ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOANNE V. CREIGHTON
IN THE DAYS since the Supreme Court's decision declaring the exclusion of women from the Virginia Military Institute unconstitutional, some commentators have argued that this ruling will spell the death of private women's colleges.
This equation of the wrongful exclusion of women from a unique state-supported military educational institution with the existence of private colleges for women was discounted by the court in its 7-1 decision; it also reveals a profound ignorance of the history of American higher education.
The Wall Street Journal, one of the more shrill voices denouncing the court's ruling, editorialized that ``the VMI case's most enduring irony has been the sight of private women's colleges, some bastions of feminist theory, asserting that they ought to be granted special exemptions.'' The Journal praises the furious dissenting opinion of Justice Antonin Scalia, who argues that the logic used to strike down the exclusion of women from institutions such as VMI and The Citadel will inevitably lead to the end of private women's colleges.
These critiques overlook, perhaps intentionally, fundamental differences between institutions such as The Citadel and VMI, and women's colleges. The Citadel and VMI have employed exclusionary admissions policies to deny women opportunities on the theory - based on stereotyped and unsupported notions of women's capabilities - that women are not able to handle the demands of the education these institutions provide.
The very history of women's colleges, on the other hand, is rooted in the opposite notion; that the potential of women to achieve in areas historically closed to them is limitless if given the opportunity for education. The rationale for women's education does not rest on negative stereotypes of men; rather, it responds to the historic and present-day condition and needs of women.
In the 19th century, Mary Lyon, a pioneer in higher education for women, pursued her vision for a school in spite of enormous opposition to the simple notion that women should be afforded the opportunity for higher education. The founding by Lyon of what was then called the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, in 1837, served as the inspiration for the founding of other institutions of higher education for women: Vassar opened in 1865, Smith in 1871, and Wellesley in 1875. Others followed as the principle of education for women as a positive step for American society gradually gained favor.
Still, just 30 years ago, women were not considered for admission to Harvard or Yale, or to now-coeducational liberal-arts colleges such as Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams, to name a few. The women's colleges remained essentially the only option for female high-school graduates seeking a rigorous post-secondary education at a private institution. By the early '70s, the Ivy League universities and many other first-rate all-male colleges had gone coed.
During this period, some of the nation's women's colleges, such as Vassar, decided to coeducate as well, and exist today as excellent coeducational liberal-arts colleges. Other women's colleges, however, decided to remain single-sex.
Not surprisingly, modes of teaching, learning and living have evolved differently at the women's colleges than at the coeducational institutions. Graduates of women's colleges feel their education prepares them in ways a coeducational institution could not - prepares them to trust in their abilities to defy stereotypes, and to lead in their chosen field in the coeducational world beyond their alma mater's gates.
A growing body of literature suggests that women benefit educationally and personally from the uniquely rigorous and supportive culture found at women's colleges, and that the world benefits from the ``uncommon women'' who go out from these institutions determined to make a difference in the world. And they do make a difference, to a degree that is disproportionate in their numbers.
In its decision recently, the court recognized these realities, supporting the conclusion - which is indeed self-evident to anyone who spends time at an excellent women's college - that ``the beneficial effects'' of single-sex education are particularly strong for women.
And, while VMI is public (supported by taxpayers) and offers a unique brand of education in a specialized field, private women's colleges such as Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr and Barnard co-exist among a large group of peer institutions that are available to men and offer the same general brand of rigorous education in the liberal arts. The climates vary from campus to campus, but the curricula are similar, and degrees from these institutions carry similar weight in the eyes of employers and graduate schools. The court explicitly recognizes in its ruling the important role of single-sex schools in offering young people a diversity of educational opportunities.
The history of the founding of women's colleges in this country is a great American story of courage, vision and perseverance displayed by women such as Mary Lyon and Sophia Smith and men such as Matthew Vassar and Henry Fowle Durant. The critics of women's colleges, and those who simplistically equate our admissions policies to those of VMI and The Citadel, would do well to learn about it.
Joanne V. Creighton is president of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass.
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