As the most prestigious exclusively male colleges and universities began to admit women in the 1970s and early 1980s, many women's colleges also became coeducational. Simultaneously, a significant number of women's colleges closed due to financial exigency. As a result, the number of women's colleges in the United States decreased from 233 in 1960 to only 84 institutions in 1992 [8, 40]. Today, women's colleges educate fewer than 3 percent of all women attending postsecondary institutions [38]. Many believed that the shift away from single sex institutions to coeducational ones served both sexes better. According to Lasser, advocates and critics alike unquestioningly held equal education for women and men to be synonymous with coeducation [17, p. 2]. As more institutions have become coeducational, however, indicates that women's experiences at coeducational institutions are not always equal to the experiences of their male counterparts. Women are often treated as the norm and as second-class citizens on coeducational college and university campuses [23, p. 5). Similarly, researchers describe the campus climate for women at coeducational colleges as chilly both in and outside the classroom [12, 13]. Studies of classroom interaction in coeducational environments conclude that men are called on more often in class than women and that men's comments are taken more seriously [12, 14, 15, 18, 26]. Out of the classroom, women in coeducational institutions also experience micro-inequities, everyday behaviors that discount or ignore someone on the basis of gender, race, or age [13]. Similarly, Holland and Eisenhart discovered that the peer culture within coeducational environments emphasizes the value of romantic relationships for women, while emphasizing the value of academics, athletics, and other achievements for men [14]. Outcomes associated with coeducational postsecondary institutions include depressed cognitive development, lowered educational aspirations and attainment, and lowered self-esteem and self-confidence for female students when compared to their male counterparts [14, 18, 23, 26]. At the same time, there is a significant body of literature that demonstrates that women's colleges have a direct, positive impact on their students. Compared to women at coeducational institutions, for example, students at women's colleges are more satisfied with their overall college experience [2, 3, 28]; are more likely to major in nontraditional fields [6, 27, 31, 33]; and express higher levels of self-esteem and leadership skills [2, 3, 19, 26, 28, 33, 34]. Reflecting on these findings, Pascarella and Terenzini assert that the tends to those who claim that a women's college provides a uniquely supportive climate for women to explore themselves and other members of their gender in a wide range of intellectual and social leadership roles [22, p. 383]. In addition, other researchers have found that students who have attended women's colleges are more likely to graduate, to have high expectations of themselves, to attend graduate school, and to be successful in their adult lives [2, 3, 20, 25, 26, 28, 32, 34]. Reviewing the literature on the impact of attending a women's college, Pascarella and Terenzini conclude that the research evidence of the last twenty years provides a modestly strong educational argument for their [women's colleges] preservation and public support [22, p. 639]. It is important to note, however, that in addition to the positive findings on women's colleges there exists some skepticism about the effects of attending a women's college, especially with regard to their impact on career and postgraduation outcomes. Specifically, Stoecker and Pascarella used longitudinal data to create a path model to predict five measures of career attainment, while controlling for student background characteristics and initial goals as well as for college selectivity and size. …
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Open Access
Jan 1, 2018
Hani Mansour + 3
