The current study examined the factors that affect female political participation in students at women’s colleges and coeducational institutions. The first part of the study consisted of building a model to explain female political participation based on previous research findings. The second part of the study consisted of examining differences between the model and the levels of participation among the two groups. Results showed that only self-esteem, femininity, feminist identification and knowledge of female political leaders significantly impacted political participation. No structural differences in the model were found between the groups. Students at women’s colleges had significantly higher means in political activity than their counterparts at coeducational institutions but there were no significant mean differences in political participation.

The current study examined the factors that affect female political participation in students at women’s colleges and coeducational institutions. The first part of the study consisted of building a model to explain female political participation based on previous research findings. The second part of the study consisted of examining differences between the model and the levels of participation among the two groups. Results showed that only self-esteem, femininity, feminist identification and knowledge of female political leaders significantly impacted political participation. No structural differences in the model were found between the groups. Students at women’s colleges had significantly higher means in political activity than their counterparts at coeducational institutions but there were no significant mean differences in political participation.

This dissertation examines women’s colleges emergence as new organizational types in higher education in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In building these colleges, administrators both deviated from societal norms and values about gender and race while conforming to others. They pushed for women’s place in advanced education without betraying notions about womanhood, especially white womanhood. Through academic programs, campus rules, and campus design, administrators built colleges that connected older standards from men’s universities set for higher education and established new ones meant specifically for women’s education. Using historical data (e.g., college publications and women’s magazines), I examine how women’s colleges developed as gendered educational spaces and responded to societal expectations. Women’s colleges are understudied, especially as distinct organizational types. By incorporating organizational theory and strategic action theory, I highlight the significance of field-specific norms and values in organizations’ development of legitimacy, reputation, and culture. I argue that women’s colleges navigated multilevel processes across fields, race, and gender in crafting and maintaining their legitimacy, reputation, and culture strategies. Despite great doubts about the societal need for women’s education, Black and white women’s colleges successfully built themselves into legitimate liberal arts colleges with a history of reputable educational training.

En Grèce ancienne, femmes et filles de citoyens, issues généralement des élites, accomplissaient de nombreux services religieux pour leurs communautés. Ces fonctions, observées du Vème av. J.C. au II/IIIème ap. J.C. en Grèce, Etolie, Thessalie, Epire, Macédoine, îles des Cyclades et de l’Egée et littoral Est d’Asie Mineure, se construisaient et évoluaient avec leur société. Elles permettaient aux femmes de se mouvoir dans la sphère publique, en corrélation avec leur position sociale, et contribuaient à valoriser leur parentés. Beaucoup de ces services s’inscrivaient dans une sphère féminine où le sexe déterminait les rites accomplis, établissant une certaine image de la femme que les pratiques initiatiques accomplies par leurs filles, via ces services, reconduisaient. Toutefois, tous les services religieux ne se définissaient pas par rapport à ce monde féminin, mais tous se lisaient dans un ensemble subtil où il n’est pas toujours aisé d’établir les prérogatives de chaque service par rapport aux autres. Dans cet ensemble, la prêtrise était la charge la plus prestigieuse mais les autres fonctions, désignées par des termes spécifiques exprimant l’aspect principal de la charge, n’étaient pas simplement des auxiliaires ou subalternes. Les services religieux féminins formaient un ensemble complexe, diversifié mais cependant homogène et présentant une profonde cohérence. / In ancient Greece, Thessaly, Aitolia, Epiros, Macedonia, Cyclads, Aegean’s Islands and the eastern coast of Asia Minor, citizen’s wives and daughters, stem from the élite, could carry out religious functions for their people. These functions, influenced by the evolution of the society and observed from the 5th BC to the 2nd/3rd AD, were an opportunity for women to act in the public field, according to their social status, and a way to increase the value of their relatives. Many of these offices were determined by the gender and included in a women’s world. They played a part to create a greek ideal of woman, and the initiatory rites performed by their daughters contributed to carry on this image. However, all the women’s religious functions were not in this women’s world but all formed a group in which they are closely related to each other. The priestess got the most prestigious office but the others functions, usually named by a specific term which indicate its most important sight, were not just only sub-offices. All these offices were part of a complex group with some diversity and fine distinctions and it’s not easy to understand each function and its prerogatives, but this group was still homogeneous and coherent.