Gender Disparity in the Advanced Industrial Society: Female - Male Relations at a Recently Coeducated College

The consequences of structural change in advanced industrial society are examined with regard to male-female relations at a college that, until recently, admitted only men. Special attention is focused on conflicts which emerge as female and male students attempt to cope with the admission of women. In this regard, the struggle for power, both covert and overt, is studied as the men attempt to maintain their position and the newly arrived women try to establish a niche in this formerly all-male world. Such issues as the relative resource base of males and females and the struggle over the utility of ascriptive and achievement criteria in the treatment of fellow students are examined in detail. Data are drawn from participant observation and from student surveys.