Expansion (1945 - 1965)
Higher Education Expands
Higher education changed dramatically during the post World War II years. Both the student population and the nature of the institutions themselves changed.
A tremendous growth in college attendance occurred after World War II with the entry of thousands of veterans onto college campuses. The federal government facilitated the post-secondary education of returning veterans with the G.I. Bill. The G.I. Bill assisted thousands of servicemen in attaining a higher education, but only 3% of those receiving G.I. benefits were women.
In part because of the G.I.'s, enrollment on college campuses grew by 49% in the 1950s. The proportion of college-aged youths attending higher education institutions increased from 15% to 24%.
The growth of higher education should not obscure the fact that during the 1950s, a college education was still a relatively uncommon thing for the majority of Americans. As late as 1960, 42% of males over the age of 25 still had completed no more than the eighth grade, while 40% had completed high school. Only 10% of males had completed four years of college.
After 1950, women also made another entry into higher education, after a few decades of declining enrollment. Enrollment of women began to rise after having reached a low point in 1950 of 30% of the collegiate student body. Educators and organizations began taking special interest in the female student and her vocational opportunities after graduation.
President Kennedy's 1963 Commission on the Status of Women recommended that institutions of higher education become more flexible to accommodate the female student. The Commission recommended that institutions create special programs to prepare women to work in fields with urgent social needs, such as teaching, nursing, and social work. It also suggested that education prepare women for both vocational and domestic responsibilities. The Commission recommended that institutions provide flexibility in higher education programs so that women could continue to perform their domestic duties while they earned college degrees.
| Enrollment of Women in Institutions of Higher Education | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | # of Women Enrolled(in thousands) | % of All Students |
| Table adapted from Barbara Miller Solomon, In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), p. 65 | ||
| 1900 | 85 | 36.8 |
| 1910 | 140 | 39.6 |
| 1920 | 283 | 47.3 |
| 1930 | 481 | 43.7 |
| 1940 | 601 | 40.2 |
| 1950 | 806 | 30.2 |
| 1960 | 1223 | 37.9 |
| 1970 | 2884 | 41.9 |
Concerns about equal access to higher education emerged alongside the growth in attendance. President Truman's Commission on Higher Education emphasized equal access and drew attention to the problem of unequal access to higher education.
Increasingly after 1950, institutions like the community college provided educational opportunities and access to higher education to those not traditionally served by residential campuses. Community colleges enrolled over one-half million students in 1950.
Yet, a hierarchy of institutions developed, and government plans and reports sanctified this hierarchy. State policies such as the California Master Plan of 1960, which extended access to community colleges to all high school graduates, codified a hierarchy in higher education at the same time that it expanded access. In essence, the plan valued institutions that began to put emphasis on graduate education and research over institutions that served undergraduate students.
Therefore, while access to higher education drew the attention of educators, policy makers, and politicians, and while educational opportunities did expand, those traditionally underrepresented on college campuses found themselves at institutions that had little prestige or status within the higher education community.
