I recently had the opportunity to visit Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania on an absolutely gorgeous spring day. I took the opportunity to reflect on the possibilities an all-women’s college creates for young women.
If you prefer, you can have a look at the transcript.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
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Right now, I’m on the campus of Bryn Mawr College which is in suburban Philadelphia, not too far from Haverford College. As I walk around here in the dying light of a beautiful spring day I think, how come all the girls get all the pretty campuses? I mean, this is absolutely, gorgeous and Smith, Mount Holyoke. I mean, come on why do the girls get all the pretty campuses? But it does—when you come to visit a place like this that’s an all women’s school it does make you reflect on what is a women’s education?
I use to teach at an all girls school, a secondary school and I can tell from experience and I think that there really is room for in all women’s education. The opportunities that women have here—you see some of them, very inspirational sayings and phrases that are used in their marketing materials but also just in the walls of the student center. I mean, it’s a very inspiring place for young women and it does eliminate, by not having men on the same campus, it does eliminate some of the distractions. It also eliminates or creates opportunities for women to exert their leadership and to not compete, as it were, with one-half of the species. So I think that there’s some really great reasons why women consider a college like Bryn Mawr and really you’re not that far away from the company of men should that be one of the goals of your college education.
However, for college which use to be kind of a paired college with Bryn Mawr, still is, their campus newspaper is shared and many of their activities and they call it the ‘bi-college arrangement’, there are plenty of opportunities for mixing academically and socially with men on the Haverford campus. Haverford is co-ed, there are both genders on the campus, but again, if you want the company of men you can certainly find it at Haverford and Swarthmore is not that far away. And heck you’re here to study so maybe that is not your main priority if you’re looking for a college campus.
Check out those women’s schools and for those of you who are women and men you’ll just have to visit these campuses and look around and say, “Wow, this is really nice.”
