In this article, the author talks about the cultural bind on the American male. The process starts with conception. If the spermatozoid that fertilizes the egg contains only X chromosomes a girl will be produced. If a single Y chromosome out of the 24 produced by the father is included, the baby will be a boy. From this point on the girls have a…

Drew Gilpin Faust was recently appointed president of Harvard University, and is the first female to hold the position. Women now lead half of the eight institutions that make up the Ivy League. But focusing on highly accomplished women such as Faust misses a larger point. Women may be taking faculty positions in record numbers, but most of those…

The New York Times recently published an article titled "Little Advance Is Seen in Ivies' Hiring of Minorities and Women." The article leaves the reader with two distinct impressions: First, the pool of qualified minority scholars is just too small. And second, domestic issues make these high-powered jobs unattractive to female scholars.…

Three issues in the controversy over special admissions programs to higher education are presented. It is argued (1) that academic achievement need not be the sole criterion for admissions; (2) that race and sex can serve as qualifications for admission; and (3) that there are moral grounds for special admissions. (JMF)

A Johns Hopkins School of Medicine symposium on Women Physicians in Contemporary Society is summarized. Although a growing number of women are entering the profession, they are particularly vulnerable to the competing pressures of career, marriage, and child care. (JMF)

Prevailing animosity toward blacks in New England prior to the Civil War is demonstrated in this case study of Prudence Crandall's attempt to establish a school for Negro girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, in 1833. Prudence Crandall, a quaker schoolmistress, was the successful proprietor of a school for girls from socially prominent families in…

The impact of women on the field of academic medicine is examined. The failure of women to have reached positions of leadership is discussed and this failure is accredited to social and professional discrimination. It is noted that the leaders of American medicine today were trained during or immediately following World War II. However, at that…

This paper examines the controversies surrounding the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and its use in college admissions policies. An early section reviews the history and development of the test. Next the essay reviews a series of challenges to the SAT: many argue that the structure of the examination is biased against women and minorities. Others…