I came across this wonderful article in HBR today about how women tend not to talk in professional situations and at the workplace when in the presence of male colleagues. 

There is of course lots of evidence that this is in fact the case, but I have personally never been one of those women. I've always been happy to speak up even in meetings where I am the only woman amongst 25 men... which has often been the case in my tech career.

Lately I have been wondering whether my comfort with speaking up has something to do with the fact that I went to a women's college. College is the first simulation of a professional environment for most people. In my college (Mount Holyoke) there were no men in class, even in my computer science and discrete math classes. So there was no opportunity for me to second guess my own knowledge in the presence of men as Ms. Johnson describes. I wonder whether this tendency of women not speaking up in male-dominated professional environments is less prominent amongst women's college graduates?

When I went to Mount Holyoke, my decision was based 100% on what school gave me the biggest scholarship grant. I had no intention of seeking out a women's college and I honestly did not appreciate being at a women's college while I was there. It is only now, many many years later, when I come across articles such as this one, or Sheryl Sandberg's TED talk, that I think that perhaps its partly my women's college education that gave me the conviction and confidence I have in myself.