A History of American Higher Education includes some women.

Although severely limited in size and scope, women's involvement in American higher education has influenced the ever-changing face of the academy.

In his 2004 book A History of American Higher Education, John Thelin has examined the role of women at each stage of his chronology. He is a professor of educational policy studies at the University of Kentucky.

Thelin makes clear in this historical account that the role women played in higher education was small, marginalized and at times reduced to the superficial: Women were often not taken seriously as students. He doesn't try to revise history, but rather reports the facts and demonstrates the ways in which women gradually entered, grew, faced challenges and became the majority of students in higher education.

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First step: Women's colleges

After being denied enrollment in colleges during the U.S. colonial period, women were able to enter a few small women's colleges by the mid-19th century, allowing them access to advanced study. The number of women admitted to college was small compared with men, but their level of academic rigor and challenge appears to have been comparable to that offered to men. Some evidence shows that the curriculum offered to women typically emphasized English and the modern languages, rather than the classics. This course of study coincided with the Bachelor of Science track offered at men's colleges.

Despite the fluctuations in enrollment, access, disciplines of study, faculty positions and discrimination, creating women's colleges changed the face of advanced study and opened the door for the women of the future.