Women’s Colleges Give Students an Edge--and an ‘Old-Girls’ Network’

Joan Rivers, Alice Walker, Geraldine Ferraro and Gloria Steinem.

What do these very different women have in common? They all graduated from women’s colleges.

And they all knew something that too many college-bound women today don’t: There are numerous and powerful advantages that graduates of women’s colleges enjoy over female grads from co-ed schools.

Probably the strongest reason to consider an all-women’s college is the sex discrimination that still occurs in most American college classrooms, despite hundreds of reports that document and discourage it.

Among the organizations that have studied the subject are the American Assn. of Colleges, the American Assn. of University Women, the U.S. Department of Education and the Women’s College Coalition.

Again and again, they have concluded that males in co-ed college classrooms demand and receive more attention from faculty and peers. They are allowed to dominate and steer class discussions.

Females, meanwhile, get less eye contact, less attention when they speak, and are interrupted more frequently by faculty and fellow students.

The studies have also documented a variety of ways in which women are subtly discouraged from math, science, business and other courses that are male-dominated.

In many respects, the primary benefits for students at all-women’s colleges seem similar to those enjoyed by blacks at traditionally black colleges: freedom from discrimination and prejudice; more opportunities to practice leadership; decision-making and self-expression; more role models from one’s own group; a tailored curriculum that includes courses of special interest, in addition to the standard university curriculum, and development of self-esteem that fortifies them for encountering discrimination in the work world.

In addition, students at women’s schools are better able to study and learn without the social pressures of men in the classroom.

There is some concrete evidence to support such claims.

Consider the following findings by the Department of Education, the Women’s College Coalition and other surveying groups:

* Women’s colleges produce a higher percentage of females with degrees in physical science, life sciences, math, economics and business.

* Women attending all-female schools are twice as likely to pursue their Ph.D.

* These schools also place a higher percentage of women in traditionally male career fields, and at a higher peg on the salary scale.

* Graduates of women’s colleges are two to three times more likely to be high career achievers than female grads from co-ed schools. They are six times more likely to be on the boards of Fortune 500 companies or to be named in Business Week’s list of outstanding corporate women.

* And the median salary for grads of all-women schools is typically $8,000 more than for women from co-ed campuses.

In fact, considering that women’s colleges enroll only about 2% of America’s college women, it is astounding that they contributed 13 of the 31 women in the 102nd Congress and one-third of the women on boards of Fortune 1,000 companies.

In addition, women’s college graduates contribute more to their alma maters and support more philanthropic activities than graduates of co-ed colleges.

Women’s colleges also offer an “old-girls’ network,” which works much like the old-boys’ network that has helped many men rise in the career world. It includes internship and mentor programs and large alumnae networks to help these women pull each other up the ladder of success.

Of course, as with any major life decision, there are some potential drawbacks to consider.

Money is, I suspect, the most serious obstacle. Because of sex-discrimination laws and regulations connected to public funding, women’s colleges are of necessity private colleges, with tuition rates considerably higher than public institutions.

However, most women’s colleges are now aggressively recruiting and offering scholarships, loans and other financial aid.

Some parents fear that four years or more at a women’s college may turn their daughters into militant man-haters. On the contrary, about three quarters of women’s college alumnae have been married and half have children.

The absence of men is another possible drawback, but fear not: Most women’s colleges are located near co-ed schools, and about 90% of them have cross-registration programs.

In addition, most women’s campuses organize social, cultural, and recreational activities and trips with nearby co-ed schools.

That means that students at women’s colleges master the best of all worlds: quality learning during the week, quality socializing on the weekends and a better shot at success in the future.