A Women’s Education in 2018

When I was young, I loved school. Each day was filled with enriching, enjoyable experiences; I learned how to read, discovered the power of writing, found an escape in music and singing, and felt comfortable speaking out and sharing my thoughts in class. I got good grades, liked my teachers, and had fun with the other students; I liked school, and the school setting worked well for me.

However, over the course of middle school, this enjoyment and engagement shifted. Suddenly, I went from having no embarrassment in being the outspoken girl in thick glasses with her hand in the air in the front of the classroom to hearing snickers whenever I spoke up. Boys in my class interrupted me, talked over me, and laughed if I got even the slightest detail wrong.

In some classes, I stopped speaking altogether. Fear of sounding dumb or ill-informed prevented me from asking questions in any STEM-related classes. Even when I was more comfortable in the classroom, namely in humanities and civics classes, I would overthink my response to the point where I would be too anxious to respond. I would not raise my hand unless I help complete confidence in my answer.

I always blamed these fears and behaviors on my own personality. I considered myself a perfectionist and a people pleaser- the exact personality of a person who would be nervous about being wrong and embarrassed in front of others.

However, when I arrived on campus at my women’s college for the first time, I realized that this wasn’t a problem with me. In fact, at the same time that I started to feel anxious about speaking up in class, my fellow female students stopped raising their hands, too. This wasn’t a problem with me or any female student individually, rather the problem was that we were socialized to normalize the tendencies of our male counterparts to interrupt and correct us, so there was no repercussion when this happened.

The environment in classes is different than any academic setting I had experienced thus far.

Conversations are about building off of eachother: using one person’s idea as a launchpad to the next step in the discussion to solve a problem. No one talks over another student, no one critiques or outwardly corrects another. A foundation of mutual respect exists in the foundation of the class, with an understanding that each person’s prior experiences and individual identities are all valid and appreciated.

While I did not set off to attend a women’s college, I fell in love with Barnard College, the women’s undergraduate college of Columbia University, the moment I first walked onto campus. But, when I told others that I would be attending a women’s college, I quickly found myself having to defend my interest. “Oh, well, Barnard is a part of Columbia University, so there’s basically boys everywhere don’t worry!” I would tell people to avoid judgment.

People think that all women’s education is outdated now that most academic institutions are co-ed. The Seven Sisters Colleges, a network of historically women’s liberal arts colleges, were founded to provide a rigorous secondary education to women, predominantly at the beginning of the 20th century, a time in which most academic institutions only allowed male students to enroll. Now, as more institutions become co-ed, only five of the original Seven Sisters schools still exist only for those who identify as women.

My all-women’s education has taught me so much more than just liberal arts. When I leave class, not only have I learned what the professor just lectured, I learn how to have a presence, how to take space, and how not to feel guilty about it. Here I no longer worry about being interrupted or talked over as we have deep conversations about the intersections of our identities. The creation of spaces that allow an oppressed group the ability to talk, think critically about society, and exist absent of the presence of the oppressor leads not only to education, but also to a discovery of self and empowerment.

Not only is all-female education not outdated, it is as important now as it ever has been.