GETTING READY

WOMEN'S COLLEGES

BE A CHAMPION; ENROLL AT A WOMEN'S COLLEGE

Dr. Wendy B. Libby, president of Stephens College

What do Madeleine Albright (first female Secretary of State), Katharine Hepburn (four-time Academy Award winner and leading screen legend of the 20th century) and Paula Zahn (CNN news anchor and accomplished cellist) have in common?

It’s no coincidence that these successful women all attended a women’s college. Wellesley, Bryn Mawr and Stephens, respectively. Many women don’t actively seek to attend a single-sex institution, but overwhelmingly, those who attend or who have graduated from one are deeply aware of their benefits, ranging from the social and emotional to the intellectual and professional. They become champions of the women’s college experience.

“Typically, young women first become interested in us because we offer a major in their area of interest — fashion, equestrian, theatre, for instance,” says David Adams, dean of enrollment services at Stephens College, the second-oldest women’s college in the country. “Once on campus, they begin to realize how remarkably supportive and empowering it is to be surrounded by women.”

According to the Women’s College Coalition, studies have found that women’s college alumnae:

• Are more successful in careers; that is, they tend to hold higher positions, are happier, and earn more money.
• Have a higher percentage of majors in economics, math and life science today than men at coeducational colleges.
• Have more opportunities to hold leadership positions and are able to observe women functioning in top jobs (90 percent of the presidents and 55 percent of the faculty are women).
• Report greater satisfaction than their coed counterparts with their college experience in almost all measures — academically, developmentally, and personally.
• Continue toward doctorates in math, science and engineering in disproportionately large numbers.
• Develop measurably higher levels of self-esteem than other achieving women in coeducational institutions. After two years in coeducational institutions, women have been shown to have lower levels of self-esteem than when they entered college.
• Score higher on standardized achievement tests.
• Are more likely to graduate.

Women’s colleges provide an educational setting that allows women to concentrate on their studies and their own personal growth without distractions typically associated with coeducational classrooms. Women at single-sex colleges tend to participate more fully in class, collaborate with peers, voice their opinions, fill more leadership roles and ultimately derive more from their education than women at coeducational colleges.

Dr. Wendy B. Libby is president of Stephens College, a four-year women’s college in Columbia, Missouri