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Williams College opens with eighteen (male) undergraduates.

The Adelphic Union, Williams’ literary/debating society, argues ‘Whether Females Ought to be Educated Equally with Males.’ The dispute is settled in the negative. This same topic will be debated four times over the next three years.

Oberlin College accepts women students making it the first coed college in America.

The Seneca Falls Convention, the first woman’s rights convention in the world, is held in upstate New York.

The Adelphic Union again debates ‘Ought Women to be admitted as Students in our Colleges?’

Swarthmore College goes coed. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Prof. John Bascom moves to appoint ‘a committee to examine the subject and report at the next yearly meeting, as to the propriety of admitting women to pursue the college course of study with the other sex.’ (Vidette Sept. 16, 1871)

‘As far as regards the … assertion, that women have a right to as good an education as men, we reply, of course they have; just as good. But they do not, therefore, need the same.’  (Student editorial, Vidette Sept. 30, 1871)

‘The Senior class at Williams College did, in reality, vote not to allow ladies to attend the Saturday morning recitations in the catechism under Dr. Hopkins… the Senior class has a right to say, as it thus did indirectly, that it does not wish ladies to be admitted…’ (Vidette Oct. 28, 1871)

‘With all the various institutions and modes of teaching which have sprung up in our midst, to meet the wants of a progressive age, are there not better and fitter seminaries in which women may be educated…?’ (Alumnus letter, Williams Review Nov. 27, 1871)

In June the majority and minority reports regarding Williams going coed are presented at the Society of Alumni meeting. The majority report, while upholding the right of women to higher education, decline to have women attend Williams. (Vidette July 6, 1872)

Throughout the 19th century, women appear on campus, suitably chaperoned, for houseparties.

Women’s suffrage is voted down in Williamstown.

On August 18, the 19th amendment is ratified, guaranteeing all American women the right to vote.

Williams College grants its first degree to a woman, Beatrice (Wasserscheid) Acly. A secretary in the Dean’s Office, Ms. Wasserscheid successfully petitioned the Board of Trustees to allow her to complete her Master’s degree in American Literature.

Emily Cleland is the first woman to teach at Williams, completing her husband’s Geology 6 course in spring 1935 upon his death.

After the War, 778 veterans return to campus, 69 of them with wives. A number of these women found their way to the classroom where, as the 1946 yearbook noted, ‘their eagerness to learn . . . has aroused the admiration of the faculty to a man.’

‘When the subject of coeducation was brought up at a Gargoyle-Scarab dinner last year, President Baxter smiled, ‘Not in my time.’’ (Williams Alumni Review May 1956)

Doris deKeyserlingk comes to Williams to reorganize the Russian Department. She is the first tenured female faculty member at the College.

The trustees decide to implement the Angevine Committee’s recommendation that the College provide housing, dining and social facilities for all undergraduates. This decision effectively leads to the abolition of fraternities at Williams.

Fred Rudolph, Prof. of History, authors a report on the possibility of establishing a coordinate college, using the model of Harvard and Radcliffe, and situating it at Mount Hope.

The Trustees appoint a joint faculty-trustee Committee on Coordinate Education and Related Questions. For the next two years, the Committee wrestles with coeducation options. One option centers on establishing a coordinate college (sometimes referred to as ‘Mary’). Other possibilities under consideration include exchange arrangements, or urban centers used by several cooperating colleges with resident faculty.

Committee X, a subcommittee of the Committee on Coordinate Education, produces its interim report on the effect of the addition of women students on the curriculum. Although ‘studies of course preferences in a variety of coeducational and coordinate institutions indicate that men and women tend to make different choices,’ the Committee recommends a ‘plural curriculum.’

The faculty vote, without dissent, to recommend that the College ‘include undergraduate women in its educational program in significant numbers at as early a time as is feasible.’

Thirty exchange students from Vassar arrive at Williams to study for the spring semester. They live in Goodrich House, Goodrich Annex, and Doughty House.

Yale, Princeton, Kenyon and Trinity go coed.

The Student Committee on Co-ordinate Education and Related Matters is established. Eight (male) students proceed to visit a variety of coordinate and newly-coed institutions to inform their April report supporting coeducation at Williams. The Committee reports that its ‘decision is a deliberate choice made in light of Williams’ unique identity…’

African-American students take over Hopkins Hall issuing fifteen non-negotiable demands regarding the admission of African-American students, hiring of Black administrators and faculty, and strengthening the Afro-American Studies program.

The Vassar exchange students report that their ‘experience has been a very good one for all of us’ while noting that they have noticed that men and women students behave differently in the classroom.

The College reviews the effect of women students on course enrollments.

The faculty vote by voice vote, without dissent, ‘recommend[ing] that Williams College include undergraduate women in its educational program in significant numbers…’

Responding to the final report of the Committee on Coordinate Education, the Trustees vote unanimously to admit women on a regular undergraduate basis beginning fall 1971. Admitting women will effectively grow the undergraduate population from 1250 to 2000 and ‘add to the range of studies’ offered. (Williams Alumni Review​ summer 1969)

Sixty-two exchange students from the original Ten College Exchange Program arrive at Williams.

The Vietnam moratorium envelopes the Williams community.

Williams Record editor reports on a student poll regarding coeducation: 81% are in favor, 14.5% oppose.

Five women receive acceptances to Williams, making them the first women who will receive undergraduate degrees from the College, as part of the Class of 1971. Williams will also admit cohorts of female transfer students to graduate with the Classes of 1972, 1973, and 1974.

Colgate, Johns Hopkins and the University of Virginia go coed.

The College hires its first female dean, Nancy McIntire. ‘Although I wasn’t called, and didn’t want to be called, ‘Dean of Women’ I was very conscious that that was one of the reasons I was here and one of my real interests was to make sure that the experience was a positive experience…’

College Council recommends coeducational living arrangements.

Students vote to strike protesting Pres. Nixon’s escalation of the Vietnam war and sending troops into Cambodia without consulting Congress. Faculty cancel classes.

The first group of women students graduate: Jane Gardner, Judy Allerhand, Christy Shepard, Gair Hemphill, Joan Hertzberg (Class Valedictorian), Karen Mikus, and Ellen Josephson.

Williams offers its first course on women, titled ‘The American Woman,’ taught by Professor of History Fred Rudolph.

The Society of Alumni celebrates its 150th Anniversary, as the college welcomes the first four-year class of women to the Class of 1975.

Jada Wattansiritham, a 26 year old research economist from Thailand, becomes the first woman enrolled at the Center for Development Economics.

Gail Walker Haslett, a 29-year-old biochemist, is elected as a three-year Term Trustee of the College, making her the first women trustee ever to serve at Williams.

Title IX is passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, stating “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art matriculates its first class of students: nine women and three men.

Bobette Reed Kahn becomes the first Black woman to graduate from Williams College.

Katharine (Mills) Berry ’57, Judith (Husband) Kidd ’64, Elizabeth Stoddard (Phillips) ’61 and Linda (Freeman) Armour ’62 each complete Williams coursework, 1957-1964 collectively. In January 1975, the College decides to grant them their degrees retrospectively.

Eileen Julian is hired as an assistant dean in 1975 and moves into a tenure track faculty position by 1977, making her one of the first tenure track Black woman faculty.

Pamela G. Carlton (Class of 1976) becomes the first woman graduate of Williams to serve as a Trustee of the college.

Janet Brown (Class of 1973) becomes the first woman graduate of Williams to serve on the Executive Committee of the Society of Alumni.

Gail Peek is hired in the Political Science Department, making her the first tenure track Black woman faculty.

Joan Edwards is hired in the Biology Department, making her the first woman who identifies as Asian to be in a tenure track faculty position.

Surviving spouses of alumni who died during the preceding year are elected for the first time as honorary members of the Society of Alumni, a practice that continues at each annual meeting.

Beatrice Acly is honored at Commencement as the first woman to have received a degree from Williams, 50 years earlier.

Nancy McIntire begins role of Assistant to the Vice President for Affirmative Action.

Women’s Studies approved as an interdepartmental program with the full support of the administration and the Committee on Educational Policy.

President Oakley adds sexual orientation to the non-discrimination policy at Williams College.

Katharine Berry (Class of 1957) becomes the first woman elected as President of the Society of Alumni.

Carmen Arroyo is hired as a tenure track faculty in the Psychology department, making her the first self identified female Latina tenure track faculty hire.

Wendy W. Hopkins (Class of 1972) becomes the first woman to serve as Director of Alumni Relations and Secretary of the Society of Alumni.

Maud S. Mandel named 18th President of Williams College, the first woman president.

257 years after Williams’ founding, the Society of Alumni is projected to reach gender parity.