By 1947 most schools no longer taught separate classes in traditional penmanship. Students were taught to print but not to write in cursive. There were no more flourishes, curlicues, or arm exercises. In Seattle, for instance, a new penmanship supervisor was not appointed after the old one died in 1945. In Los Angeles applicants for teaching positions were no longer required to pass a handwriting test.

Success.

As women and men adjusted to coeducation, states realized that there was little need for separate institutions for them, especially since coeducational universities reduced the need for duplicate programs when colleges were segregated by sex. Thus, with the growth of women's earning potential came the beginnings of the demise of most state-supported schools for single-gender education.

Sources:

William Henry Chafe, The American Woman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972);

John D. Pulliam, History of Education in America (Columbus, Ohio: Merrill...