Trans Women Will Get to Study at Wellesley College

Wellesley’s Class of 2020 will include trans women students. On Thursday the school announced it will join Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Mills, and Simmons College in accepting trans women applicants.

Abby McIntyre over at Slate tells us why this is very good:

Women’s colleges were founded to educate a group that had long been marginalized from the traditional ranks of academia. And since then, these institutions have produced generation after generation of strong women—including Gloria Steinem, Madeleine Albright, Yolanda King, Katharine Hepburn, Hillary Clinton, and Emily Yoffe.

True. McIntyre (who attended an all women’s college) insists these institutions are unique:

For many students, the classrooms of Wellesley or Smith or Bryn Mawr are the first place they feel at ease trying to solve a tricky math problem or voicing an opinion in a philosophy seminar. At these colleges, young people who were too scared or intimidated to speak up elsewhere—or who were silenced entirely—find their voices. Voices they take with them after graduation into their respective fields.

These benefits need not be limited to those born into a female body.

Check here for the full list of schools that still do not accept trans women.

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