Yale History

How—and when—the proportion of women in Yale College reached 50 percent.

"With opportunity came responsibility—the responsibility to excel, lest other women not be allowed to follow in my footsteps."

"One professor stated that I . . . would not know about bridge building, since I had never had an Erector Set."

"The first week was filled with lots of upperclassmen coming to try to sign us up for the laundry service, and who knows what else—but mostly just eager to look us over."

In excerpts from the new book Yale Needs Women, stories of two pioneers: Shirley Daniels '72 and Lawrie Mifflin '73.

On the 50th anniversary of undergraduate coeducation, we hear from some of the first women about their experience.