I attend a women’s college. For me, I never looked to attend one but I just fell in love with the small size and close knit community. It’s like a family and the alumnae network is so strong. Most of the students did not actively seek out a women’s college but we are for the most part very feminist but I would expect nothing less. My college has such a unique culture full of traditions that I doubt would exist if it was a co-Ed college.
“Schools” typically aren’t sexist. Departments - professors - those may be sexist, depending on who is working in them. Certain sciences, such as Chemistry and Physics, have reputations for being less female-friendly than others, especially for those pursuing advanced degrees and professorships, but that also means many schools are making efforts to make those disciplines more welcoming to women.
Some students learn much better in a homogenous setting. Others learn better in a heterogeneous setting. That’s one of the great strengths of the American university system - there is such a variety of schools to choose from, whatever your gender, religious, sports, ethnic, urban, Greek, or other setting is preferred. If you dislike a particular type of school, that make it easy to narrow your list. But it could be the perfect fit for someone else.
I went to a women’s college (Spelman). I attended for a lot of the reasons people here already mentioned - I had so many female role models in positions of leadership and scholarship on campus, and I loved the small all-women classes and the emphasis on women’s place in society (historically, scientifically, politically, etc.) in our curriculum. Being in a science/math department that celebrates the contributions of women (and is taught by black women) or a history class that emphasizes the contributions of women just feels different and empowering. I feel like it taught me to never undersell myself or think that I am less capable of leading because I am a woman.
My husband attended Morehouse College - although he eventually transferred out, he was there for four years - which is right across the street from Spelman. I think single-sex at men’s colleges means something different…I only have secondhand experiences, but it’s my sense that the intersection of Morehouse being a men’s college and an HBCU makes the atmosphere, much like Spelman’s atmosphere is made by the intersection of being historically black and for women. African American men have low college attendance and graduation rates and face other challenges in modern Western life, and Morehouse’s curriculum and culture does a lot to instill, strength, confidence (so. much. confidence. LOL) and power in their students. There’s also a strong sense of brotherhood and fellowship established.
From a Constitutional perspective, if the Equal Rights Amendment had passed, single-sex colleges may have instantly become beyond the sanction of law.
Are the reasons that men choose men’s colleges pretty much the same as the reasons women choose women’s colleges (which have been more widely discussed)? Just wondering if there are any common differences.
@halcyonheather : Selectivity differences (i.e., women’s colleges can be highly selective) may overwhelm other factors when considering today’s single-sex colleges, so direct comparisons across women’s and men’s colleges as they currently exist may be difficult. Historically, however, the students at the Seven Sisters and their male counterparts at the single-sex NESCAC and Ivy League colleges may have approached their choices from a similar perspective. In the past, for that matter, the pursuit of a single-sex education seems to have been simply a conventional, rarely questioned path.
My data’s a little old, but at one time (80s?) they did a study and something like 75+% of the speaking in coed undergraduate classrooms was done by the male students. Regardless of whether that’s due to the professor, the tendencies of the male students, or the tendencies of the females, it is not as robust an academic experience if one’s voice is not heard. That’s the best argument I see for the value of an all-women’s environment, for some women.
I hope that trend is changing, and many people in academia look forward to the day that an all-women’s college is no longer necessary. But we are not quite there yet.
@pickpocket, if I’m recalling the same study, a majority (or significant percentage) of males in the study had the perception that women were talking more than they actually were. Many men thought that, by speaking up at all, women were dominating when, in fact, women were speaking less than men.
I graduated from Hampden-Sydney and enjoyed the experience. Since it was the only college I attended, I can’t really compare it with anywhere else. The students at H-SC are generally politically and socially conservative, but you can still find liberal students. Most of the students are white and upper middle class, but we still have racial and economic diversity. I don’t know why, but H-SC’s graduation rate is apparently higher than the graduation rate for men at co-ed schools. I didn’t got to H-SC because it’s a men’s college. It just felt like the right place for me when I visited. Coincidentally, my wife went to a college for women.