Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 12, 1990 TAG: 9005140203
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The young woman seeking admission to all-male VMI ought to have a place there as a cadet. But there also should be a place in higher education for women's schools.
The answer on coeducation at VMI and at Mills is different, for one reason: The military school is a state institution, while the Oakland, Calif., college is private.
A tax-supported college has a responsibility to be accessible to the taxpayers, a good number of whom are women. The other state colleges and universities in Virginia that used to be women's schools are all coed now. VMI should be, too.
But, putting the public-private question aside, is there any reason for women's colleges to exist? Are women's colleges an obstacle to equality between the sexes?
The answer is there's indeed a reason for women's colleges to exist, and the reason is that they enhance efforts to promote equality. Women's schools can help women develop into strong adults in a way coeducational schools sometimes do not.
Studies have shown that women's intellectual development is greater at women's colleges than at coed institutions, for instance. In classes with men, even the brightest women tend not to participate as much.
The reasons that men dominate coed classrooms are subtle, and involve styles of communication. Research shows the patterns begin in childhood, according to Eleanor Maccoby, a developmental psychologist at Stanford University.
Little girls as young as 3 are seldom passive with each other, she says, but will often let little boys have the toys. When children begin to try to influence their playmates, the boys tend to ignore girls' efforts but will respond to each other.
Studies also show that the leadership abilities women develop at women's colleges carry over in the working world. Only 1.5 percent of the women who receive higher education go to women's colleges, but those who do take a much greater share of leadership roles held by women.
Some statistics, provided by Hollins College:
Among the 24 women who are members of Congress, more than 40 percent attended women's colleges.
Thirty percent of Business Week's 50 highest-ranking women in corporate America are graduates of women's colleges.
Among women listed in "Who's Who in America," alumnae of women's colleges outnumber graduates of coed institutions by 2-1.
This is not to say that women's colleges are better than coed schools - only that they should remain an option available to young women.
Ours is still a male-dominated society. Call women's colleges remedial training, if you will. But for the time being they give women opportunities for achievement that may be harder to come by elsewhere. To eliminate women's schools would not, for now, move us closer to equality.
by CNB