Facts about Women in Higher Education

The Women\u27s Equity Action League Educational and Legal Defense Fund, 733 15th Street, N.W., Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20005, recently released a report (July 1977) on the progress women have and have not made toward equal rights and opportunities in American colleges and universities. What follows is the first half of that report. The second half will appear in our next issue. Discrimination against women is alive and well on the nation\u27s campuses. Some gains have been made. We document them, as well as the losses, in this fact sheet. More women than ever before are going to college and getting their degrees—some in fields like engineering and architecture, once considered for men only. Record numbers of women are going to graduate and professional schools—by 1978 an estimated 20 percent of the new lawyers and doctors will be women. With each annual commencement ceremony, pool of qualified women expands. But the facts reveal that, for a woman, being qualified is not enough