June 3, 2008

Elite Women's Colleges Recruit in the Middle East

Women’s colleges may be struggling in the United States, but they got a warm reception when several elite women’s institutions went recruiting in the Middle East this spring, The New York Times reported today.

Representatives of Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley Colleges traveled to Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates to talk about their success in training female leaders.

“You could almost see light bulbs going off in students’ minds, as if, ‘Why didn’t I think of them a while ago?’” Jennifer Melton, a counselor at the American School in Dubai, told the newspaper.

Although some local parents seemed more at ease with the idea of sending their daughters to a women’s college than a coeducational institution abroad, the story notes that such colleges are often quite politically and socially liberal, something that Middle Eastern students have had to adjust to. —Beth McMurtrie

Comments

1. The interesting effect will take place not when these students come to the US, but when they go home and start pushing their cultures in new directions. Those countries have some real surprises coming in a few years.

   — Al    Jun 3, 04:22 PM    #

2. Can you say, mini-burka?

   — original marci    Jun 3, 04:32 PM    #

3. These Colleges have had quite a handful of Mid-East Students in the past —- Some have been serving “Halal Food” for years to meet the religious dietary requirements.

   Additionally, before they discover, there are also a handful of East Europeans present on these campuses.

   Add to the above the significant Asian presence, and you see the diversity… Not to mention that their African-American graduation rates are also way above average.

   — zahid    Jun 3, 05:29 PM    #

4. I wouldn’t be so sure that the “new directions” of which Al speaks will always be toward greater Westernisation. Sayyed Qutb, famously, was also an American college student. If the U. of Northern Colorado had the effect it did on him, one can only wonder about the impact of life in, say, contemporary Northampton, MA. Admittedly Qutb was a head-case, but it would be a mistake to suppose that to know the West is necessarily to love it. Just as often, the effect runs in the opposite direction.

   — Gustave    Jun 3, 05:41 PM    #

5. Gustave is right. Large numbers of Middle Eastern women from elite families attending womens colleges in the USA will have unpredictable effects. I would say most will find they can no longer live in their home culture because of personal dissatisfaction and suspicion by society at large. That is the typical outcome for daughters of moslem SE asian elites sent to expensive private boarding highschools in Australia. After all, what can they do with their surfboard back home? Those that can get out will do so but others will face a miserable life imprisoned in a culture they no longer feel at home in. Others will become articulate insufferable professional haters of western culture and make a career out off it.

   — Raymond J. RITCHIE    Jun 3, 10:04 PM    #

6. There seems to be an impression that the middle eastern cultures are repressive toward women. This is a western view that is simplistic at best. There is a complexity to women’s issues in this part of the world that is given short shrift by the western media.

   Cultures in the middle east are extremely different from one another, and within the various countries there is a wide range of approaches to life.

   I am working at an American branch campus in the state of Qatar. Our university is 97% female and we see everything from mini skirts to nawqab. Beneath their attire, our female students are outspoken, well-informed, and thoughtful about world affairs and western culture. Some of them have stated that they feel sorry for the lack of freedom faced by western women whom they perceive as having to dress and act to please westen men. Hmmm. I wonder who will influence whom when these young women visit the U.S.

   — River Montijo    Jun 4, 06:39 AM    #

7. One thing to clarify: These five women’s liberal arts institutions are doing very well on the admissions front, a key point which is somewhat hidden in the NY Times article. Both the Chronicle and NY Times piece incorrectly portray these five via their opening story lines.

   — Naw    Jun 4, 09:49 AM    #

8. #7 is probably right. These women going to elite (ie: very pricey) colleges come from big bucks families.
   Will they wave their asses in the air 5 times a day when some old fart howls from a minarette and wear the lovely bee keeper outfit (with Victoria’s Secret underwear, if course)?
   Do their parents expect they will not have a sip of beer or nibble a ham sandwich?
   Will they then want to return to a land where the sight of a woman’s bare earlobe excites some Muslim men – sometimes to the point of spitting and stoning.

   — AW    Jun 4, 10:06 AM    #

9. Feminazi? How last century is that canard??? No wonder conservatives nominated such an old, old man. Old, old, old. Tired old man speaking tired old policies to tired, old Republicans. In those immortal words “You’re old road is rapidly changing. Get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand, for the times they are a’changin.”

   — original marci    Jun 4, 12:08 PM    #

10. I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine the culture shock these women wll face at some place like Wellesley will always be (or ever) “positive”.

    — Chris K    Jun 6, 12:57 PM    #

11. Re: comment #7 – Wow, Grace – where does all that hatred come from? I can tell you right now that I am grateful and delighted to be working in a country that has a leader who says that education is the number one priority in his country. Qatar is to be commended for the consideration and support it has given to providing its population with world-class education. Qatar is also the home of Al Jazeera network, a bastion of free speech if there ever was one.

    Grace- get informed.

    — River Montijo    Jun 8, 01:45 AM    #

12. I can only repeat: you are grossly misinformed. I think you are the one who has swallowed a big enchilada – one cooked up by Fow News, no doubt.

    — River Montijo    Jun 10, 06:55 AM    #

Previous: Report Card Ranks Medical Schools on Conflict-of-Interest Policies
Next: U. of Oxford Chooses Yale Provost as Its New Leader