单性别高等教育与女性成长——基于美国女子学院的研究

Single-Sex Higher Education and Female Growth——Based on the Study of American Women’s College

美国女子学院是创立并实践单性别高等教育的主要载体,在美国高等教育历史和体系中居于重要地位。美国的知名女子学院不仅拥有毕业生成功比例显著高于男女生混合高校的纪录,对提高女性社会地位和推动男女平权亦发挥了不可替代的作用,产生了辐射全球的影响。本研究基于对美国女子学院的系统考察,在梳理其发展历程的基础上,指出单性别高等教育对女性成长具有特殊价值,学生成就和学校环境的共同作用构成了女校经历令女生受益的生成机制。美国单性别高等教育的经验对我国当下的教育实践具有启示和借鉴意义。

American women’s college is the main carrier of the establishment and practice of single-sex higher education, which plays an important role in the history and system of American higher education. The well-known women’s colleges in the United States not only have a record that the proportion of graduates is significantly higher than that of mixed universities for boys and girls, but also play an irreplaceable role in improving the status of women in society and promoting equal rights for men and women, and have had a global impact. Based on a systematic survey of women’s colleges in the United States, this study points out that single-sex higher education is of special value to women’s growth, and that the combined effect of student achievement and school environment constitutes a mechanism for girls to benefit from their experiences in girls’s chools. The experience of single-sex higher education in the United States has inspiration and reference significance for the current educational practice in China.