Compass Gender Women's History Special: Inequality in the Ivory Tower

Georgetown officially became coeducational in 1969. (Cleary Waldo)

Though Georgetown University admitted its first female students in the early 1880s, it did not officially go coed until 1969, when the College began admitting female undergraduates. The once-sporadic presence of women on campus has since solidified and, in fact, surpassed male enrollment—the College admitted its first majority-female class in 1974, and in 2017, the university’s undergraduate student body was 56 percent female.

With the increasing population of women on campus came new resources to support them. The Georgetown University Women’s Center was created in 1990 with the mission to “foster an environment to support, educate, and empower women of all cultures, races, sexual orientations, genders and ages providing a safe environment while respecting all facets of women’s abilities, spirituality and differences.” The center now organizes retreats, roundtable discussions, and open houses to help all students gain a better understanding of women’s issues. 

Although women were largely excluded from Georgetown until relatively recently, the school’s female students have accomplished great things both while on campus and after graduation. After earning her bachelor’s degree in international economics at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, Lisa Sylvester (SFS’92) went on to become an award-winning journalist and television correspondent for ABC News, CNN, and WPXI Channel 11. Mary Erdoes (C’89) graduated from Georgetown in 1989 and has since risen to the position of chief executive at JPMorgan Asset and Wealth Management. Amy Fong (MSB’92) leads Save the Children Hong Kong, a branch of the larger nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of children. 

It is evident that Georgetown has propelled many of its female students to great success. However, even today there exist disparities in opportunities between female and male students on campus, enhanced by the ever-present legacy of the university’s historical male domination. In the case of clubs, where admission is determined by other students, female students are often underrepresented or fail to rise to leadership roles as frequently as their male counterparts. For example, all of the portfolio manager positions at the Georgetown University Student Investment Fund are currently held by male students. 

The issue of underrepresentation, not just present in student affairs, rises to the highest ranks of the university administration as well. Georgetown’s Board of Directors is more than 75 percent male, and only two out of 14 members of the board’s executive committee are women. Across virtually all academic, athletic, and administrative departments, there are considerably fewer women than men, especially in positions of leadership. 

Though the university has taken steps to create a more equitable gender distribution in its faculty and staff, historical precedent and tradition remain a tough barrier to women seeking leadership roles. Despite this legacy, as Georgetown women continue to impact various sectors and have an increasing effect on how the school functions, progress is likely on remaining issues of gender inequality and underrepresentation on campus.