The Discussion and Outcomes of Women's Universities' Transition to Coeducation in the 1970s

This paper argues that the discussions surrounding the transition of women's universities to coeducation in 1970s Korean society were a strategic response to both prevailing criticisms of women's higher education and the state-led industrialization policy. At the time, the low employment rate of female graduates, a symptom of structural issues in the labor market, was unfairly attributed to women's universities. This shift in blame generated a discourse that questioned the very existence of these institutions and fueled the push for a coeducation transition. The situation was further complicated by the government's policy of expanding enrollment quotas, which focused primarily on engineering and business fields and placed women's universities at a distinct disadvantage. This study analyzes the cases of Ewha Womans University, which debated the transition, and Soodo Women's Teachers College and Hanseong Women's College, which actually implemented it. The analysis reveals that these discussions consistently brought to the forefront the fundamental question of the legitimacy of women's higher education.