges are therefore part of a larger shifting landscape of gender
politics in the U.S., and are at the forefront of contemporary battles overdefining gender, women, and the use and necessity of spaces specificallydesigned to cater to women. This means that they must confront criticalquestions raised by the conceptual embrace of multiple forms of “womanhood,”
which challenge them at numerous points, from admissions policies to campus
facilities to counseling services. Embracing diversity puts them in the midst of a789The literature is broad on deep, but for some fundamental works arguing the social
constructionist view, see Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion
of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990); Judith Lorber,“Night to His Day: The Social
Construction of Gender,”in Feminist Frontiers, 6th ed., ed. Laurel Richardson, Verta A.
Taylor, and Nancy Whittier (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004), 33-50; Candace West and Don H.
Zimmerman,“Doing Gender,”Gender & Society 1, no.2 (1987): 125-51.
“Intersectionality” is a concept introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989. It considers
multiple factors such as race a nd gender in understa nding how one is socia lly
subordinated. She contends that intersecting of these factors needs to be taken into
consideration as they are related to the structures of oppression. See Kimberle
Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist
Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,”
University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. 1 (1989): 139-67.
Laurel Westbrook and Kristen Schilt argue that gender-segregated social spaces arelikely to cause “gender panics” and make people determine gender biologically. For
more, see Laurel Westbrook and Kristen Schilt, “Doing Gender, Determining Gender:
Transgender People, Gender Panics, and the Maintenance of the Sex/Gender/Sexuality
System,” Gender & Society 28, no.1 (2014): 32-57.

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文

range of complex issues and policies that are fundamentally challenging them toconfront just how diverse and inclusive they should be as a single-sex institution
for “women.”
This paper examines this issue in depth by focusing on women’s college
admissions. While colleges accepting a broad range of students must address
their needs on campus, an even more fundamental question is the admissions
policies, which decide which students may or may not enroll. This paper,
therefore, argues that admissions is a critical moment when a college must
confront directly its own sense of mission, and define most precisely who it
intends to serve. As a result, this paper uses the larger debate over gender
identity as the backdrop and explores how women’s colleges use admissions
policies to interpret their institutional missions. In particular, it examines how
women’s colleges attempt to embrace the changing definitions of gender identity
while also upholding their historical commitment to empowering women. By
investigating the transgender admissions policies of the twenty-two women’scolleges in light of their mission statements, this paper concludes that there
exist four main approaches that women’s colleges use to fulfill these twoseemingly contradictory purposes: maintaining their identity as a women’scollege and welcoming gender diversity to their institutions. These four
approaches reveal the continued challenges for justifying the existence of singlesex education in an era when diverse gender identities are recognized andhighly embraced. This paper therefore contributes both to expanding ourunderstanding of the issues women’s colleges face today, as well as the broader
landscape of U.S. gender politics.
Scholars have only recently taken up this issue on women’s colleges’ mission
and trans-inclusive admissions policies. Some earlier studies explored how transinclusive admissions policies determine womanhood and how they relate to theidentity of women’s colleges. For instance, in their 2017 study of the nine
women’s colleges, Megan Nanney and David L. Brunsma point out that thesecolleges determine their applicants using varying combinations between threemain criteria (i.e., biology-based, identity-based, and legal-based criteria), in
which fourteen different combinations of sex, gender, and legal criteria exist.10
10 Megan Nanney and David L. Brunsma,“Moving Beyond Cis-terhood: Determining
Gender through Transgender Admittance Policies at U.S. Women’s Colleges,”Gender &Society 31, no.2 (2017): 158-60, https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243217690100.

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Between Tradition and New Expectation:“Gender Diversity”and Trans-inclusive Admissions Policies in Contemporary U.S. Women’s Colleges

Creating such complex policies for determining “women,” these colleges, theyargue, both keep their tradition and face new challenge of embracing diversity.11
Another group of researchers have taken a different approach, focusing more onsome specific admission requirements and their impacts on students’ higher
education experience. For instance, Elizabeth R. Boskey and Oren Ganor
examine how the requirement of surgical transition affects transgender youth’s
access to and graduation from women’s colleges.12 In addition, in studying
twenty women’s colleges, Megan Nanney claims that women’s colleges’ transinclusive admissions policies have not been always inclusive and welcoming to
all trans people.13 Nanney thus urges higher education practitioners and policy
makers to explore trans inclusion not just through sex and gender but throughsuch features as race and class. Meanwhile, other group of researchers havefocused on discussing the needs to propose new admissions policies and makean institutional change to women’s colleges. In Beyond Trans: Does Gender
Matter? , Heath Fogg Davis proposes adding more useful sex-related questionsin application forms, claiming that sex-classification questions often fail toconsider transgender or gender-nonconforming applicants during the application
process. 14 Davis further suggests that women’s colleges be renamed as“historically women’s colleges,” following a similar path to “historically blackcolleges and universities.”15 Davis makes such suggestion because addressing
sexism in colleges does not necessarily require excluding men from admission.16
These studies have been extremely important in advancing our understandingof this complex issue regarding the mission and role of women’s colleges in thecontemporary U.S. However, there are not many studies which have explored
11 Nanney and Brunsma, 161.
12 Elizabeth R. Boskey and Oren Ganor, “Women’s College Admissions and Retention
Policies Pertaining to Transgender Students: A Comprehensive Analysis,” Journal ofLGBT Youth 17, no. 4 (2020): 453-71, https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2019.1685424.
13 Megan Nanney, “Making Room for Gendered Possibilities: Using Intersectionality to
Discover Transnormative Inequalities in the Women’s College Admissions Process,” inIntersectionality and Higher Education: Identity and Inequality on College Campuses,
ed. W Carson Byrd, Rachelle J. Brunn-Bevel, and Sarah M. Ovink (New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 2019), 227-41.
14 Heath Fogg Davis, “Checking a Sex Box to Get into College: Single-Sex Admissions,” inBeyond Trans: Does Gender Matter? (New York: New York University Press, 2017),
105-108.
15 Davis, “Checking a Sex Box,” 87.
16 Davis, “Checking a Sex Box,” 87.

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the strategies women’s colleges use to uphold their traditions of empowering
women and, at the same time, to articulate their institutional role to meet the
new needs of other gender groups. This paper aims to investigate this issue by
examining the twenty-two women’s colleges that, as of 2021, have announced
transgender admissions policies. And it argues that by utilizing four main
approaches that incorporate the ideas of “diversity,” “human rights,” “selfexploration,” and “sisterhood and/or a singular focus on women,” women’scolleges attempt to both value their tradition and embrace the new challenge.
As a result, this paper helps illuminate broader question of the institutionalroles of women’s colleges in today’s complex, rapidly changing world.

Approaches to Uphold Tradition and Embrace Change
In an era when gender identity is considered a fluid concept, many havequestioned the existence of women’s colleges. Some urge women’s colleges to go
coed and accept men as well. Others claim that the time may have come forwomen’s colleges to follow a similar path as “historically black colleges anduniversities” and to be renamed as “historically women’s colleges.”17 The idea
suggests that it would allow these colleges to not only reduce the problems
caused by gendered admissions but also to maintain their historical feminist
educational focus. However, while recognizing the need to serve not justbiologically-defined “women,” none of the twenty-two women’s colleges havechosen either path. They have instead chosen to remain a “women’s college,”continuing to reflect a gender binary as the basis of their institution. And
within this specific institutional framework have they all attempted to continue
upholding their historical commitment to empowering women, while also
expanding their roles to serve other gender minorities.
This has led to the question of “how” they have attempted to fulfill suchseemingly contradictory purposes. Examining their varied trans-inclusive
admissions policies, I found four main approaches, three of which focus more on
the rationale for accepting new gender groups (1, 2, 3) and the fourth that
focuses instead on the rationale for maintaining their identity as women’scolleges (4). Twenty-two colleges use one, or two, or three of these approaches in
17 Davis,“Checking a Sex Box,”87.

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Between Tradition and New Expectation:“Gender Diversity”and Trans-inclusive Admissions Policies in Contemporary U.S. Women’s Colleges

expla ining their reasons for determining whom they should serve. By
understanding these complex and sometimes contradictory responses, we cansee the continued challenges that women’s colleges face for articulating their
institutional roles and justifying their existence in today’s changing world where
gender diversity is embraced.
1. Creating a“Diverse”and“Inclusive”Community
First, a number of women’s colleges highlight their institutional commitment
to creating a “diverse” and “inclusive” community in achieving both purposes.
To redress past discrimination against historically underrepresented minorities
as well as to create a democratic citizenry, many colleges since the 1970s haveemphasized the importance of a diverse student body.18 Just as with othercoeducational institutions, many women’s colleges today also emphasize theimportance of fostering campus diversity. In their college websites, twenty outof twenty-two colleges refer to “diversity,” “inclusion,” “a diverse student body,”
or “diverse perspectives,” which they consider essential to creating a richlearning community. For instance, Mills College believes in “the power ofdiversity to enrich [their] learning and [their] lives”19 and considers diversity asa necessary component of learning: “Critical thinking, intellectual curiosity,
creativity, and collaboration are all enhanced when a diverse faculty and student
body interact and learn from one another.”20 Holding similar views, some notethat by learning within a diverse community, “all graduates are prepared to
thrive in a complex world”21 (Wesleyan College) and students are educated “totransform the world”22 (Mount Mary University). Others also demonstrate that
“respect of differences among people is a prerequisite to achieving institutional
18 As for redressing past discrimination, affirmative action practices fostered by President
Lyndon B. Johnson played an important role. See Lyndon B. Johnson,“Howard
University Commencement Address.”As for creating democratic citizenry, see Andrew
Delbanco, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be (New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 2012), 28-30. Regarding how diversity became a critical part of college education,
see Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978)19 Mills College, “What We Stand For,” accessed February 22, 2021, https://www.mills.
edu/uniquely-mills/what-we-stand-for/index.php.
20 Mills College, “Equity, Inclusion & Social Justice,” accessed February 22, 2021, https://
inside.mills.edu/about-mills/equity-inclusion-social-justice/index.php.
21 Wesleyan College, “Wesleyan College Mission Statement and History,” accessed
February 24, 2021, https://www.wesleyancollege.edu/registrar/catalog/mission_history.
cfm.

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excellence”23 (Scripps College) and that they are committed to being “a just andinclusive community that . . . promotes respectful dialogue across differences”24(Agnes Scott College). Across these women’s colleges, interaction and dialogue
within a diverse, inclusive community are considered critical for enhancing
students’ learning, preparing them to succeed in a larger society and fosteringrespect towards others.
It is this idea about diversity and inclusion that many of these colleges refer
to when explaining their decisions to accept transgender students. They claimthat their new transgender admissions policies “align with” or further “advance”
their missions. Being “an institution that values inclusion,”25 Simmons University,
one of the earliest institutions to admit transgender students, acknowledges thatgender notions are evolving and claims that their new admissions policy “isaligned with [their] values.”26 As one of the latest colleges to have revised its
admissions policy, Moore College of Art, “the first and only historically visualarts college for women” in Philadelphia, also articulates that their “founding
principles of inclusivity and opportunity are evident in [their] policy to admit
nonbinary and trans students.”27 And they also further claim that “[d]iversity
can only be a strength.” 2 8 Furthermore, Bryn Mawr College, which also
embraces diversity “as essential to its excellence,” 2 9 believes that gendercomplexity provides “an opportunity for learning”30 and allows the school to ask“ how to be t he best women’s college possible.” 31 By forming a diverse
community through trans inclusion, they intend to revisit and reaffirm their
institutional identity and mission as a women’s college.
22 Mount Mary University,“Mission, Vision and Values,”accessed February 22, 2021,
https://mtmary.edu/about/mission.html.
23 Scripps College, “Principles of Diversity” in “About Scripps College,” accessed February
22, 2021, http://catalog.scrippscollege.edu/content.php?catoid=18&navoid=1955#mission.
24 Agnes Scott College, “Mission & Values,” accessed February 22, 2021. https://www.
agnesscott.edu/about/mission-values.html.
25 Simmons University, “Admission Policies,” accessed March 8, 2021, https://www.
simmons.edu/undergraduate/admission-and-financial-aid/how-apply/admission-policies.
26 Simmons University, “Admission Policies.”
27 Moore Art of College, “Mission & Values,” adopted September 22, 2020, https://moore.
edu/about/.
28 Moore Art of College, “Mission & Values.”
29 Bryn Mawr College, “Transgender Applicants,” accessed February 19, 2021, https://www.brynmawr.edu/admissions/transgender-applicants.
30 Bryn Mawr College, “Transgender Applicants.”
31 Bryn Mawr College, “Transgender Applicants.”

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Between Tradition and New Expectation:“Gender Diversity”and Trans-inclusive Admissions Policies in Contemporary U.S. Women’s Colleges

In short, highlighting the idea of college as a place where people from diverse
backgrounds interact with and inspire one another, these colleges embrace theirdecisions to accept transgender students. As Alverno College (one of suchcolleges to place emphasis on inclusion) supports transgender students as“integral members of [their] diverse campus community,” 32 women’s colleges
incorporating this approach regard welcoming transgender students as one of
their new institutional responsibilities that reaffirms and advances their goal tocreate a more diverse campus community.
2. Respecting Human Rights
Some of the colleges adopting Approach 1 (Creating a “diverse” and “inclusive”
community), including several denominational institutions, also assert humanrights as a rationale for accepting gender diversity while maintaining theiridentity as a women’s college. The College of Saint Benedict, Alverno College,
and Agnes Scott College all refer to “human” or “all persons” in their admissions
policies in which they assert their commitment to “respecting the dignity of all
persons”33 (the College of Saint Benedict), to creating a community where “therights and human dignity of every other member” 3 4 are recognized andrespected (Alverno), and to enabling all persons to be “recognized as citizens
and [to] feel safe leading authentic lives” 35 (Agnes Scott). Given that transidentified people are likely to encounter harassment and discrimination inhigher education institutions, colleges and universities in general have been
facing critical challenges concerning transgender’s campus lives and have beencalled for prompt action to create a safe learning environment. 36 In addition,these colleges stress the idea that every individual has the right to learn in aplace where they wish, though transgender students hoping to enter a women’scollege were only recently considered for admissions. Genny Beemyn, thedirector of the UMass Amherst Stonewall Center, called women’s colleges
forming new admissions policies “a step forward, one that’s long overdue” and32 Alverno College,“NONDISCRIMINATION,”accessed February 19, 2021, https://www.
alverno.edu/Civility-Nondiscrimination.
33 The College of Saint Benedict, “Transgender Students” in “Policies, Violations andForms,” accessed February 23, 2021, https://www.csbsju.edu/human-rights/policiesviolations-forms/transgender-students.
34 Alverno College, “NONDISCRIMINATION.”
35 Agnes Scott College, “Agnes Scott College Statement on Gender Expression and Gender
Identity,” last revised November 2014, https://agnesscott.omeka.net/items/show/94.

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論文claimed, “If they say they’re women, then saying that they can’t attend isdenying their identities and marginalising them.” 37 As Beemyn points out,
women’s colleges, among other higher education institutions, were long expected
to engage in discussions surrounding transgender rights and make some policychanges around their admissions. In making their policies trans-inclusive,
therefore, it seems that the women’s colleges adopting this approach aimed toaddress this unjust treatment experienced by transgender students in higher
education. By highlighting their institutional responsibility to provide a safe
learning environment for all, including transgender students, they give reasonsfor embracing gender diversity through trans inclusion.
Meanwhile, a few other colleges, including St. Catherine University and Mount
Holyoke College, show respect for human dignity by more specifically referringto the rights of gender minorities in their new policies. In light of their Catholic
Social Teaching, St. Catherine embraces its “rich and vibrant history ofeducating people of all marginalized genders” and affirms their commitment to“respecting the dignity of each person, standing in solidarity with the poor andmarginalized, and working toward community and justice.” 38 As for Mount
Holyoke, when announcing the trans-inclusive admissions policy at the 2014
convocation, 39 President Lynn Pasquerella stated, “Human rights begin at home.”
And then, referring to the works of early feminists, she emphasized the needfor their college to recognize the evolving understanding of gender identity and
36 For transgender students’campus lives, see more in Susan Rankin et al., 2010 State ofHigher Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People (Charlotte, NC:
Campus Pride, 2010); John Dugan, Michelle Kusel, and Dawn Simounet,“TransgenderCollege Students: An Exploratory Study of Perceptions, Engagement, and Educational
Outcomes,”Journal of College Student Development 53, no. 5 (2012): 719-36; Brent
Bilodeau, Genderism: Transgender Students, Binary Systems, and Higher Education(Saarbrucken, Germany: Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009).
37 This statement is found in Collin Binkley’s article. See Collin Binkley, “Elite US Women’sColleges Accepting Transgender Students for First Time,” Independent, September 5,
2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/transgender-studentswome n s - c ol leg e s - a c c ept e d -wel le s ley- n i not s k a - love - lg bt- r ig ht s - br y n - m aw rbarnard-a7930096.html.
38 St. Catherine University, “TRANSGENDER AND NON-BINARY STUDENTS” in“2021-2022 Academic Catalogs and University Policies,” December 1, 2018, https://catalog.stkate.edu/policies/stu-non-acad/transgender-non-binary/.
39 Lynn Pasquerella, “Mount Holyoke College’s Official Policy on Transgender Students,”
M a r g o B u r n s , S e p t e m b e r 2 , 2 0 14 , v i d e o , 3 : 3 8 , ht t p s : //w w w.y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=R0sdw9nblKo.

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Between Tradition and New Expectation:“Gender Diversity”and Trans-inclusive Admissions Policies in Contemporary U.S. Women’s Colleges

respect the learning opportunities for every individual who aspires to thrive intheir community:[W]hat it means to be a woman is not static. Just as early feminists argued
that reducing women to their biological functions was a foundation of
women’s oppressions, we acknowledge that gender identity is not reducible
to the body. . . . I am proud that Mount Holyoke College chooses to leadwith our policy on trans women — a policy that reinforces our commitment
to access, diversity, and the dignity of every woman’s life.40
Mount Holyoke framed the shift in their admissions policies as a matter ofhuman rights. Acknowledging that the historical oppressions of women werebased on their biological sex as female, the college implemented the mostinclusive admissions policy (i.e., accept all genders except cisgender men) so thatthey could further fulfill their role to contribute to those who are socially
oppressed on the basis of gender.
Similar to Approach 1, the colleges adopting this approach assert one of theinstitutional responsibilities commonly considered crucial for college education:
to respect the rights and dignity of every member of campus community.
Regardless of age, race, religion, or gender identity, every individual is entitledto learn fully in an environment where they wish and feel safe and supported.
By acknowledging this core responsibility of college education, many women’scolleges adopting this approach embrace their decisions to redefine who theyshould serve and to expand their institutional roles to support transgender and/or non-binary students. In fact, these women’s colleges not only formally admit
transgender students but also provide additional campus resources for students
and instructors to address transgender and non-binary students’ needs,
including resources for housing, preferred name and chosen pronoun.41
3. Providing Support for Self-Exploration
Another approach women’s colleges use is linked to the idea that college is a
40 Pasquerella,“Mount Holyoke College’s Official Policy.”
41 Alverno College, “NONDISCRIMINATION”; Mount Holyoke College, “Supporting Transand Non-Binary Students,” accessed February 20, 2021, https://www.mtholyoke.edu/
teachinglearninginitiatives/supporting-trans-and-non-binary-students.

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place where students explore themselves. As studies on college education show,
college is considered as more than a place for pursuing academic excellence; itis also a place where students seek for who they are, including their interests
and their identity. As Andrew Delbanco states in his book College: What It
Was, Is, and Should Be, a college should be “a place where young people findhelp for navigating the territory between adolescence and adulthood”42 andshould also try to be “an aid to reflection, a place and process whereby young
people take stock of their talents and passions and begin to sort out their lives
in a way that is true to themselves and responsible to others.”43 Providing
students with space and support for exploring themselves before they go into
adulthood, therefore, is considered as one of the critical roles that colleges are
expected to serve.
Five out of twenty-two women’s colleges, all of which also use Approach 1,
demonstrate this role. All of these five colleges also allow matriculation of those
who transition to male after admissions. For instance, Alverno College provides
support for “students on their journey of self-discovery,” highlighting theirrecognition of how “gender identity may change over time.”44 Alverno thus
encourages transitioned students to “persist through graduation, experiencing
the personal and academic support each student deserves from an Alverno
education.”45 In announcing their trans-inclusive admissions policy at the 2014
convocation, Mount Holyoke College President Pasquerella showed similar viewsby claiming, “I think it’s important to remember that your college years aretime of reflection. And one of the homeworks for the great liberal arts education
is time to think about your place in the world and the place in the world ofothers.”4 6 Aligned with this statement, Mount Holyoke provides learning
opportunities for all genders except cisgender men and allows transitioned
students to continue to pursue degree at their institution. In addition, Smith
College shows support for students’ self-exploration in its “Gender Identity &Expression,” which begins with a question, “Is Smith still a women’s college?”
Smith answers as follows: “In its mission and legal status, Smith is a women’scollege. Smith is also a place where students are able to explore who they are in
42
43
44
45
46

Delbanco, College, 3.
Delbanco, College, 15-6.
Alverno College, “NONDISCRIMINATION.”
Alverno College, “NONDISCRIMINATION.”
Pasquerella, “Mount Holyoke College’s Official Policy.”

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an open and respectful environment.”47 While showing its identity as a women’scollege, Smith simultaneously adds its clear support for students to explore
themselves while enrolled.
Closely related to the former approaches, the colleges adopting this approach
have also expanded their roles to serve new gender groups by reflecting on the
responsibility of college education. Acknowledging that we now live in an era
when gender identity is considered a fluid concept, these colleges articulate
their institutional responsibility to support students’ self-exploration, including
gender identity, in their trans-inclusive admissions policies. By doing so, theyalso further reinforce the idea of college as a safe, supportive learning
environment for diverse gender groups.
4. Valuing Sisterhood and a Singular Focus on Women
While the three approaches surveyed thus far focus more on explaining theirembrace of gender diversity, the last approach focuses more on explaining thereasons for maintaining their identity as a women’s college. In several places intheir trans-inclusive admissions policies, twelve colleges partly and/or largely
use this approach, asserting the value of sisterhood and/or a singular focus on
women.
First, all of these colleges only consider for admissions those who self-identify
and live as women, just as do many other colleges adopting the former three
approaches. However, most of them are different from others in that they assert
this admissions policy by clearly denying admittance of those who self-identify
and live as men.4 8 Many of these colleges do so by answering “No” to thequestion concerning admissions of trans men in their Frequently Asked
Questions (e.g., “Are trans men eligible for admission?” “No.”). Hollins College
also clarifies its rejection of non-binary students (e.g., “Are individuals who
identify as non-binary eligible for admission?” “No.”), further demonstrating its
institutional identity as a women’s college and its role focusing on serving“women.”49
Two colleges further highlight this focus on serving women in how they
47 Smith College,“Gender Identity & Expression,”accessed March 9, 2021, https://www.
smith.edu/about-smith/equity-inclusion/gender-identity-expression.
48 Other colleges state that they consider for admissions those who self-identify andconsistently live as women, without referring to the eligibility of trans men or nonbinary students.

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handle those who transition to male after admissions. While other colleges
allow—and some even encourage—transitioned students to remain and persist
in their institutions until graduation, two colleges, Bennett and Stephens,prohibit them from continued enrollment. Bennett states that once admitted, thestudent needs to self-identify as a woman throughout her matriculation to beconsidered eligible for receiving a degree from the college. 50 Likewise, Stephens,
which spent more than four years to formalize its trans-inclusive admissions
policies, shows the same understanding. Stephens notes that their policy ontransitioned students also applies to those “who identify as non-binary but who
are transitioning to male,” stating that they can only stay at their institution“only to complete the current semester.”51 Stephens’ reason behind this decisionreflects its strong institutional commitment to supporting those who intend tocontinue living as a woman:
Because the College has expanded its definition of womanhood to include
both sex and gender, it is logically consistent that it also acknowledges both
sex and gender in its definition of manhood. As a result, the College willstop admitting and enrolling students who were born female but who now
identify as men or who are transitioning from female to male. . . . The
College will no longer admit or enroll students who identify as non-binary
but who are transitioning to male. 52
Stephens asserts the notions of sex and gender in arguing for its decision to deenroll students who change their physical sex or self-identification from female
to male. Just as many other women’s colleges, Stephens is shifting to determine
their applica nts based on not just their biological sex but their gender
identification. They claim that the same logic should also apply to the definitionof men, and therefore conclude that de-enrolling those who transition fromfemale to male should be more logical and consistent with their “singular
49 Hollins University,“Transgender Policy,”last modified October 30, 2019, https://www.
hollins.edu/on-campus/student-life/new-student-info/policy-on-transgender-issues/.
50 Bennett College, “Transgender Admissions Policy,” last revised January 28, 2017. https://www.bennett.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Transgender_Admissions_Policy.pdf.
51 Stephens College, “Frequently Asked Questions: Stephens College Admissions andEnrollment Policy,” accessed February 22, 2021, http://komu.s3.amazonaws.com/files/
faq_admissions_policy＿ (1).pdf.
52 Stephens College, “Frequently Asked Questions.”

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mission of educating women.”53 Incorporating their understanding of sex andgender in determining who to serve, Stephens prohibits “men” from enrollingand highlights its identity as a women’s college.
In addition, four colleges adopting this approach place emphasis on keeping
their identity as a women’s college by embracing “sisterhood,” a “womencentered focus,” or a “singular” mission or focus on educating women. For
instance, Spelman College, a historically Black college for women in Atlanta,
repeatedly clarifies “the Spelman Sisterhood” in its trans-inclusive policy.
Asserting that “[their] core belief in the bonds of sisterhood remain”54 even after
they admit transgender students, Spelman asks its prospective students tomake sure they come “prepared to participate in a women’s college that isacademically and intellectually rigorous.” 55 In a similar manner, Wellesley
College views a “singular focus on women” as a critical part of their institution. 56
They thus expect to receive applications not just from those assigned female atbirth but from those “who feel they belong in [Wellesley’s] community ofwomen,” which was “designed specifically to prepare women to thrive in acomplex world.”57 Bryn Mawr College, while adopting Approach 1 and 3, also
regards their “women- centered focus” as “a fundamental part of [their]
undergraduate mission,” although it is not meant to exclude any members of
their community. 58 In addition, Stephens, the only college which puts “singular”
before “mission” in describing their updated policy, further asserts its
institutional role to serve women: “Stephens College has recommitted to its
singular mission of educating women.”59 As Stephens is also the only college
that requires trans women to submit “legal documentation that they are legally
women or that they are transitioning to female” when applying, 60 being a“woman” in legal and/or biological status is a necessary requirement for
Stephens to have in order to fulfill their institutional role as a women’s college.
53 Stephens College,“Frequently Asked Questions.”
54 Spelman College, “Admissions Frequently Asked Questions,” accessed March 10, 2021,
https://www.spelman.edu/admissions/frequently-asked-questions#revised-policy.
55 Spelman College, “Admissions Frequently Asked Questions.”
56 Wellesley College, “FAQ” in “Mission and Gender Policy,” accessed February 22, 2021,
https://www.wellesley.edu/news/gender-policy/faq.
57 Wellesley College, “FAQ.”
58 Bryn Mawr College, “Transgender Applicants.”
59 Stephens College, “Frequently Asked Questions.”
60 Stephens College, “Frequently Asked Questions.”

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Lastly, eight colleges intend to embrace their identity as a women’s college
through the use of gendered language. In their trans-inclusive admissions
policies, these colleges state that they will continue to use “gendered language,”“the language of sisterhood,” and/or “female pronouns,” which they consider
reflect or maintain their mission and/or identity as a women’s college (e.g.,
Barnard, the College of Saint Benedict, Hollins).61 Some further note that suchlanguage would “powerfully convey important components of [their] mission andidentity” (e.g., Bennett, Wellesley).62 In addition, while keeping their “women’scollege” identity by the use of gendered language in institutional communication(e.g., ceremony), some encourage the use of inclusive languages and chosen
pronouns in such places as classrooms and residence halls where students
engage in interpersonal communication (e.g., Alverno, St. Catherine, Smith).63 By
doing so, these colleges attempt to maintain their institutional identity while
addressing disparate students’ needs.
Unlike the former three approaches, it is quite evident that the last approachrather places emphasis on keeping the identity of women’s colleges. Althoughthese twelve colleges shared with other colleges a willingness to accept
transgender students, in their new admissions policies they also seek ways tomaintain and reflect their traditions. By clearly excluding “male” identity inapplication and matriculation requirements as well as asserting women as theirprimary focus, they actively try to find the meanings of their existence as an
institution historically dedicated to “women” in today’s changing world.

Conclusion
In an era when diverse gender identities are widely recognized and embraced,many have questioned the existence of women’s colleges. However, as this paper
has shown, the twenty-two colleges surveyed fervently remain a “women’scollege” while ack nowledg ing t heir inst itut ion needs to not just serve
61 Barnard College,“Transgender Policy,”accessed March 7, 2021, https://barnard.edu/
admissions/transgender-policy; The College of Saint Benedict,“Transgender Students”;
Hollins University,“Transgender Policy.”
62 Bennett College, “Transgender Admissions Policy”; Wellesley College, “FAQ.”
63 A l v e r n o C o l l e g e , “ N O N D I S C R I M I N AT I O N ” ; S t . C a t h e r i n e U n i v e r s i t y,
“TRANSGENDER”; Smith College, “Pronouns” in “Gender Identity & Expression,”
accessed February 22, 2021, https://www.smith.edu/about-smith/equity-inclusion/
gender-identity/pronouns.

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biologically-defined “women.” Keeping their institutional identity as a women’s
col lege , t hey h ave a l l s h a red a w i l l i ng nes s to rev isit t he mea n i ng of“woma nhood ” a nd decided to expa nd their institutional roles to accept
transgender students.
A nd yet , ex a m i n i ng t hei r st rateg ies to f u l f i l l t hese t wo seem i ng ly
contradictory purposes concerning their institutional roles (i.e., upholding
traditions and embracing the new challenge of accepting diverse gender groups),
we found that these women’s colleges use a variety of combinations of the fourmain approaches, three of which focus on explaining the rationale for embracing
gender diversity and the fourth instead focusing on the rationale for keeping
their institutional identity as a women’s college. Some, for instance, show their
dedication to creating a diverse learning community through trans inclusion
while also asserting the value of “women-centered” focus. In a similar way,others demonstrate their role to provide a supportive space for students to selfexplore while also demonstrating their use of gendered language to value theirtradition. Many of the twenty-two colleges, in short, utilize two or three of theseapproaches in explaining how they aim to meet their new expectations without
losing their identity as a “women’s” college.
These complex and sometimes contradictory responses from each women’scollege reveal the complexities and difficulties of articulating their institutionalroles . This paper, by illustrating how women’s colleges use these four
approaches in determining their applicants, clarifies the continued challenges
for justifying single-sex education in today’s changing world where diverse
gender identities are recognized and embraced. As a result, this paper helps
illuminate broader question concerning the institutional missions and roles ofwomen’s colleges in the contemporary U.S.

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Abstract

Between Tradition and New Expectation:“Gender Diversity”and Trans-inclusive
Admissions Policies in Contemporary
U.S. Women’s Colleges
Maki IKOMA

Recognizing the evolving understanding of gender, many women’s colleges in
the United States since 2014 have revisited the meaning of “women” andincluded a wider range of gender diversity in their admissions policies by beingtrans-inclusive. Their degree of inclusivity, however, varies widely, which has led
to a heated debate about the mission of women’s colleges. This study explores
this issue in depth by examining how changing definitions of gender havecaused women’s colleges to interpret their institutional missions in thecontemporary U.S. In particular, it investigates how women’s colleges attempt
to continue upholding their traditional missions of empowering women while
also expanding their institutional roles to serve diverse gender groups.
In order to investigate this question—the strategies women’s colleges use tofulfill these two seemingly contradictory purposes, this study examines thetwenty-two women’s colleges that, as of 2021, have announced trans-inclusive
admissions policies. Investigating their trans-inclusive admissions policies inlight of their mission statements, this study reveals four main approaches thatwomen’s colleges use to maintain their historical commitment to serving womenwhile embracing their new expected role to meet the needs of other gendergroups. Of the four approaches, three incorporate the ideas of “diversity,”“human rights,” and “self-exploration,” all of which are closely linked to thecritical responsibility of college education. By highlighting the idea of college asa safe, supportive place where people from diverse backgrounds can respect one
another’s rights and explore who they are, women’s colleges using theseapproaches embrace their decisions to expand their institutional roles to accept
transgender students. The fourth approach, on the other hand, asserts the idea
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文of “sisterhood” and/or “a singular focus on women,” focusing more on therationale for keeping their identity as a women’s college. By demonstrating“women” as their primary educational focus, women’s colleges incorporating thisapproach seek for ways to continue upholding their traditional missions ofserving “women.”
The fact that twenty-two women’s colleges use varying combinations of thesefour approaches in determining who to serve reveals the complexities anddifficulties of articulating their institutional roles. This study, by illustratingthese complex and sometimes contradictory responses, shows the continued
challenges for justifying single-sex education in today’s changing world where
diverse gender identities are recognized and embraced. This study, therefore,
helps illuminate broader question of the institutional roles of women’s colleges in
the contemporary U.S.

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