Women Arrive at Yale
The first university arts institution, the School of the Fine Arts, opened in 1869. It was the first Yale school open to women, who formed the majority of students in the school’s first four decades.
The First Woman to Graduate
Alice Rufie Jordan Blake received a bachelor’s in law in 1886 from Yale Law School, becoming the university’s first female graduate.
Image: American Women (Mast, Crowell, & Kirkpatrick, 1897)
Yale’s First Women Ph.D.s
Seven women received their Ph.D.s from Yale in 1894, two years after the university opened its doors to women seeking graduate degrees.
“Yale Women” portrait by BrendaZlamany, 2016
Dr. Louise W. Farnam
After receiving her Ph.D. from Yale in 1916, Louise Farnam became the first woman to receive a medical degree from the School of Medicine in 1920.
Dr. Beatrix McCleary Hamburg
Beatrix McCleary Hamburg, M.D., was the first African American woman to attend the School of Medicine. After graduating in 1948, her work focused on behavioral and developmental issues among adolescents, especially minority children.
Yale College Opens Its Doors
In 1969, the first freshman women —230 out of more than 1200 freshmen—arrived at Yale College. They joined their male classmates in the trek across campus to attend the Freshman Assembly at Woolsey Hall.
Residential Life
Stephanie Brown, Alexis Krasilovsky, and Doris Zaleznik have lunch together in Berkley College dining hall. The three women were among Yale’s first women undergraduates admitted in 1969.
First Varsity Women’s Team
Formed in 1969, the women’s field hockey team was the first women’s varsity sport at Yale.
Activism on Beinecke Plaza
A student in the early 1970s hands out flyers as part of demonstration asking for an increase in women enrollment.
Pauli Murray
Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray, ’65 J.S.D., ’79 Hon. D.Div., was a scholar, lawyer, and civil rights activist.Murray College opened in 2017, becoming Yale’s first residential college named after a woman.
Grace Hopper
In 2017, Calhoun College was renamed to honor one of Yale’s most distinguished graduates, Grace Murray Hopper ’30 M.A., ’34 Ph.D., a naval officer and computer programming pioneer.
Historical Timeline
Explore more key dates and milestones of women’s coeducation at Yale in a comprehensive historical timeline.
Images from Yale University Manuscripts & Archives unless otherwise noted
