Women’s History Month: Equal Access to Education

Written by GISSV's DEI Committee

Today, women slightly outnumber men in the U.S. college-educated labor force. Throughout America we’re seeing equal gender demographics at universities that slightly lean towards women. For example, Stanford’s undergraduates in the Fall of 2022 were 52% women and 48% men. Harvard’s gender demographics as of January 2023 was 50.5% women and 49.5% men. Although there will always be room for improving gender diversity, especially now in recognizing non-binaries (one who identifies outside the gender binary), these statistics show how far we’ve come. 

The idea of not allowing women to go to school is inconceivable, yet, it was only in 1972 when Title IX passed. Title IX was a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in any school, education program or activity receiving federal aid. Although these laws didn’t necessarily apply to private schools, California schools like Stanford had begun admitting women since its inception in 1891, when only 28% of the student body were women. This is different for Harvard, established in 1636, which first admitted women to their graduate school of education in 1920,  medical school in 1941, and law school in 1950. However, records of women’s achievements at Harvard weren’t well kept so statistics aren’t easily available. Nonetheless, today there is equal access to higher education in America. 

With that said, since December 2022 Afghanistan has again banned women from receiving an   education beyond sixth grade. They are the only country today to not allow women access to education. In 2014, Malala Yousafzai at 17 years old was the youngest person to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize for standing up for women’s equal access to education in Pakistan. The Taliban, a growing nationalistic militant political group in Pakistan and Afghanistan, forbade women from working and getting an education. Internal and international efforts are being made to reverse this decision. 

For more information visit:

• Title IX

• History of Women in Higher Education

• Women Now Outnumber Men in the US College-Educated Labor Force

• Once Again Afghanistan Forbids Women Access to Education
   

The DEI/DRIN parent group welcomes article contributions from the GISSV community related to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) or Diversität, Repräsentation, Inklusion, Normkritik (DRIN) activities on campus.

Join us at our next monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 19 at 6:30 pm! Both German and English speakers are welcome.

Click here to join the meeting

Questions? Contributions? Email dei-parents@gissv.org.

Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash