| In tracing the history of the Women's College in Brown University from its founding in 1891 through its change of name to Pembroke College in 1928, this thesis tells two parallel stories. The first details the continuing preoccupation with the coordinate relationship between the women's and men's undergraduate colleges, itself part of an on-going effort to define women's place at Brown. The second describes how the women of the University worked within the restrictions of that coordinate relationship to build their own distinct college community, determined to view their limitations not as handicaps but rather as opportunities.;The story of the coordinate relationship was one of insistent separation of the women from the men. Initially, the creation of a coordinate rather than a coeducational women's college at Brown was a tactical decision by a group of local women advocates who saw it as the most promising way to open the power and prestige of Brown University of Rhode Island women. Scant attention was paid to the coordinate arrangement during its first decade. Over time, however, the relationship came under closer scrutiny. Brown's new president and many male students expressed concern over coeducation and the growing prominence of women on the campus. They worked towards a Women's College which was "academically identical, but socially quite distinct.".;While the women tried to maintain an equal relationship to the University, however, they also built their own collegiate community. Through the leadership of its deans, the College viewed each of its limitations--restricted curricular flexibility, inadequate physical and financial resources, and a student body dominated by commuter students--as an opportunity to define a collegiate life different from the men's and different from that of women at older residential women's colleges. Through the continued fiscal and emotional support of local women and alumnae, the creation of an active campus life, and reliance on opportunities of learning outside the classroom, the women deans and students of Brown fashioned a collegiate life suited to their own situation. |
