Lessons to be learned from working class 'Cliffies'.(MOVEABLE TYPE)

Education is supposed to be the great American equalizer, the nugget of truth in the myth of a classless society. In fact, as many studies have shown, education helps perpetuate the status quo.

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Upward mobility does occur for working class women at elite, selective colleges, Dr. Jennifer O'Connor Duffy reports in Working-Class Students at Radcliffe College, 1940-1970 (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008). A firefighter's daughter, she graduated from Amherst College MA and is now assistant professor of education and human services at Suffolk University in Boston.

Ivy League diplomas truly open doors. The failure is lack of access; few working class students get Duffy's opportunities. The percentage of college students from poor or working class families has fallen over the last 25 years. As tuitions rise, the number of working class applicants to selective colleges is falling.

At Radcliffe during Duffy's study period, the percent of "Cliffies" from working class families was already plummeting, from 11.4% in the 1940s to just 5.8% in the 1960s. Duffy analyzed data in the 1977 Radcliffe Centennial Survey of alumnae (almost all whites) to learn how their experience and out comes compared to those of their wealthier peers.

Those were years of social change. World War II increased women's access to jobs and higher education. Then women went home so the returning soldiers could find jobs. Colleges filled with men on the GI Bill and women seeking educated husbands.

While the 1960s brought social unrest and interest in diversity, the women's movement didn't peak until the 1970s, beyond the scope of her study. Duffy found fewer differences by decade than by social class.