by Brandi Lee:

Summary on:

What Revolution?How Feminism Changed Religious

Colleges While They Weren’t Looking

From God on the Quad

Make Room for the Women

• Currently women make up more than 62% of enrollment at Catholic schools and 59% at other religious schools

• WHY the upward trend of women attending religious colleges?

• Sign of feminist revolution or protection of our daughters?

Opposing Views on Religious Colleges

• Feminist

Religious colleges reinforce traditional roles of subordination for women

• Sociologist Davison Hunter

Religious colleges speed up secularization process

• Author

Religious colleges do not shelter, help women consider their futures while keeping with religious beliefs

Possible Explanations

1. Women tend to be more spiritual than men

2. Parents want to protect daughters from secular world

3. Women embracing need to balance career and family

4. May not have official responsibility to study

5. Current women do not have a political agenda

What Do the Stats Say?

• Women from religious schools are planning careers like those of their secular counterparts

• Data from “The American Freshman” report future plans of women at religious colleges vs. secular colleges hardly differ

• Differences among generations based on family life and gender roles

Author Believes Women Attending Religious

Colleges:• Personal destiny directed

by God, not husbands/fathers

• Reach back to foundation of their faith for guidance/justification of choices

• Uphold theological/cultural tenets of their religions

• Are not sheltered from opportunities available to them

Reference Page

• Riley, N.S. God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation are Changing America. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.