Why All Women's Schools: The SMITH Experience (REVISITED)

Colleges & Universities Smith College
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<p>Here’s a little data that speaks to why women’s colleges do support the belief of an ageless women’s network. There is a distinct difference between 4 year women’s colleges and 4 year private coed colleges in preparing women in the areas regularly dominated by men.</p>

<p>Special Circumstances Continue to Make Women’s Colleges Attractive to Female Students </p>

<p>Traditionally male-dominated fields include mathematics, computer sciences, and physical sciences. There is evidence that when private 4-year women’s colleges were compared with all private 4-year institutions by Carnegie classification, they conferred upon women equal or larger proportions of bachelor’s degrees in traditionally male-dominated fields than the norm for private 4-year colleges within their Carnegie classification. However, there is more dramatic evidence that women are represented in greater numbers in the professional staffs and faculty of women’s colleges than at similar institutions of higher education. For Fall 1993, women were over 70 percent of all executive, administrative, and managerial positions at women’s colleges, and were over half of all full-time and part-time faculty, these were much higher percentages than the norm for private 4-year colleges within each Carnegie classification. Also, as full-time faculty at women’s colleges, women received higher average salaries than women at similar institutions of higher education. </p>

<p>The Institutional Effects of Women’s Colleges </p>

<p>Some research on women’s colleges includes findings that these colleges encourage leadership skills in women, provide women with more female role models, and that they encourage women to focus on traditionally male-dominated fields of study. However, other research finds that factors such as the level of selectivity of the college may play a part in the institution’s positive effects on students. </p>

<p>A review of the research on women’s colleges reveals that this research focuses primarily on studying the effects of attending a single-sex institution on the educational outcomes and career aspirations of young women. Much of this research seeks to ascertain differences between women who chose women’s colleges and those who attend coeducational institutions.</p>