When founded in 1911, Connecticut College for Women was a pioneering womens college that sought to prepare the progressive eras «new woman» to be self-sufficient. Despite a path-breaking emphasis on preparation for work in the new fields opening to women, Connecticut College and its peers have been overlooked by historians of womens higher education. This book makes the case for the significance of Connecticut Colleges birth and evolution, and contextualizes the college in the history of womens education. «Eighth Sister No More» examines Connecticut College for Womens founding mission and vision, revealing how its grassroots founding to provide educational opportunity for women was altered by coeducation; how the college has been shaped by changes in thinking about womens roles and alterations in curricular emphasis; and the role local community ties played at the colleges point of origin and during the recent presidency of Claire Gaudiani, the only alumna to lead the college. Examining Connecticut Colleges founding in the context of its evolution illustrates how founding mission and vision inform the way colleges describe what they are and do, and whether there are essential elements of founding mission and vision that must be remembered or preserved. Drawing on archival research, oral history interviews, and seminal works on higher education history and womens history, «Eighth Sister No More» provides an illuminating view into the liberal arts segment of American higher education.

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