Policy, Education and Social Change: Fifty Years of Progress

Abstract

Fifty years ago, President Kennedy created the President’s Commission on the Status of Women (“Commission”) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the status of women in America and produce recommendations for advancing women in the workplace and throughout society. Significantly, the Commission began its report with the topic of education. At the time, women were a minority of students on college campuses and a small fraction of students in business, law, and medicine. Educating women was viewed as a logical way to effect change and open doors for women in the workplace. Today, women make up a majority of college students and nearly half of students at professional schools. Yet in some areas, including women’s inclusion in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, we still fall short.