What is the approximate percentage of women who attended college in the U.S. in the 1950s?

Answer 1

While more men than women attended college in 1910, it was still an era when most Americans (about 75%) did not attend college at all; in fact, statistics showed that in some parts of the United States, a majority did not get beyond the eighth grade. But among the number of people who did go to college, according to the 1910 census, about 66% of these students were men, and the remaining 34% were women.

A few comments about those figures: it should be noted that in 1910, many colleges still would not admit women, and a number of occupations were closed to them. It was also a cultural belief that a woman who attended college would probably never marry, which further discouraged women from graduating. It was considered an either/or situation for women: either have a career and be a "spinster" (an unmarried woman) or have a husband and family and not work outside the home.

That said, there was a steady increase in the number of women who sought higher education. In 1870, only about 11,000 women were enrolled in a college, whereas by 1910, that figure had risen to more than 100,000; not all graduated however, for reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph. And for the majority of women who attended a college in 1910, that meant studying in a limited number of disciplines: the most common was becoming a teacher, one of the few professions that welcomed women.

Answer 2

35% of women worked in the 1950's

Answer 3

30-32%