Mills College Students Protest Decision to Admit Men in 1991

Although I am slightly Victorian in my dealings with women, I am certainly no chauvinist. I see nothing wrong with opening a door, helping a lady on with her coat, etc.

I do not disagree with the Equal Rights Amendment women have been pursuing for the past however many years.

Are they entitled to a double standard? Is anyone? I think not--and that is why I was so appalled by Carol Tavris’ position in “Boys Trample Girls’ Turf” (Commentary, May 7).

How dare she (and the protesting females at Mills College) take up arms against admitting men to the school in an era when the world is moving inexorably towards the equality women have sought and deserve.

I graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in its last year of being an all-male engineering facility and was most disappointed that after four grueling years of studying college-level aeronautical engineering, that I had just missed the opportunity to have interacted with female students in my socially formative teen-age years.

In conclusion, it seems wholly appropriate that Ms. Tavris would base her tenuous position on convoluted research that was conducted on and relates to girls between the ages of 3 and 5 years--not on mature, rational college-age women whose voices are surely being drowned out by arrogant feminists who are clearly embracing a double standard on this non-issue.

RAND RUBIN

Los Angeles