While this seemed to be a privilege, it also fueled the resentment of my male colleagues. Meanwhile I was kept constantly aware of my status as an interloper. Colleagues warned students not to take my courses in women's literature and history. In 1974, I resigned to take a job at Columbia, where I have been ever since. Today the attitudes and behavior I encountered in the early stages of my career should seem part of a prehistoric past.
Women outnumber men in college.
In many fields in the social sciences and humanities, more women than men get Ph.D.s. The nation's female faculty has grown 114 percent since 1976, almost six times as fast as its male faculty. Yet such figures are misleading. Despite the increase in their numbers, on several significant fronts, women are losing ground in the academy, and the more prestigious the institution, the greater the discrimination. There may be more female than male undergraduates nationwide, but most of the top private colleges, including Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Yale, Johns Hopkins and Princeton, maintain a slim male majority.