Seven Sisters (colleges)
The Seven Sisters are a group of seven highly prestigious private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that are historically women's colleges.[1] Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and Wellesley College are still women's colleges. Vassar College became coeducational in 1969, and Radcliffe College was absorbed in 1999 by Harvard College and now offers programs in advanced study.
For other uses, see Seven Sisters.History[edit]
20th Century[edit]
The consortium was founded in 1915 when Vassar President Henry Noble MacCracken called Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Mount Holyoke together “to deliver women opportunities for higher education that would improve the quality of life for the human family and that would put them on an equal footing with men in a democracy that was about to offer them the vote.”[3] The success of this Four College Conference led to the decision to establish a larger and more formal group in 1926 during a second conference held at Bryn Mawr College. That year Bryn Mawr, Barnard, and Radcliffe were added and the group gained the name “Seven Sisters” after the Pleiades.[4] The Seven Sisters in name and standing were meant to mimic the then male “Ivy League”, although Cornell, one of the eight Ivy League school has been open to accepting women since its founding, and admitted Jennie Spencer in 1870.[5]
The Seven Sisters in the early 20th century would meet to discuss various matters including self-government, teaching, and undergraduate issues. At the top of the list was securing more money to increase the endowments of the college in order to match the pay rates for the professors at elite male universities.[6]
21st Century[edit]
Each year on a rotating schedule, one of the colleges hosts the Seven Siblings Conference. Each school sends members of their undergraduate student government to discuss matters of self governance, inclusiveness, campus traditions, publicity, and student issues.[7]
From 1982 to 2019, a Seven Sisters Athletic Championship was held between the colleges with events in basketball, crew, cross country, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, squash, swimming and diving, tennis and volleyball.[8][9]
The Seven Sister Alum Group was started in 2016 by Smith College graduate Jen McNally. It serves alumni and current students of the various colleges. The group has over 80,000 members, including 53,000 alumni and current students. The organization hosts events, both professional and social, sends out a newsletter, provides career related information, and other resources.[10][11]
Due the transition of Vassar to coeducational and admission of transgender and nonbinary students at other colleges, some have started to refer to the Seven Sisters as the Seven Siblings group.[12]
