The Virginia General Assembly was against the college education of women for many years. Women were very restricted in their educational options in the state and especially in Charlottesville. A bill to create a women's college in Charlottesville failed in both 1911 and 1913.
These bills were the result of lobbying by many local and national women's organizations for a co-educational college in the area. Mary Branch Munford led much of this lobbying. Many of the University's male students and administrators, however, would not back down from their stance that the University was a traditional men's college and should remain as such.
The University's summer session, however, remained dominated by women, many of whom worked in schools as teachers or administrators, and all of whom were trying to finish their Bachelor's degrees. It was said that the summer school was "a unique haven for educated, independent women in the South who sought higher education and tolerated new ideas like equal suffrage and co-education."
The state of Virginia, like many Southern states, refused to ratify the 19th amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Around the same time, the Board of Visitors decided not to allow women full and equal inclusion in the University. The Board did, however, pass a resolution that allowed women into the graduate schools if they were at least 20 years old and had at least two years of college experience.
Mary Washington College was established in 1943 as the University's sister college, allowing the University to deter admitting large numbers of women until 1970. In the fall of 1970, 440 women entered the College of Arts and Sciences, officially co-educating the University amid fears that their presence would destroy the Honor System. By 1974, there were more women than men in the college.
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