In 1889, Clemson University was founded on the basis of agriculture as an all male school known as Clemson College. A student population of all males was typical of colleges during the early 1900s because women were not expected to attend college. However, with the support of Clemson College’s President, women eventually began to fight for their educational rights. In 1929, President Enoch Walter Sikes was the first president to suggest allowing women into the college. He proposed that women should be allowed to attend Clemson, but it would only be for them to complete graduate work. People rejected this proposal and refused to make changes. After new President Robert Franklin Poole took over in 1940, more moves toward allowing women into the college were made in the early 1950s. Once women were allowed in the college things began changing and new windows of opportunity were opened for women all around who were interested in Clemson. The addition of women to the college was undoubtedly a great decision and it helped to shape Clemson into the amazing university it is today. The atmosphere at Clemson became more welcoming and diverse and caused the students to thrive socially and academically.

The doors of Clemson College officially opened to women in February of 1955. The argument of whether or not to accept female students really began in 1929 when President Enoch Walter Sikes made the recommendation that women should be allowed into the university to complete advanced work if they had already completed their graduate work for the same degree, however no action was taken in this situation. The next action for the matter was taken in 1950 by President Robert Franklin Poole, who was the second president to address the issue. In this case he suggested that women be allowed into the college in order to complete graduate work at any time in the year and also to complete undergraduate work during the summer periods. This time the President’s recommendation was approved and women were able to study certain areas at Clemson. Again in 1953, President Poole made another recommendation. This time, though, it was for women to be allowed to study during the normal school period if they were involved in teaching and this recommendation was again approved. The final recommendation was in 1954 when President Poole suggested that women be allowed to attend Clemson College beginning in the next semester, so long as they lived from home and commuted. Finally approved, women were allowed to attend Clemson College for undergraduate studies beginning February 1955. A process that began in 1929 had finally been completed 26 years later. The process President Enoch Sikes had started was finally finished by President Robert Poole

For the first time in history, women were allowed to attend Clemson and participate in all undergraduate curricula in order to earn a bachelor’s degree. More than 65 years after the university, then known as a college, was founded, were women finally included in the school completely. Why did this take so long, though? Maybe some of the board members didn’t believe that women should be allowed at the school yet. Or maybe some of the board members weren’t ready for the change that would come from the coeducation, after all Mr. Robert Muldrow Cooper, whom our library is named after, still voted no to the 1950 recommendation to allow women. There is not really a specific reason as to why the addition of women took so long, it is more of just a “it’s how it was” or “it just didn’t happen” kind of reasoning as I see it. Also, when women did start attending Clemson, the number of women was quite small, beginning with a teeny number of 65 female students filing applications for the first semester. The number of women students began to grow but at a slow rate. Numbers began increasing more around 1963, which was when they first provided housing in dormitories for women on campus, but even then women only made up 3.3 percent of the total students. It wasn’t until 1980 that women made up a decent amount of the school population at 39.6 percent, but that still made it a 60/40 ratio in favor of males. Slowly but surely, women were growing in numbers at the school and making themselves known.

Overall, the addition of female students to the university was beneficial. The reaction all over the state from hearing of the allowance of women to Clemson was very favorable and reactions were extremely positive. Women also held up to, or even exceeded expectations, by holding their grades quite high. Within the first semester at least 40 percent of the female students held their grade point averages at a 3.0 or higher. These women were clearly here to get an education and were proving their determination and right to be there. As a result of their ability to perform academically, women were proving that they deserved to be there just as much as the men. After seeing how well the women were succeeding at the college, the positive reaction of people had increased greatly. From this point on, women could only do better and keep on closing in on the 50/50 male to female ratio throughout the years while also keeping up their great grades. These women were at Clemson and they were there to stay.