The #MeToo movement is now one year old. What began as a series of allegations against Harvey Weinstein is now catalysing discussions on how power is distributed and abused, the absence of women in senior roles, and gaps in earnings between male and female workers. Celebrating the movement’s milestones to date, a recent feature in the Economist suggested that “one protection against abuse is for junior women to work [and study] in an environment that other women help create and sustain”.

At face value, this recommendation may appear counterintuitive. It calls on women to self-segregate, and to use this as a vehicle to overturn the unequal distribution of power that causes them to self-segregate in the first place.

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This is precisely the ethos that has underpinned women-only colleges since their founding in the nineteenth century. Whereas in the past it was a cultural mandate for women to submit to sexual segregation, today they can be empowering spaces to counter these forces.

From Hillary Clinton and Sylvia Plath to Benazir Bhutto and Germaine Greer, the list of alumnae from women’s colleges is as impressive as it is diverse. In the past 50 years, their numbers have dwindled from 233 to fewer than 50 in the United States, while in Britain just three single-sex colleges remain, and all of them are in Cambridge. In spite of the fact that students from women’s colleges make up just 2% of the college graduate population across the pond, their alumnae represent 20% of women in the US congress, a tenth of female CEOs in the S&P 500, and a third of women on Fortune 1000 boards.

With 70% of female students reporting having experienced sexual harassment or assault, universities can feel unwelcoming for women. The Women’s College Coalition notes that students at single-sex colleges have significantly higher participation rates in extracurricular activities and in leadership positions.

Equally, research has shown that students at single-sex institutions are more likely to rate themselves above average in intellectual self-confidence and are more likely to study for doctorates. They are also 1.5 times more likely to major in Stem subjects than their peers.

In the words of Sian Beilock, the president of Barnard College, their students “inhabit a world where girls truly rule, where women lead by definition and habit and where female role models abound”. Many women’s colleges also offer specialist internships and career mentoring opportunities, which can counteract the old boys’ networks in certain industries.

This nurturing environment fosters self-reliance and confidence in women. This is particularly important for women of black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, as well as those who are socio-economically disadvantaged – both constituencies that are increasingly enrolling in women’s colleges.

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Having the confidence and courage to go out into the world and claim it as your own is, according to one sociologist, foundational to the ethos of women’s colleges. Young women are trained to lead in a way that does not “simply mimic masculine techniques, but is tailored to feminine strengths”.

This helps graduates cope with workplace behaviours from male peers and bosses that include everything from harassment and discrimination, to being talked over in meetings and sidelined from conversations where decisions are really made.

As a woman of minority background myself, attending a women’s college encouraged me to find my voice, write my own script, and confidently challenge gender norms. After years of putting together technology conferences for business leaders across the world, I routinely observe the woeful underrepresentation of women in senior Stem jobs. I was thankfully oblivious to these gender disparities as a young woman because I was trained among smart and empowered women.

Critics of women’s colleges may argue that the physical and social barriers these colleges erect are regressive and unfit for the realities of the real world. Are they not just siloed utopias that patch over the deeper systemic social conditions and structures that curb women’s opportunities? Possibly, but this works to their advantage.

The former director of Oxfam, Barbara Stocking, once said of her college experience: “It sounds unbelievable, but I almost didn’t know there was discrimination against women until I left. It gave you the kind of confidence that made you feel you could take on the world.” This confidence is the bedrock of the shattering of the highest glass ceilings by many alumnae of women’s colleges.

R. Rehman is alumna of a women’s college at the University of Cambridge

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