Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley has implemented a formal policy regarding the admission of transgender students.
During the college's annual Convocation address on Tuesday, President Lynn Pasquerella announced that the all-women's institution now welcomes applications from transgender students who identify as female.
"Just as early feminists argued that reducing women to their biological functions was a foundation of women's oppression," Pasquerella said, "we acknowledge that gender identity is not reduceable to the body."
The announcement comes as many women's colleges in the United States are facing pressure from students and alumnae to revise their admissions policies toward transgender applicants. Pasquerella's speech was met with booming cheers from students.
San Francisco-based Mills College became the first single-sex institution in the country to revise its policy on transgender students last month, inviting all prospective students who identify as female to apply.
