Single sex schools

Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education, is the practice of conducting education where male and female students attend separate classes or in separate buildings or schools. The practice was common before the twentieth century, particularly in secondary education and higher education. Single-sex education in many cultures is advocated on the basis of tradition as well as religion, and is practiced in many parts of the world. Recently, there has been a surge of interest and establishment of single-sex schools due to educational research. Single sex education is practiced in many Muslim majority countries; while in the West it is most popular in Chile, Israel, South Korea, and English speaking countries such as Singapore, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Australia. In the Western world, single sex education is primarily associated with the private sector, with the public (state) sector being overwhelmingly mixed sex; while in the Muslim world the situation is the opposite: public schools are usually single sex, while many private schools are mixed sex. Motivations for single sex education range from religious ideas of sex segregation to beliefs that the sexes learn and behave differently, and, as such, they thrive in a single sex environment. In the 19th century, in Western countries, single sex girls' finishing schools, and women's colleges offered women a chance to education at a time when they were denied access to mainstream educational institutions. The former were especially common in Switzerland, the latter in the US and the UK, which were pioneers in women's education.

In 19th century Western Europe, the most common way for girls to access education was at home, through private tutoring, and not through schools. This was especially the case in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which strongly resisted women's involvement in schools. By contrast, in the US, early feminists were successful in establishing women's educational institutions. Although these were different and considered inferior to men's institutions, they created nevertheless some of the first opportunities to formalized higher education for women in the Western World, with the Seven Sisters colleges offering unprecedented emancipation for women. The pioneer Salem College of Winston-Salem, North Carolina was founded in 1772, originally established as a primary school, later becoming an academy (high school) and finally a college. The New England Female Medical College (1848) and the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (1850) were the first medical institutions in the world established to train women in medicine and offer them the M.D. degree.

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