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

<p><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/04/yes_to_womens_colleges/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Op-ed+columns%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/04/yes_to_womens_colleges/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Op-ed+columns&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Interesting article from Simmon's president.
As well as this info:</p>

<p>Women's college graduates make up only two percent of the college-educated population, and yet: </p>

<p>One-third of the women board members of the Fortune 1000 companies are women's college graduates.
Women's college graduates are twice as likely to earn Ph.D.s. A higher percentage go on to study in the sciences and attend medical school.
Of Business Week's 50 highest ranking women in corporate America, 30 percent are women's college graduates.
Of 61 women members of Congress, 20 percent attended women's colleges.</p>

<p>Good post, BJM8. I think it bears repeating.</p>

<p>it is a good point. however, most board members, phds, members of congress, etc are in their 40s-60s, thus they attended college in the 50s-70s, a time when many (most?) elite private colleges were only for men. </p>

<p>the "college-educated population" the article talks about probably includes lots of people in their 20s and 30s who simply aren't old enough to have PhDs, be elected to congress, etc. </p>

<p>so while i think smith was a great place for me and women's colleges can help create amazing leaders, the disproportionate number of female leaders who went to women's colleges will probably shrink as the pool of women who attended Ivies and co-ed elite LACs grows and ages.</p>

<p>it is a good point. however, most board members, phds, members of congress, etc are in their 40s-60s, thus they attended college in the 50s-70s, a time when many (most?) elite private colleges were only for men."</p>

<p>My college (Williams) was admitting women in 1971, and some of the Ivies were earlier. That would make graduates from that period 50-57 years old. So simply take Congresspeople who are between the ages of 40-50, if you like. There are no females from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, the list can go on. </p>

<p>Tammy Baldwin graduated from Smith in 1984. She was born in 1962. You'd think there would be at least one IVY/AWS female grad from that period in Congress? I can tell you that I have read the alumni review from my alm mater for more than three decades, and the record of performance of the female grads is distinctly and decidedly underwhelming - and it doesn't matter whether one looks to politicians, writers, artists, performers, doctors, or business executives. Why that is so is a really good question.</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. </p>

<p>Here are a few reasons why this is true.</p>