published in The State, October 17, 2006

A major strength of U.S. higher education is the diversity of institutions. Important roles are played by research institutions, religious colleges, technical institutes and military academies. Certainly no one would argue that our system would be better with the loss of any of these or that any one is right for all students.

The role for women’s colleges has been questioned recently after the decisions of the boards of both Randolph Macon Women’s College in Virginia and Regis College in Massachusetts to break with their tradition of women’s education by going coed. This has raised the question of whether the idea of single-gender education is still relevant. The answer lies in whether measurable differences exist in the outcomes for graduates of women’s colleges and in whether the benefits they receive are important for their futures and for society.

In a time when the U.S. Office of Technology Policy reports a serious deficit in the number of qualified workers in technology, it also reports that women earn more than half of all the bachelor’s degrees awarded but less than a quarter of the degrees in computer and information sciences in American academic institutions. Graduates of women’s colleges, however, are more than twice as likely as their peers who graduated from coed programs to hold traditionally male-dominated positions in technology, medicine and economics. They are also more than twice as likely to complete graduate degrees.

The explanation for these remarkable statistics is likely found in a study released by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research this summer. Among the findings reported by the study, which based its information on the National Survey of Student Engagement, are that women’s college students report:

• challenging academic experiences and more integrative learning.
• greater support for success.
• high student-faculty interaction leading to positive educational differences.
• classroom conditions that encourage students to collaborate more with peers, actively participate in class and integrate ideas.
• an environment that fuels women's understanding of self and others and the development of skills associated with career success and leadership.
• support for developing quantitative skills.

The report concludes: “For more than two decades, proponents of women’s colleges have asserted that such institutions offer female students a more equitable, and therefore higher quality, developmentally powerful learning environment. Our findings support this claim and plainly indicate that single-sex colleges are not an anachronistic post-secondary option for women.”

With results like these, why would a young woman eager for success choose not to consider a woman’s college? The answer, of course, is all too often that she fears that her social life will suffer. The findings of a 2003 study at Duke, however, paint a different picture.

The study found that for undergraduate women in that coed environment social pressures lead to eating disorders, lowered self-image and stress-related illnesses. The study found that the “environment enforces fairly stringent norms on undergraduate women, who feel pressure to wear fashionable (and often impractical) clothes and shoes, to diet and exercise excessively, and to hide their intelligence in order to succeed with their male peers. Being ‘cute’ trumps being smart for women in the social environment.”

While it is true that the social environment that gave rise to women’s colleges in the 1800s has changed dramatically, it is also true that their mission to meet the needs of both individuals and society remains valid today. In the 19th century, it was important to change the culture by ensuring that women as well as men would develop their minds. In the 20th century, women worked for the right to vote and equal rights for all. Today’s female leaders must be able to envision themselves as empowered with the confidence, skills and knowledge to solve 21st century global problems.

The results of the Indiana University study using the National Survey of Student Engagement, which analyzed responses from more than 40,000 students, including almost 5,000 from women’s colleges, clearly make the case that today’s women’s colleges are successfully producing those female leaders.

Women’s colleges produced Madeleine Albright, Marian Wright Edelman, Jean Toal and Karen Williams, as well as many other outstanding women. It is exciting to imagine what future leaders are benefiting from the power of a women’s college today.