Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX has 2 co-ed dorms.
Just looked over their freshman application packet. Gender neutral. Doesn’t ask for male/female designation.
“TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY is an Equal Opportunity University complying
with federal requirements prohibiting discriminatory activities.”
AFAIK, the last public all-women’s school was Douglass College, one of the divisions of Rutgers (the state university of NJ.) A few years back, Rutgers reorganized, merging together many of its separate colleges, including Douglass, although it remains as an all-women’s residential unit.
Yep, one of my great aunts went there back when in was the New Jersey College for Women in the '30s. It was an example of a coordinate college; kind of a compromise between coeducation and single-sex education. An established university wishing to provide women with a college education, but unwilling to fully mix male and female students (or at least undergrads) would establish a semi-seperate women’s college. It would still be part of the university (just like a College of Education or College of Arts & Sciences), governed by the same trustees, and graduates would get degrees from the university (my aunt’s diploma read “Rutgers University” and underneath “New Jersey College for Women”). Women were taught seperately from male undergraduates, had their own government, their own student affairs system, but usually shared faculty. Some other examples would Harvard Univerity’s Radcliffe College, Brown University’s Pembroke College, or Columbia Univerity’s Barnard College.
As a side-effect of that, I ended up in an all-male dorm my freshman year at Rutgers. Douglass College had spare rooms, and Rutgers College needed rooms, but Douglass would only take the women in their rooms. So they had to create some all-male dorms that year to balance it out. It was an interesting year.
I presume it’s because, generally speaking, women don’t like or read sf as much as men. There are always exceptions, of course.
No, it isn’t the gist of it. White people were never excluded from Black colleges. Black people were excluded from colleges except those opened specificially to educate blacks. Or to put in another way, every college in America was a whites-only college, so blacks had to open their own colleges.
And that’s why they’re called “Historically Black Colleges”, not because they excluded whites, but because they were the only colleges black people could attend, and therefore were almost exclusively black. White people weren’t excluded, it’s just that white people didn’t choose to associate with black people back in those days. These black colleges didn’t disappear the day after the Civil Rights laws were signed, because they were perfectly fine colleges.
In the UK only Cambridge Univeristy has female-only colleges (Newham, New Hall, and Lucy Cavendish). Everywhere else is co-ed.
Short answer: it probably WOULDN’T be legal if there were any women-only colleges that were perceived as giving benefits that aren’t available anywhere else.
All-male institutions are challenged (and usually lose) whenever there’s a perception that they provide men with some benefit that women need. VERY few women really want to get into Augusta National Country Club because they love golf, after all- most want to get in because it’s a great career move.
If membership in the all-male Big Shots Club is seen as a stepping stone to success (i.e. members get to rub elbows with movers and shakers who could advance their careers), women will fight to get in, and probably will.
If admission to all-male Old Ivy University is seen as a sure path to wealth and success in corporate America, women will fight like hell to get in, and they’ll probably win.
Now, IF there were any all-female organizations or schools that provided similar benefits, men would be fighting to get in. But there aren’t any such all-female organizations. Smith is a perfectly fine college, but no better than dozens of others. And being a Smith graduate doesn’t get you a foot in the door at many elite companies. So, why would a man be chomping at the bit to go there?
Men won’t fight to get into all-female groups until such times as membership in such groups brings tangible rewards.
Colleges, I believe are administrative units of the University in the UK.
Although at times the same meaning is used in the U.S., by far the more common reading of “College” is as a near synonym for “University” (not identical, but fairly synonymous) referring to an institution of higher education as a whole. So when someone speaks of a “College” that doesn’t admit women/men, they generally refer to an entire institution that does not do so, not a dorm or subunit – as if Cambridge did not admit men at all. Single-sex dorms on campus or other gender segregated living arrangements are perfectly legal and somewhat common within a university/college that is coed as a whole. I believe most universities offer some form of single-sex housing, but it is not the most popular option.
I don’t have a cite, but I seem to recall an NPR story a few years back about some HBCUs practicing reverse affirmative action, offering scholarships to white students.
Also, back when John Ashcroft was named as attorney general there were accusations about him being a racist and his defenders pointed to the fact that he had a son at Howard University as evidence that he wasn’t.
While I completely agree with the gist of your post, I would like to note that joining Augusta National Golf Club is not generally considered a “career move”. By the time you get an invite to join, you’ve moved passed the need to enhance your career. You’ve already been there and done that.
Chronos said:
Perhaps the tone there was a little off. I meant that somewhat jokingly. While I am aware that SF readers are a more balanced lot than, say, pen and paper role players, or scrapbookers, it is my experience that SF readership is skewed male and looked on by society as a primarily male interest. Thus I cannot fathom the situation where the best SF library is at the women’s college.
Well, if your choice is to be surrounded by college-age women who aren’t interested in you or being surrounded by college-age womene who aren’t interested in you and having a book selection, then I can see the easy choice. 
Chief Pedant said:
Way wrong. Faulty assumptions.
As Lemur866 explained, historically black colleges were formed when they were the only colleges that blacks could attend. Once Civil Rights went into effect, they didn’t close down, they continued to offer good educations and opened their doors. They remain skewed in membership because of their history and because many white people don’t consider them. They don’t offer any advantages educationally over other universities, so there is no strong push for whites to pursue them. But because of their heritage, they have a predominate makeup that makes the social environment more friendly to blacks.
My best guess is that Villanova had, at some point in the past, had a librarian who had an irrational dislike for science fiction, and dumped most of the collection, while the librarian at Rosemont at the time saw a bunch of library books available for free or cheap and took them without prejudice. Certainly some of the books in the Rosemont library had Villanova library imprints in them.
Back when I was touring campuses in high school every single college had one or more all-female dorms, only one had an all-male dorm.
My info about Spelman College is a bit out of date. But their policy was that student applications had to include an essay stating their interest in promoting issues of interest to “women of color”. (Yes, that was the phrase used.) So while a white student can apply, their essay might not go over so well. OTOH, Spelman routinely gave scholarships to two Eastern European women a year. Basically they were the only white students you would see.
Note that “women of color” is very broad. Various mixed race individuals attend. In addition, the actual skin color of many students can be quite pale. Race is a concept and not an easily discernible characteristic in such situations.
The really sad part is that students from Africa are looked down upon by the US students. They stick out because of their very dark skin. A theme similar to this was central to Spike Lee’s movie School Daze which was set in an AUC-type system.
Speaking of Spike Lee, he went berserk one time giving at talk at Morehouse (his alma mater) because there was a white student sitting up front. (From the medical school, which is more diverse.) Ugh.
There’s a whole lot of discrimination going on at these places, just not officially. I was verbally harassed my first time walking across Morehouse campus. It was also the day after the Rodney King verdict, so things were especially tense.
I am against mono-cultures of any type at any level of education as a result of my experiences.
That’s a rather broad statement – one that is not necessarily true. You haven’t known all of the African students and their relationships with all of the US students.
Did you feel that the education you received was less than promised?
The date that you referred to was in the mid-1980s. At that time there was a lot of evidence that male students got more attention in co-ed classes than female students. That may have been a factor in the provision of single=sex education for girls. Look at it this way though. If they were taking very many of the girls out of the classes, that had to lead to more male dominated classrooms.
You and others beat me to it. And the notion that schools such as Fisk University are less competitive is just ignorant. (I choose Fisk as an example because it is the one that I am most familiar with.)
Money Magazine has rated Fisk University among the nation’s “100 Best College Buys” for 15 consecutive years.
Imagine that! There might even come a time around the turn of the Twenty-First Century when more women than men will be admitted to Harvard and then that once all-male university will have to lower their standards just a bit in an affirmative gesture to let more males it. That’s what Sixty Minutes will say anyway.
In case readers are curious (I was), random links found in google tell me the male/female ratio at Harvard is currently 49/51. Nationally, it’s 43/57.
If I may ask, what’s your race?
Speaking as a “privileged” white Christian male… I have never supported any kind of affirmative action. I want Harvard Medical School to take the best of the best applicants. And if that means the incoming class is 50% Asian, 40% Jewish, and 70% female, so be it.
Zakalwe’s point is well taken- Augusta National Country Club is not an ideal example of an all-male club that would bestow a lot of career benefits to women who might be admitted. I suspect that, one day soon, they’ll offer a membership to someone like Sandra Day O’Connor or Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi… but really, what tangible benefits could membership give those women? How much higher could either woman go in her profession?
Still, there are all sorts of athletic clubs where membership gives a major career boost. Imagine a hypothetical all-male club- the Old Boys Golf and Racquet Club. Even if the club rules state clearly that “No business may be discussed here,” and even if that rule is enforced, the fact remains, a man who joins will MEET important people he can schmooze with and talk business with later. A young female marketing executive may legitimately argue that she’s at a huge disadvantage if she’s barred from joining, because the young male marketing execs are meeting potential future clients there.
Regardless, there’s sometimes a very fine line between a friendly, private social group (which even the most rabid feminist would probably agree should be allowed to pick and choose who joins) and an outpost of the Old Boy Network. Practically no women would fight to join the Cheeseheads Club if the members were blue collar guys who just liked to get drunk and watch Packer football games together at a local bar. On the other hand, if a lot of the richest men in town were members of the Cheeseheads Club, I’d bet that SOME women would start fighting to get admitted, looking at the club as a place she could start networking.
It works the same way with schools. Suppose the Citadel was a private all-male military school. Do many women really want to get buzzcuts, scrub toilets with their toothbrushes and listen to upperclassmen abuse them (as they’ve always abused MALE underclassmen)? I doubt it. Not UNLESS there was a perception that Citadel grads held an inordinate number of CEO jobs and high political offices in South Carolina. IF it appeared that a network of Citadel alumni dominated politics in South Carolina, women would definitely fight to get in.
Are there any all-female clubs or female schools where a male would feel a similar urge to get admitted? Is there a powerful “Old Girls Network” anywhere that could make or break a man’s career?
I don’t see one. And until there is such a school or club, you won’t find any males trying seriously to get into one.
Actually, right now women outperform men at undergraduate enrollment (graduate and professional school enrollment too) academic performance, and honors. Some highly selective colleges, the New York Times reports, are favoring men in addmissions, in order to keep numbers up.
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/ecn/starkey/ECN386%20-Race,Gender,%20Class/girls_boys_college.pdf
(You could not get all of this 15-page article online, which is why I linked to this PDF)