Posted By Erin on June 28, 2009

June 27, 2009 / Part 2 of a 2-part Series

The bad side of attending a women’s college is the hypocrisy of it all. My 4 years spent at two women’s colleges were pocked with incidents of discrimination — or reverse discrimination — depending on how you looked at it.

For three years I attended and graduated from Mills College, a liberal arts institution of about 1,000 women located in Oakland, California. My junior year was spent at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, a campus of about 2,000 female students. 

For much of my time at Mills, there was a clearly defined notion of what a feminist was – and certainly what one looked liked. At this school (but not at all women’s college, as evidenced by my time back East), a feminist happened to be a little butch, barefoot, tattooed, preferably with a nose ring. At this particular school, dating boys, wearing make-up, and ironing your clothes, was not the feminist ideal.

Feminism to me is about women’s equality: the right of women to have equal opportunities and equal compensation. It’s not about white girls with dreadlocks (WGWD). The fact that I was considered less a feminist (or worse, not a feminist at all) because of how I looked, landed me right back where I started in high school. Being treated based on people’s perceptions and misperceptions.

Part of me says that this is actually the real world and one argument against women’s education is that it’s an artificial environment.  I’ll also acknowledge that maybe it wasn’t wearing make-up that led to my feelings of alienation in college, but because of a repulsive personality. (Ironing one’s clothes before class is an annoying trait.)

While those reasons might be contributing factors, discrimination among women, particularly within the women’s movement, exists. A good friend of my encountered this persistent phenomenon recently during a job interview at a well-know women’s organization. During the panel interview, she was repeated challenged regarding her feminist credentials.

Now here’s a highly intelligent women who was not only qualified for the job, but over-qualified and willing to take a step back in her career to work for an organization whose mission she so fully supported.  And yet she was perceived as not “enough of a feminist” to hold the open position. (Incidentally, my friend attended a women’s college.)

I’ve seen this played out repeatedly over the years, during my time as a board member at several women and girls’ right organizations and when I was running a women and girls’ rights group that I founded. The women’s movement is so busy in-fighting that we’re losing ground every day to the issues that really matter.

One issue that needs our undivided attention is the murder Dr. George Tiller and the subsequent closing of his Wichita, Kansas women’s health clinic. Or how about women banding together to repeal Congress’ Defense of Marriage Act?

It’s high time women work together to support our unifying mission of equality. I’ve seen how powerful we women can be as a movement when our actions are aligned. I’ve seen it happen at the women’s colleges I attended – but only on our good days.

This is Part 2 of a 2-part Series. Here’s Part 1.

Categories: The Americas