This paper presents a chronological description of the evolution of women's advancement in higher education, particularly in administrative capacities, and examines the establishment of the three types of institutions that came into being in order to meet women's educational needs: the single-sex college; the coordinate college; and the coeducational college. The paper begins with an account of the status of higher education for women in the United States in the 1820s and 1830s and goes on to describe how single-sex colleges began after the Civil War with Vassar (1865), Wellesley (1875), and Smith (1875). Bryn Mawr, founded in 1884, is credited with having the first feminist in higher education administration: Martha Carey Thomas, its dean and second president. The first coordinate colleges started with Columbia University's Barnard College in 1889, and Harvard's Radcliffe in 1894. Women deans and presidents of coordinate colleges, however, reported to male administrators. Oberlin College in Ohio is acknowledged as the first coeducational institution. Although all three types of colleges grew in the 20th century, the numerical growth of women administrators was limited. It is noted that until very recently, women administrators have had more opportunity to excel in women's colleges and coordinate institutions than in coeducational ones. Contains a 6-item bibliography. (GLR)