Wellesley College Lays Bare The Hypocrisy Of The Left

Wellesley College in Massachusetts is a member of the “Seven Sisters” – a group of highly-selective all-women’s colleges that was founded to give women an Ivy League education when such institutions were reserved for men. But today, Wellesley is admitting biological men who identify as women.

This is why my organization, Defending Education (DE), filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights: because this “sister” just violated Title IX in the name of “inclusivity.”

DE’s complaint underscores the ultimate irony of the modern gender movement: universities formed to empower women have made the conscious decision to validate males instead.

Historically, enrollment at a Seven Sisters’ school was a sign of female excellence and independence. It was an honor reserved for the most impressive American women.

Today, it means being forced to forgo your comfort (and possibly your safety) because your school values the feelings of men over yours. It means mandatory sharing of dormitories, locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports teams with biological males – assuming, of course, that a boy didn’t steal your admission spot in the first place.

It’s shameful that Wellesley College has retained the privileges and title of an “all women’s” institution, despite abandoning its founding principles.

The school’s 2015 decision to admit biological men runs completely counter to its mission to “educate women who will make a difference.” Women seeking a female-only environment are being betrayed by the very people entrusted with the college’s legacy.

Our complaint notes that Wellesley College is in clear violation of Title IX requirements necessary for single-sex status and federal funding; its decision to admit biological men – and simultaneously decline admission to biological women who identify as men – is discrimination on the basis of sex, pure and simple.

And given the $12 million in federal support Wellesley receives every year, perhaps the school should have considered the impact that flouting anti-discrimination laws might have on its bottom line.

Last May, Defending Education filed an Office for Civil Rights complaint against another Seven Sisters school, Smith College, for also admitting biological men. DE’s complaint highlighted Smith College’s blatant disregard for Title IX’s protections for single sex spaces, President Trump’s recent executive orders banning gender ideology, and federal caselaw that affirms the need for single-sex spaces. Our complaint also noted that Smith College is policing women’s speech to prioritize policies that erase women – and protections for them – entirely.

We were gratified when the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into Smith College earlier this year – and it’s our hope that the Department might take a hard look at Wellesley College as well.

We’ve filed these complaints with the goal of ending the Seven Sisters’ erasure of women and encouraging them to uphold their founding values. In addition to Smith and Wellesley, Mount Holyoke College, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard College also allow biological men who identify as “transgender women” to enroll and share private spaces with biological women. Like Smith and Wellesley, these schools receive millions of dollars in federal funding and commit themselves to upholding the law when they do so.

These policies drive home the fact that gender activists continue to wield a heavy grip on American public life – despite the Trump administration’s valiant efforts – and that sustained effort is needed to dismantle these policies from coast to coast.

When the gender activism wave washed over America nearly two decades ago, many major corporations and educational institutions were bullied into eliminating female-only protections and spaces in the name of inclusivity. Today, an increasing number of Americans finally recognize the truth: that this prioritization of gender ideology over women’s rights is unfair, unsafe, and illegal.

Polling by the New York Times in 2025 found that nearly 80% of Americans (including 67% of Democrats) opposed biological men competing in women’s sports, while Pew found that almost 50% of Americans support determining admittance to female-only spaces based on biological sex, compared to just 26% of Americans who disagree. And nationwide, many major corporations are backing away from DEI initiatives and gender ideology as they sense public opinion turning on the issue.

Despite this broader societal backlash, institutions like Wellesley College remain captured by fringe activists – which is why decisive action by the federal government is needed to hold bad actors accountable.

DE’s complaint regarding Wellesley, and the ongoing federal investigation into Smith College, are designed to both protect female students and to send a clear message to schools everywhere: if you choose to prioritize gender activism over safety, fairness, and the law, there will be consequences.

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Nicole Neily is the founder and president of Defending Education.