I attended an all-girls school in Minnesota for my high school years. In reflecting on International Women’s Day, I realized that this day felt like a tangible acknowledgement of women, but also that every day at my high school was a celebration of female accomplishment. I attended a co-ed K-8 school, and I am deeply grateful to be at Notre Dame now; I am very glad to have had the opportunity to learn and grow in a co-ed environment throughout my academic career. That said, I feel particularly fortunate to have experienced four years at an all-girls school.
When I chose a high school, I had many options, and attending a single-gender school was not especially on my radar. In all honesty, the all-girls aspect did not feel like a selling feature. However, I quickly discovered the advantages of an all-women education. Most obviously, all community leaders are women, from the president of the student council to the head of the school. Alums were women who pursued their interests in a variety of industries and across diverse career paths. We celebrated women’s athletic accomplishments that men’s sports often overshadow in other schools. Women led our successful robotics team and were state champions in debate.
As a community of women in high school, we were unusually close. Periods were not taboo, tampons were widely shared and the only thing that would be stolen was unsupervised food. Plenty of girls wore entire faces of makeup, myself among them, but even more students showed up just out of the shower or with their hair in a messy bun that was barely intact; we were comfortable together. At times, we encountered a stereotypical outside assumption that all-girls schools are brimming with drama, but we had incredibly little. We supported each other and celebrated each person’s accomplishments.
Most importantly, however, this environment allowed for frank discussions about the issues that disproportionately impact women. My favorite class was a women’s studies course that covered the history of feminism, femicide, FGM, portrayals of women in the media, women in Catholicism and countless other subjects. We were offered self-defense classes that women taught. An all-girls school prepared all of us for the inevitable sexism that the world offers. As the sister school to an all-male military academy directly across the street, we encountered our fair share of misogyny on a regular basis. From being catcalled while walking through their school to personally receiving a blatantly sexist email from one of their male faculty members who did not realize there were women on the distribution, the disparities in societal gender treatment were pronounced. However, we had a community of women who understood the experience, discussed it and dealt with it together.
My high school experience was far from perfect, and there are many aspects that I would change in an ideal world. However, an all-girls school constantly uplifted and honored the incredible women who surrounded us every day. This school provided me an education of academics and of life that I never would have received in a co-ed environment. International Women’s Day is an important acknowledgement of the phenomenal contributions of brilliant and strong women to our communities, nation and world, but I was fortunate enough to witness that celebration on a daily basis for four years.