U.S. Department of Education Investigates Women's College Smith Over Admission of Trans Women

Smith College, one of the last remaining women's colleges in the United States, is under fire. On May 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it was opening an investigation into the Massachusetts institution over possible violations of Title IX, the 1972 federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education. The same law plays a role in the debate over mixed-sex bathrooms at American universities. At the heart of the investigation is Smith's admissions policy, which since 2015 has admitted anyone who identifies as a woman — cis, trans and non-binary.

An Exception on Shaky Ground

Title IX has traditionally included an exception for institutions that admit students of only one sex: unlike coeducational schools, they may restrict admission to women without violating the law. That exception is precisely what the conflict is about. Assistant Secretary Kimberly Richey, who announced the investigation on behalf of the department, put it this way: "An all-women's college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males." The administration argues that the Title IX exception was written with biological sex in mind, and that an institution relying on self-identification can no longer invoke it.

From Refusal to Open Admissions

Smith's history illustrates how quickly the standard has shifted. In 2013, the college still refused to admit a trans woman as a student — a decision that sparked fierce protests within its own community at the time. Two years later, in 2015, the board completely reversed course: since then, admission has been open to anyone who identifies as a woman, regardless of sex at birth. Smith thereby joined a broader trend among the remaining women's colleges, nearly all of which have adopted more inclusive admissions criteria since the 2010s.

A Shrinking Category Under Pressure

The number of women's colleges in the United States has declined dramatically over the past several decades: from approximately 230 in 1960 to just over 30 today. There is therefore a great deal at stake for the institutions that remain. If the Title IX exception is indeed interpreted on the basis of biological sex rather than self-identification, schools like Smith will have to choose: maintain their current admissions policy and lose their legal protection as a women's college, or return to admissions based on sex at birth. The department's investigation is therefore about more than a dispute involving a single institution — it touches on the question of what a "women's space" in education actually means when identification replaces the biological definition.

Broader Context

The investigation into Smith does not stand alone. It is part of a series of actions by the U.S. government against institutions that prioritize transgender identity over biological sex, ranging from sports organizations to hospitals. For advocates of sex-based women's spaces, the Smith case is a test case: if the government succeeds in restoring the Title IX exception to its original, sex-based meaning, it could have consequences for every women-specific facility that has shifted to self-identification over the past decade.