This Women’s History Month we rightfully celebrate the advances women have made, but note that a celebration of past events is not as good as victory over inequalities today, and finally (in a perfect world) not needing equalizing factors like a Women’s History Month at all.

In 1947, Fairfield graduated its first class of 303 men. Thirty-five years ago, Fairfield admitted its first class of women. Today, female students outnumber male 57 percent to 43 percent, but numbers can be misleading.

For instance, even though women students outnumber men, and have for a while, there has only been one female FUSA president in 35 years. At the faculty level, the hierarchy is still male dominated; there are significantly more male faculty members who hold full professor positions than women. And even though the president of the university is traditionally a Jesuit, and therefore a man, the rest of the administration has become secular throughout the years, but has remained male.

The effects of this disparity are felt in various areas on campus, but are seldom attacked. For years, the university has been playing with the idea of adding a daycare to the university, but has been stalled for various reasons until just recently (See Daycare, p. 5). This is an issue of importance to faculty, staff and administration of both genders, but because women generally bear the brunt of primary care giver, it is particularily important to women wanting a family, but also wanting to advance their career.

Also, although all Fairfield athletic teams face problems of support and funding, it is obvious that the women’s teams face more of these problems than the men’s teams, even though the last Fairfield team to win the MAAC conference was the women’s tennis team just last year. The talent of Fairfield athletic teams changes yearly, but the amount of money and scholarships doesn’t, and it tends to favor the men’s sports.

Legislation such as Title IX has been a catalyst for many women’s issues and has brought these issues to the forefront of society, so it is good that Fairfield’s women studies department has chosen to focus on the issue of women in sports for Women’s History Month. Hopefully the events hosted by women studies next week will act as much as a catalyst for discussion.

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