To the Editor:
I read with appreciation the letter from James F. Conneely, president of Notre Dame of Maryland University (“‘There Remains a Place for Women’s Colleges,’” The Chronicle, January 28). I too believe that we must “not waiver in our belief in the value of single-sex education for young women, because we know that women’s colleges produce confident, capable leaders at disproportionate levels.”
I am one of many alumnae of Wilson College who have spent the last several months urging the administration and Board of Trustees to move forward with confidence and renew Wilson’s mission “of educating women since 1869 through rigorous study of the liberal arts and sciences.” They argued that there are no longer enough young women who are willing to attend single-sex colleges. In my direct conversations and e-mails with many deans of admissions at women’s colleges across the country, I found the opposite to be true (verified by the reported Common Data Set). Applications and enrollments have risen at nearly all women’s colleges, of all sizes, in all geographic locations, for the past two years; and all indications point to growing enrollments in 2013. Indeed, women are the fastest-growing sector of students across all age groups in the United States. This trend is expected to continue for decades.
They argued that inviting men to enroll across all constituencies will not change the women-centered focus of Wilson. They are foolish if they believe this. The results of research, including a study of gender and leadership at Princeton University (“Report of the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership”) and a study conducted by the Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and published on Scientific American’s Web site (“Study Shows Gender Bias in Science is Real”), have documented that gender bias continues to be a challenge in higher education and society in general.
As President Conneely described and scores of graduates of women’s colleges will attest, the experience of learning in a single-sex environment during several of our most formative years is a powerful inoculation against the bias we are certain to experience in our lives as scientists, educators, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and politicians—careers that boast a disproportionate number of women’s-college graduates. Far from being “safe” places, women’s colleges are bastions of empowerment found nowhere else, where young women are propelled into situations where they become leaders, shakers, and movers. They benefit from a focused effort of the institution to raise them up to their fullest potential and to find their strongest voices. These graduates then turn around to hold out a hand to pull other women up the ladders of leadership. It is a powerful, life-altering experience.
I believe the decision to admit men across all constituencies at Wilson College is not only a travesty for the hundreds of young women who might have benefited from that unique and empowering experience I received at Wilson, I believe it was a cowardly decision. I applaud the courage, creative energy, and dedication of administrators and educators at institutions like Notre Dame of Maryland, Sweet Briar College, Bryn Mawr College, and the remaining 45 women’s colleges. I urge you to stay true to your mission. There are thousands of young women counting on you.
Kendal Hopkins
Aspers, Pa.
