‘Sister’ and ‘brother’ schools, women and men: gender, power and inequality in a women’s college space

Abstract

While current debates assess the continued relevancy of women’s colleges in the US, no research has explored how an ongoing relationship with a ‘brother school’—a previously (or sometimes currently) men-only institution that serves as the men’s counterpart to a women’s college—may influence the gendered ideas and identities of women’s college students. Using interviews with students at a women’s college that maintains an ongoing relationship with its historic ‘brother school,’ I explore how these students make sense of their identities as women’s college students and gendered people in the space. I employ Hochschild’s concept of ‘gender strategies’ to explore how women use the ideas about gender they have available to craft responses to the cultural misogyny they experience—a cultural trait that exists despite the larger women’s college project of attempting to protect women from such misogyny. Though the women’s college students in this context do demonstrate a heightened awareness of gender-based inequality and injustice, their strategies often fall short of challenging systemic inequality. I conclude with a discussion of the implications for women’s college students and women college students more generally.

Keywords:

• Women's colleges
• misogyny
• gender strategies
• gender inequality
• college

Disclosure statement

The author has no financial interest or benefit arising from the direct application of this research.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Catherine Bowman, Jennifer Pace and Nicole Lambert-Sheridan for their comments on drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. Though social class is difficult to define in the U.S., in this context, I define having a middle- to upper-middle-class status as largely based on cultural capital and class knowledge. Upper-middle-class are those students with the most class privilege, wealth and knowledge of collegiate culture. Hartford is most accessible to those on middle- to upper-middle-class life trajectories due to its status as a private, residential, liberal arts college with a large population of ‘legacy’ students whose parents attended Hartford and/or Middleton. Hartford is not a popular choice for non-traditional students in the area or those facing economic challenges.