Women’s schools: Feminist, not elitist

It seems ironical that women—who continue to struggle for empowerment and true equality, so much so that the whole month of March has to be devoted to activities that would call attention to their plight—may need the educational environment of a school exclusively for them to achieve the goal that much faster.

Officials of still exclusive and former women’s schools tend to agree that single-sex classrooms are much more likely to achieve the goal of true gender parity much more quickly, although they differ at what level or up to when exclusivity should be an option.

Dr. Rosario Lapus, president of Miriam College, the former Maryknoll, says the reason for having girls’ schools is different now. “(Before) it was for safety, security, convenience, heritage factor—your mother went to this school—(but new studies show) that girls are disadvantaged by going to a coed school, especially if they are not ready. In a single-sex school, you are provided the support and given the chance to find and develop your voice, develop your own personality until you go out into the world.”

Miriam, Assumption College and St. Scholastica’s College (SSC) are the only three remaining members of the Association of Catholic Women’s Colleges.

Miriam, which briefly tried to go coeducational, gives students the skills they need and prepares them for the bigger world outside, Lapus says. Students are helped to establish their personalities and individualities before they leave the campus.

Different psyche

Pinky Valdes, Assumption associate dean, says the school decided “to stay single-sex because a woman’s psyche and ways of developing are different from men’s.” She adds, “Assumption aims to create transformative leaders … We want to give young women every possible chance and opportunity (to prepare for leadership roles) while in school.”

Valdes says Assumption, like Miriam, briefly tried going coed in the 1970s by allowing students to cross-enroll at the Ateneo de Manila University, before deciding that its goal was really to educate women.

The dean notes that men and women remain unequal in the workplace, hence, the need to provide women with the tools to assert their rights.

She points out, for instance, that until last year prizes for men and women players at the Wimbledon tennis competition were not the same—the women got less than the men. She says women need to be educated and given every possible opportunity by preparing them to take their rightful place.

Lapus sees no inconsistency in the struggle for gender equality and educating women in exclusive schools. “Giving them (girls) a good beginning makes them strong enough to cope with the demands outside,” she says.

“In a sense, (the girls’ school education) is giving them an edge because, by the time they leave, they are ready,” she says.

Lapus says students get the empowering “gender-fair” education not just in the classroom. The faculty and the whole college community are expected to promote the concept, as well.

Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB, head of the Association of Major Religious Superiors and former St. Scholastica’s College (SSC) president, says, “It is actually a feminist option to be in a single-gender school. In fact in the US, when there was a move to make single-gender colleges coed, feminists protested…. In a single gender school, the girls and women have to take positions of leadership as presidents of the class, as moderators of clubs, as officers of the student council, etc. This trains them for leadership—in decision making, in collective and participatory management, in organization, in delegation, in proper communication, etc.”

Mananzan is unlikely to let SSC be anything but a champion of women’s rights. She is, after all, cofounder and chairperson of the most influential feminist group in the country, Gabriela.

“Introduction to Women’s Studies is an obligatory subject (for SSC students), a prerequisite to graduation,” she says. “All the different departments take the women’s perspective into consideration in each of their subjects, given the fact that the mainstream approach of all disciplines is generally (from a male perspective).”

In fact, at SSC, even the 50 or so men enrolled in the college departments of fine arts and music (“This is a concession to them because we know that our music and fine arts departments are among the best in the country.”) also take up gender studies.

As for preparing the women for the outside world, Mananzan points out, “The students are not boarders and so they have a lot of time for interaction with men outside the school.”

Amelou Benitez-Reyes, president of Philippine Women’s College of Davao, an affiliate of Philippine Women’s University (PWU), agrees that empowerment and exclusive education can coexist. “But you (women) have to be aware. Without awareness of issues, concerns, rights, you do not learn that you are capable of doing things on your own. But women should also be taught partnership, collaboration and participation vis-à-vis the opposite sex so they do not domineer,” she says.

Clear mission

It was more than just the lack of numbers—not enough male students—that prompted Miriam to revert to being an exclusive girls’ school. Lapus says the school decided it had to establish a clear mission and clear identity by providing education to women who would be leaders in service.

“We believed (it was our mission) to educate women in service,” Lapus says. “We felt our resources were best put to use educating girls. That’s what we do best.”

Teaching the different sexes requires different strategies, Lapus says. In science and mathematics, for instance, what would make boys interested in the subjects may not work for girls. “(Girls) like to work as a group, they like collaborative work and they like more practical, realistic problems rather than (abstractions),” Lapus says.

Reyes says PWU, the first women’s university in Asia, decided to go coed after boys’ schools Ateneo and De La Salle University decided to open their doors to girls. PWU lost its niche. But the university maintains a high school exclusively for girls because Reyes says it is important “that the formative years of the girls (be spent) in an all-women environment.”

Reyes says high school in particular should be single sex. “Some parents really do not want their daughters to (be mixed) with the boys at too early an age because they feel there are certain issues, certain concerns—the emotional growth of the women—that must be considered and attended to by women,” she says.

Reyes says that during the formative years, girls are able to maximize their development because they are not trying to prove themselves to the opposite sex. “You discover yourself not vis-à-vis a man…. If there are men, you are not able to develop fully your potential because you are influenced by their presence.” She says girls should have the freedom to develop not in relation to men and be able to focus solely on their development as women.

Valdes says, “I personally think grade school can be coeducational. High school should be single-sex because teenage years are extremely difficult from the emotional point of view. The needs of teenage boys are different from teenage girls. They are dealing with so many issues and struggling through these adolescent changes … let’s give the boys and girls space to make mistakes and be awkward without being judged by the opposite sex whom they are trying to impress. As teenagers they need to be addressed separately.”

Exclusivity, particularly for girls, has often been equated with elitism.

Although Valdes thinks the issue will always “hang around,” she stresses that single-sex education is really more about gender issues. “We just have to accept it (elitist perception) because it is there and just keep doing what we believe we do best. (The girls’ schools) did not set out to teach only the upper stratum of society … perhaps it is because we did our job well that the ‘elite’ wanted their children to be educated (in) these schools,” she says.

Although Valdes says she encourages students to choose which will suit them best—university or college—she stresses that “women’s colleges know women. We ‘get it’ … we know how women think, feel … we know the pain and the struggle women need to face. Women today need to be ‘super’ women because they have to do it all.”

The capacity to multitask is one of the feminine characteristics exclusive schools seek to enhance and strengthen.

Valdes says, with all the broken marriages that leave women alone to fend for themselves and/or their children, they have to teach women to cope and survive on their own. The smallness of colleges allow them to deal with individuals and their personal issues, she points out.

Far from being irrelevant in the 21st century, single-sex education, the Assumption dean says, has become even more necessary. “I truly believe that the 21st century is the true emergence of women in leadership in many fields. We want to help women any way we can to take their roles … There are many schools devoted to or focused on specialties … Why not give young women our focused attention in a school that understands women?”

Reyes says, “The women in the next millennium will have a greater responsibility, as they bring in the concept of ‘womenomics.’” Women provide a great value to the economy, as 80 percent of the world’s purchasing power is in their hands.

Valdes says she cannot tell if Assumption will remain as is. “As for now Miriam, St. Scholastica’s and Assumption have demonstrated that we graduate excellent transformative leaders … We have continued to evolve to meet the needs of the times. We want to do what we do best—educate women.”