University of Virginia Library

Women Find Sex Bias
In Southern Colleges

By BEVERLY DOWELL

Discrimination against Southern
women in education and career
opportunities continues despite
increased college enrollments, according
to the first in a series of articles about
women in The Daily Progress.

Drawing from a report by the
Southern Regional Education Board, the
article reports there are more women
attending colleges and universities in
the South than in any other part of the
United States. Women enrolled in
Southern schools also earn a higher
percentage of degrees than women in
other areas. The percentage of women
graduating from Southern institutions
has increased more in the last few years
than the percentage of men.

Although some institutions in the
South are admitting more women to
professional schools after
encouragement from federal civil rights
officials, women are still a minority. In
the South women graduates represent
only three percent of those earning law,
medical, dental, and other professional
degrees.

Small Percentage

Admissions committees have begun
to admit more women to professional
schools, but the percentages have not
increased substantially. In the entering
law class at the University, women
represent eight percent of those
admitted. At some other Southern
universities the percentage is slightly
higher. Women represent ten per cent
of the law class at Emory University
and seventeen per cent at Duke
University.

Men also dominate the faculties of
most Southern universities according to
the SREB report. Thirty-two
complaints alleging sex discrimination
have been filed - most within the past
year - by women or the faculty and
staff of Southern universities.

Male Discrimination

A recent survey of over 100
employers in large companies indicates
that the lack of utilization of college
education by women may be not only
because of male discrimination against
women but also because of women's
lack of strong self-image. The survey
asked the employers why women were
paid less than men, particularly when
they filled the same positions.

The most frequent explanations were
"discrimination and prejudice" and
claims that "women were not
career-oriented.' The third most
frequent response was that women
decide to accept jobs which pay less
and apply for lower paying positions
limiting their opportunities.

In the professional and technical
fields, Southern women earn less than
two-thirds the pay of men. Among
college graduates, thirteen per cent of
the women and six per cent of the men
take clerical jobs.