Our yearlong Kahn colloquium, Why Educate Women? Global Perspectives on Equal Opportunity completed a successful fall semester. In addition to a new appreciation of the scholarship in this wide ranging exploration, our group has become committed to outcomes that will expand beyond traditional academic publications and presentations to think about the implications of our work for the curriculum and for applied research. The project has been enriched by visits from scholars and practitioners, as well as presentations by the Kahn Fellows. Consequently, our post-colloquium dinners have been lively extensions of the discussions and events that enriched and transformed our thinking over the past few months.
Because our individual research projects are so varied—in time and geography—we have relied heavily on common readings to acquaint one another with our topics. Early sessions focused on readings that emphasized the social benefits of educating women. We viewed films and videos that graphically portrayed young girls' struggle for schooling, while reminding us that notions of "progress" and its advantages are often culture-bound. The mathematicians and scientists in our group led us in a careful consideration of the limits of statistical measures to sensitize our reading of quantitative claims. They also gave us a deeper appreciation of the challenges that remain in improving girls' access to science and engineering.
Early in the fall we welcomed Linda Eisenmann, Provost and Professor of Education and History at Wheaton College, an historian of women’s education in the United States. In addition to meeting with the colloquium, she gave a public lecture comparing the agendas for gender equity found in Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking book The Feminine Mystique and the report of the first Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
Three Faculty Fellows, Susie Bourque, Rosetta Cohen, and Janie Vanpée, attended the Bryn Mawr Conference titled Heritage and Hope: Women's Education in a Global Context. Smith was well represented: Helen Horowitz, Professor Emerita of American Studies, delivered the opening keynote address on the life of M. Carey Thomas. President Carol Christ, Trustee Hoon Eng Khoo '73, and Trustee Emerita Mary "Pat" Patterson McPherson '57 participated on plenary panels. At a subsequent Kahn session members of our colloquium summarized key insights from the conference, which ranged from reports on the success of single sex secondary schools in improving the academic performance of girls in the United States to finding ways for women’s colleges to support international efforts to expand educational opportunities for women and girls.
This international connection was continued when Hoon Eng Khoo ’73 joined us at Smith for a public lecture and colloquium session. She described her recent efforts as Provost of the Asian University for Women and the challenges for Asian women seeking higher education. She also described some of the methods adopted at AUW to foster friendship across ethnic and national lines.
This year Smith is hosting a Fulbright Scholar from Saudia Arabia, Mohammed al-Shagawi. He joined us for a fascinating session in which he gave us a vivid account of the challenges of teaching women in a sex-segregated environment. His discussion was followed by a presentation by Suleiman Mourad, Professor of Religion, whose work as a scholar of Islam helped us understand the complexity of utilizing either the Qur’an or the Hadith as sources for expanding women’s educational opportunities in the Middle East. Christine Shelton, Professor of Exercise and Sport Studies, continued our discussion of international education with a presentation on efforts to expand women’s opportunities in the world of sport. She emphasized Islamic women’s use of sport as an example of the range of actors in this effort and noted the progress that has been made in identifying health, well-being and physical activity as human rights.
In conjunction with a visit to the Project on Women and Social Change, Professor Liz Bressan from Stellenbosch University in South Africa spoke to the seminar about Project Hope—a University-wide effort to reach out to underserved girls in South Africa's townships. Future collaborations with the University of Stellenbosch are in the planning stages.
Gwen Gethner '11 gave a presentation on the Smith College Relief Unit and the motivations of the women who served during World War I. She is reviewing the letters from the participants, including Dorothy Ainsworth, now found in the Smith College archives, and finds them to be an adventurous group of 25-year-olds, who paid their own passage to work in what was still a war zone in France.
Chi Gao '11 reported on her study of the one-child policy in China. Gao's comparison of the educational achievements of girls and boys in one-child families suggests that educational investment in girls may have increased as a result of the policy.
In November the colloquium hosted a visit from the leaders of two local single-sex high schools, Jeannie Norris from Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield and Sally Mixsell from Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield. Both women emphasized the critical issues of girls' development during the high school years and the methods their schools are utilizing to develop "hardiness" and leadership skills. Among their insights is the need to see single-sex education as valuable on its own terms rather than as compensatory.
Cristine Smith, Associate Professor in the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, is working on the central question of what it is about educating women that produces positive results. Her study demonstrates that positive outcomes occur regardless of the quality of education offered. Why this should be the case is a puzzle that intrigues all members of the colloquium and will be pursued throughout the coming semester. Cris’s colleague, Marla Solomon, Professor of Sustainable Development, Interculture Service, Leadership and Management at SIT Graduate Institute, also joined this session to describe her preliminary research on generational changes in women’s leadership styles.
Colloquium Fellows ended the semester with a visit from Jill Ker Conway, President Emerita, who led the group in a lively discussion of the ethnography in the book Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang. She also reported on the Nike corporations’ global efforts to improve conditions for girls through its program, The Girl Effect.
We look forward in the spring semester to two conferences on women's education, one focused on the Middle East on March 1, 2011 and another concentrating on Latin America on April 12. Our Student Fellows will be featured at the Alumnae Association Conference, Smith Women in Education, in late March, and will also present reports on their research at the college's Celebrating Collaborations day on Saturday, April 16.
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