1 Throughout the essay, I refer to the University of Pennsylvania as either “Penn” or “the University.”Google Scholar

2 Berkowitz, Judith quoted in Richard Mo, “Penn Celebrates 125 Years of Women,” Daily Pennsylvanian, 31 October 2001. Although Berkowitz did not name the institutions to which she was comparing Penn, one might imagine that she was referring to rival Ivy League institutions Princeton and Yale, neither of which admitted women as undergraduates until 1969. For additional coverage of the anniversary, see Melamed, Samantha and Yang, Christina, “Alumni Celebrate Women at Penn” Daily Pennsylvanian, 5 November 2001.Google Scholar

3 Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania, 1939–1940 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1940).Google Scholar

4 Solomon, Barbara Miller In the Company of Educated Women (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985); Gordon, Lynn Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990); Horowitz, Helen L. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in Women's Colleges from their Nineteenth Century Beginnings to the 1930s (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984); Palmieri, Patricia In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995).Google Scholar

5 Eisenmann, Linda “Reconsidering a Classic: Assessing the Historiography of Women's Higher Education a Dozen Years after Barbara Solomon,“ Harvard Educational Review 16 (Winter 1997): 689–717. For examples of this lack of influence, see Vesey, Laurence The Emergence of the University (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965) and Reuben, Julie The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).Google Scholar

6 Dzuback, Mary Ann “Gender and the Politics of Knowledge,“ History of Education Quarterly 43, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 171–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Sewell, William H. Jr. has identified “contingency” as one of the vital elements of social temporality upon which historical scholarship is based. Sewell explains that historians implicitly theorize social temporality as fateful, complex, contingent, eventful, and heterogeneous. See Sewell, William H. Jr., Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Dorn, Charles ““A Woman's World“: The University of California, Berkeley, During the Second World War,” History of Education Quarterly 48, no. 4 (November 2008): 434–64, 436.Google Scholar

9 For a provocative study of how markets structure education systems, see Labaree, David The Making of An American High School: The Credentials Market and Central High of Philadelphia, 1838–1939 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988). Of the many books chronicling the contemporary “market-driven university,” the most influential to me has been Bok, Derek Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003).Google Scholar

10 University of Pennsylvania, Trustee's Minutes, vol. 12, p. 12, 7 November 1882, University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. (Hereinafter cited as Penn archives.)Google Scholar

11 Trustee's Minutes, vol. 12, p. 13, 7 November 1882, Penn archives.Google Scholar

12 Trustees’ Minutes, vol. 12, p. 511, 7 January 1890, Penn archives.Google Scholar

13 Trustees’ Minutes, vol. 13, p. 526, 3 May 1898, Penn archives.Google Scholar

14 Columbia University accepted Barnard as a “coordinate college” in 1889 and Harvard accepted Radcliffe in 1894. Fanny, R. M Hitchcock to Charles Harrison, 26 February 1901, archives general, Penn archives.Google Scholar

15 Trustees’ Minutes, vol. 14, p. 87, 5 March 1901, Penn archives.Google Scholar

16 Trustees’ Minutes, vol. 14, p. 101, 7 May 1901, Penn archives.Google Scholar

17 For information on the changing role of the University, see Vesey, The Emergence of the University and Reuben, The Making of the Modern University. For a comprehensive analysis of expansion in higher education and the quest for selectivity, see Levine, David O. The American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 1915–1940 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

18 Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women, 58–61.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., 61.Google Scholar

20 Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania, 1916–1917 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1917), Penn archives.Google Scholar

21 This overview of Penn's history of teacher training can be found in Lloyd, Mark Frazier Timeline of Women Pioneers and Women's Achievements at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: s.n., 2002), Penn archives, 14, 19; Miller, Karl “Daughters of Pennsylvania,” General Magazine and Historical Chronicle (July 1937): 413–18.Google Scholar

22 For more information on the high school boom and progressive education see Tyack, David and Hansot, Elisabeth, Managers of Virtue: Public School Leadership in America, 1820–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1982); Labaree, David L. The Making of an American High School: The Credentials Market and the Central High School of Philadelphia, 1838–1939 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988).Google Scholar

23 Catalogue, 1916–1917.Google Scholar

24 Hovey, Elizabeth Class of 1917, Interview with Lydia Messmer, Oral History collection, Penn archives.Google Scholar

25 Lloyd, Timeline, 21.Google Scholar

26 Hovey interview.Google Scholar

27 Catalogue, 1920–1926. The dramatic growth at Penn in this period was not exceptional; Levine attributes much of the post-World War I expansion to the shifting perceptions of the relevance of the college diploma to social and economic mobility.Google Scholar

28 Miller, Karl “Daughters of Pennsylvania,“ General Magazine and Historical Chronicle (July 1937): 415.Google Scholar

29 Catalogue, 1924–1925. An additional 2,102 women, not enrolled in any specific degree program, took courses part-time in 1924–1925 through either the CCT or the extension school. As this study focuses on degree-granting programs, I have left these numbers out of my general totals. However, it is worth noting that the number of women taking courses at Penn was significantly higher at any given time than the number enrolled in degree programs.Google Scholar

30 Alumni Report 1921,” Office of the Provost, Josiah Penniman series, box 10, file folder 54, Penn archives.Google Scholar

31 “Statement to Board October 1923,” Office of the Provost, Josiah Penniman series, box 10 file folder 54, Penn archives.Google Scholar

32 Henderson, Virginia Kinsman Interview with Lydia Messmer, Oral History collection, Penn archives. See also Klein, Ruth Murray Interview with Lydia Messmer, Oral History collection, Penn archives.Google Scholar

33 Catalogue, 1916–1917.Google Scholar

34 University of Pennsylvania Bulletin Concerning Admission to The College, etc. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1929), 14 (italics added).Google Scholar

35 Catalogue, 1929–1930. The total male enrollment in the School of Education in 1929 was 157; total female enrollment was 1,170, accordingly, one can assume that most of the changes in the admissions policy focused on them.Google Scholar

36 Financial Report of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1930). In 1930, the University budgeted US $77,450 for faculty salaries in the School of Education and US $715,250 for faculty salaries in The College. Enrollment figures are taken from the Catalogue, 1929–1930. See, Penn archives.Google Scholar

37 Klein, Ruth Murray Interview with Lydia Messmer, Oral History collection, Penn archives.Google Scholar

38 Levine, The American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 72.Google Scholar

39 “Concerning the Development of Faculty Personnel: A Report of the Committee on Policy of the Educational Council, University of Pennsylvania,” 20 December 1932. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 2, “Educational Council,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

40 Clewell to Brakeley, 18 November 1930. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 7, “Placement Service,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

41 Upson, Charles to Josiah Penniman, 10 April 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “The College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

42 Gates, Thomas “A Message from President Gates to the Associated Pennsylvania Clubs,“ Cleveland, OH, 10–11 November 1932, Office of the President, Gates series, President's reports, Penn archives.Google Scholar

43 “Report on the Reorganization of the School of Education,” (1932). Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

44 Newcomer, Mabel A Century of Higher Education for American Women (New York: Harpers, 1959) quoted in Solomon, In the Company, 63. See also Solomon, In the Company, 141–47.Google Scholar

45 Manekin, Vivian interview by the author, 3 November 2002. Virginia Kinsman Henderson, interview with Lydia Messmer.Google Scholar

46 “Undergraduate Courses,” Bryn Mawr College Calendar, 1932 (Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr College, 1932): Bryn Mawr College archives. Living on campus was required at Bryn Mawr.Google Scholar

47 Lagemann, Ellen Condliffe The Elusive Science: The Troubled History of Education Research (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 16.Google Scholar

48 “Reorganization of the School of Education,” Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

49 David Levine explains that during the 1920s this innovation was widely adopted. By 1930, 55 percent of the independent colleges, 80 percent of the endowed universities, and 90 percent of the state universities surveyed had established junior and senior colleges. See Levine, The American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 99.Google Scholar

50 Catalogue, 1929–1933.Google Scholar

51 Gates, Thomas S. Report of the President, 1934 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1934) Office of the President, Gates series, President's reports, in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

52 Financial Reports, 1930–1936.Google Scholar

53 Brakeley, George “Draft of President's Report,“ 3 February 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, “President's Reports,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

54 McClelland, George W. to Members of the Board of Liberal Arts, 24 February 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

55 McClelland, George W. to Members of the Board of Liberal Arts, 24 February 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

56 “Report of the Committee on a College of Liberal Arts for Women,” February 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

57 McClelland, George W. to Members of the Board of Liberal Arts, 24 February 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

58 “‘Women's College’ Editorial,” The Bennett News, 6 April 1933.Google Scholar

59 Ruth Wallerstein to Thomas Gates, 30 April 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

60 Thomas Gates to Ruth Wallerstein, 3 May 1933. Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

61 Dr. Odgers Outlines His Aims as Dean of the College for Women,” The Bennett News, 21 September 1933.Google Scholar

62 Ibid.Google Scholar

63 Catalogue, 1933–1934, 189, 221.Google Scholar

64 I want to thank Kathy Peiss for sharing with me her astute reading of this evidence.Google Scholar

65 “Report of the Committee on a College of Liberal Arts for Women,” Office of the President, Gates series, general files, box 1, “College for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

66 Bulletin, 1934; Bulletin, 1933, 28.Google Scholar

67 Bulletin, 1934.Google Scholar

68 Catalogue, 1933–1934.Google Scholar

69 Gates, Thomas “A Message from President Gates to the Associated Pennsylvania Clubs,“ Annual Meeting of Associated Pennsylvania Clubs at Cleveland, OH, 10–11 November 1932, Penn archives.Google Scholar

70 Minutes, Faculty CLAW, 17 March 1936 Appendix, “Reports of the Curriculum Committee of the College of Liberal Arts for Women,” Penn archives.Google Scholar

71 Minutes, Faculty CLAW, 19 December 1939, Penn archives.Google Scholar

72 Minutes, Faculty CLAW, 18 January 1938, Penn archives.Google Scholar

73 Minutes, Faculty CLAW, 19 January 1939, Penn archives.Google Scholar

74 Minutes, Faculty CLAW, 15 December 1936; 18 January 1938; 21 January 1941, Penn archives.Google Scholar

75 Henderson earned her master's degree and completed the coursework for a PhD while working as the Personnel Officer. Hottel had already completed her master's degree before returning to Penn and eventually earned her PhD from the University.Google Scholar

76 Jean, H. Crawford, the previous Directress of Women, was regarded as aloof and removed. Henderson referred to her as “a woman from another age” and took pride in the accessibility and good relationships she and Hottel had with the women students on campus.Google Scholar

77 Miller, Karl G. to George Brakeley, 8 April 1938. Office of the President, Gates series, general files (1935–1940), box 11, “College of Liberal Arts for Women,” in the Penn archives.Google Scholar

78 Ibid.Google Scholar

79 Catalogue, 1939–1940. 193, 231.Google Scholar

80 Miller, “Daughters of Pennsylvania.“Google Scholar