Women’s alliance

by Jonathan Bailey A petition has been started to save Oxford’s last remaining women-only college. Worried by debate on the governing body of St Hilda’s about whether to allow men to enter the college, the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) has rallied to the defence of single-sex education. Those organising the petition claim that single-sex colleges provide the sort of atmosphere in which some women thrive. Rosalind Dampier, Women’s officer at the OUSU, suggests that “many women prefer working in a single-sex environment, which is often more supportive and less dominated by old-fashioned patriarchal ideas about women’s abilities.” She also points out that for cultural or religious reasons some women “would not even be able to take up their place at Oxford if St. Hilda’s didn’t exist.” It is this equality of opportunity which the proponents of women-only colleges claim, is so essential in a world where “there is still much to be done before we can claim full equality of the sexes especially given that in Oxford women make up less than 50% of undergraduates and 30% of graduate students and 20% of tutors”. Some members of St Hilda’s are unconvinced by the OUSU’s claims; Rachel Todd, a fresher, said “all you have to do is look at the branding of us as ‘Hildabeasts’ to realise that the all-female environment doesn’t create real equality”. Others students point out that once they leave Oxford they will not have the option of applying to a women-only workplace and that by creating one at university, St Hilda’s is not helping them in the long term. With a thousand signatures in less than a week of campaigning, the OUSU clearly have some support. They have even taken the unprecedented step of allying themselves with the Cambridge University Student Union, who are trying to keep men out of their women-only colleges.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003