... And yet, I still shave my legs

It’s graduating time! My alma mater will celebrate its commencement this weekend, a time that never fails to remind me of the day I lined up to troupe down the insanely steep path into the May Dell to get my own diploma (something I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to accomplish!). It was, to date, the happiest day of my life. Having gone through a bit of an odyssey in college (six schools in five and a half years), I know without a doubt that the place I finished my degree was exactly the right community for me.

I completed my final two years and graduated from Salem College – which, if you didn’t already know, is the oldest women’s college in the country by founding date (1772). When I tell people that I went there, I always seem to get the same question: “What was it like to go to a girls’ school?” To answer: I don’t know, because I didn’t go to a “girls’ school;” I went to a women’s college.

It also seems like I frequently have to defend my choice to go to Salem, and by extension the very existence of women’s colleges in the 21st century. (And I’m not the only one.) So, now that most colleges and universities are coed, why do we still need women’s colleges? Hell, I don’t know. Why do we still need Jesuit colleges? HBCUs? Arts conservatories? Giant public universities? Tiny private colleges?

As long as people will look for different things in their college experiences, we’ll need a variety of different types of colleges for those people. And as long as some students – for reasons particular to each of them – thrive in women’s colleges and prefer them, we’ll need Salem, Meredith, Wellesley, etc.

I think most people would agree with that… which makes me wonder if the real question isn’t “why do we still need women’s colleges?” but “why would someone choose a women’s college?” And that’s a question that I don’t see the students who choose the Jesuit colleges or HBCUs or arts conservatories, etc., having to answer.

There’s something that freaks people out about a student who would voluntarily choose a single-sex environment. She must be a lesbian, or be afraid of interacting with men. (Which is a joke – first of all, I guarantee that there are more gay women at Carolina right now than at Salem, and second, a women’s college isn’t exactly cloistered. Half the faculty at Salem were men when I was there, and both adult male students and men attending other local colleges could take classes there.) Maybe some people are afraid that students at women’s colleges will be brainwashed (by hormones or something?) into radical feminism (ZOMG! SCARY!!!). More likely? All of the above are bogey-men thrown in the faces of the women who choose to attend these colleges.

I can’t speak for every one of my classmates, but I chose Salem because it offered the best bachelor’s program in my field (communication) and the most convenience for a working adult student of any other college in my area. In terms of what I was expecting, I was a lot more worried about the class/privilege of the students I’d be with than about almost all of them being women. I was convinced that I’d be the only one there who didn’t own pearls. (Another misconception – when I was there, the student body was incredibly diverse in every way.)

And, while I hate the argument that students at women’s colleges succeed because they’re sheltered from men and their apparent distractions… I found it so much easier to focus on my own academic success at Salem than at any point in my college career. Some of that was undoubtedly a maturing on my part (I was 22 when I transferred there), and some of that was due to the greater personal attention that you typically find at any small college. But I can’t ignore the influence of my professors and classmates, whose incredibly high standards pushed me to be better. As another Salem alum once told me, college was the first time she knew that people saw her as a person first, and a woman second.

Women’s colleges are profoundly empowering for some. Giant public universities are just as empowering for others. Maybe instead of fretting and politicizing college choice, or trying to demonize it (“Everyone will think you don’t shave your legs!!!”), we should just let people find the place that’s the right fit for them.

(Unless you want me to get snarky, which I'm totally willing to do.

"What was it like to go to Giant Tech? Didn't you have, like, 800 people in every class? Why did you want to do that? Are you afraid of being called on or something? Did you have, like, 12 roommates?"

"You went to MIT? Wow, I didn't know you had Asberger's."

"Julliard? Wow, no wonder you can't balance your checkbook."

Stupid? Yes. Offensive? Sure. Also, sh*t that graduates of women's colleges get ALL THE TIME.)