The University is not an Ivory Tower: The Effect of Attitudes towards Women on their Experience at the Arizona Public Universities, 1900-1960

Abstract

Colleges and universities are often regarded as secluded enclaves where thoughts and ideologies that are new to a society emerge. However, in the case of the experience of women at colleges and universities in the early twentieth century, this thought is not applicable. Women on college campuses experienced the regulation of every experience, from the classes they took to the activities they participated in. This thesis examines this event at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University from 1900-1960. The argument is made that due to Arizona's perception of progressivism in its political and social policies in the early twentieth century, a contradiction develops due to the restrictions that undergraduate women faced in their college experience. While Arizona politicians were eager to apply progressive policies towards legislation and labor rights, they were not as eager to apply them to women's rights. This thesis finds that the experience of women at the Arizona public universities from 1900-1960 was one of regulation and restriction that was in line with the national attitudes towards women's rights and academic, athletic, and political abilities.