Achieving true coeducation

Marissa Rothstein Guest Writer

Where do you go to school?” “Vassar College.” “That’s all women, right?” “Not since 1969,” I reply smugly. Really gloating, I describe how exhilarating it is to pee next to a boy. But two weeks ago I began to wonder, outside the bathrooms, is Vassar really co-ed?

Sitting in my first class of the semester, I thought, Where have all the men gone? Social Welfare and Social Policy: is that not a gender neutral enough topic to attract more than four men? Suffering from new semester resolutions of studiousness, I did the class’ reading assignment, and discovered just how unneutral the issue of Welfare is: 90 percent of adult welfare recipients are women.

During History class the following day, I asked a new classmate if, perhaps, we were sitting in “History for Women” and not “History of Women in the U.S.” Being assured that it was indeed a course about and not only for women, I marveled that only one of 960 Vassar men was interested in studying American women’s history. Apparently, both my history and sociology courses had succeeded in repelling male audiences by focusing on women.

Of course, such examples do not demonstrate men’s total ignorance in women’s issues; most humanity courses do dedicate some classes to studying women. For instance, a course on the History of America will undoubtedly dedicate at least a couple classes to introducing Susan Anthony, Dorothea Dix and some of the common domestic and working women of the eras. However, it will probably dedicate just as much time to foreign affairs, such as those of Africa, Asia, and/or the Middle East. Why, then, are History majors still required to take courses about these regions after having taken U.S. History? Obviously, and accurately, Vassar believes more than an intermission from domestic study is necessary for understanding other people’s history, conflicts, and cultures. How, then, is such an intermission enough to understand women?

We should not put the burden of remembering women’s history and understanding their condition solely on women’s shoulders, as we are currently doing, but must share the responsibility with men so they can help establish an egalitarian society. The history department should require majors, which are currently obligated to take courses about various eras, peoples, and continents, to also take at least one course focused on the history of women. Other social science courses should require at least one course in Women’s Studies or history.

To achieve real coeducation, which the Vassar website insists “speaks directly to the central mission of the liberal arts education,” the school must encourage students to not only study different regions and eras, but also different genders. Until then, although Vassar may have co-ed naked showering, co-ed naked runs, and co-ed naked parties, it will not have true coeducation.