Founded as a men's college in 1831, Wesleyan University went through two phases of coeducation, the first of which lasted from 1872 to 1909, and the second from 1970 to the present. The 1872 decision to admit women resulted partly from Wesleyan's concession, as a Methodist institution, to the well-established Methodist practice of educating men and women together. In addition, seven other New England institutions had initiated proposals to coeducate in 1871, which may have encouraged Wesleyan to do the same. These proposals, while not formally coordinated, all came in response to the women's suffrage movement of the early 1870s.

Wesleyan's first female class had four members: Jennie Larned, Phebe Almeda Stone, Angie Villette Warren, and Hannah Ada Taylor. From 1872 until 1892, women represented a small minority of the undergraduate community, and only forty-three women graduated in that period. However, female admissions increased in 1898, which led to a decrease in male admissions; this development fueled the fears of those who believed that the presence of women at Wesleyan would curtail opportunities for male students.

The shift away from coeducation was sparked by a change in the leadership of the trustees. Trustee Stephen Henry Olin led Wesleyan's movement away from Methodism and its redefinition as a metropolitan-based university, with a heavy emphasis on athletics. This shift would align Wesleyan more closely with the values of all-male institutions such as Amherst, Williams and Yale.

From 1900 onward, the decline in Wesleyan's overall admissions contributed to the movement against coeducation, as many feared that the college had become too "feminized." Starting in 1900, the admission of women was capped at 20 percent, but this measure never fully reassured coeducation's opponents. The trustees' decision to end coeducation in 1909 came as the culmination of a decades-long backlash against the 1872 decision. Last-ditch efforts to found a separate college for women gained momentum in 1907, but they failed to generate the necessary revenue, and the effort was eventually abandoned. Under the leadership of alumna Elizabeth C. Wright, class of 1897, a committee was formed to consider other options. This effort eventuated in the founding of Connecticut College for Women, which opened in New London, Connecticut, in 1915.