Women and American Higher Education

This article traces the history of the develop ment of higher educational opportunities f or women in the United States. The first part shows that the development of higher education for women has been closely related to the economy's need for female workers with particular skills and to the financial needs of colleges and universities. Secondly, it documents that neither the difference between the educa tional resources offered to men and women, nor the gap be tween the income going to men and women with the same level of educational attainment, has been significantly reduced. The second half of the article illustrates how institutions of higher education have generally been characterized by the competitive, egotistical, and entrepreneurial culture to which men have been socialized. It then portrays an alternative culture, a culture of cooperation, community, and creativity. The history of women's higher education sketched in this paper suggests that neither educational equality for women nor a cooperative hybrid model of social relations is likely to be realized within the present economic structure. Persons who want academia or any other sphere of life to be charac terized by cooperative, egalitarian social relations need to actively concern themselves with questions regarding the nature of the economy and its influence on every aspect of human life and social relations within our society.