Women’s Universities Around the World Develop Global Leaders

Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright have more in common than just being former U.S. secretaries of state. Both are graduates of Wellesley College, a Massachusetts women’s college.

And they’re in good company—such notables as actress Meryl Streep, television journalist Diane Sawyer, astronaut Pamela Melroy, and the first female prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, graduated from women’s colleges in the United States.

“Women’s institutions in the United States are enabling environments for young women,” says Susan Buck Sutton, senior adviser for international initiatives at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. “It really gets you ready to go out in the world with confidence. Women that come out of women’s colleges aren’t shrinking violets. They’re the opposite.”

At women’s universities in the United States, “something important, impactful, yet intangible happens,” says Kamal Ahmad, founder of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh, which opened its doors in 2008. “They tend to produce a greater number of leaders. The exposure to other women leaders and the space to express their views and aspirations makes a difference.”

Despite their impact, the number of women’s colleges and universities in the United States has dwindled, from 230 just five decades ago to 45 today. Meanwhile, in places such as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the number of women’s universities is on the rise, playing a vital role in educating women in those sections of the world—where other opportunities for higher education may be limited—and helping to prepare them to be global