The members of Matrix say they see the St. Petersburg center as a place to nurture and educate women.

ST. PETERSBURG - The Latin word ``matrix'' means womb - that from which all else develops. It's an apt name for a new group that wants to empower women through educational events, workshops and seminars that promote social change.

There are other women's centers in the Tampa Bay area. Most offer counseling, personal development and educational programs. Most women's organizations provide networking for professionals, although they often support such social causes as women's shelters.

But members say Matrix is a place where women can be educated and nurtured at the same time - and that makes all the difference.

``We're not envisioning that Matrix will become a center for women to adjust after divorce or change career direction in the same fashion as some of the other women's centers are,'' says psychologist Diane McKinstry, a Matrix board member.

Since June, when members leased a house near downtown St. Petersburg, sessions have included health care, women and the law, conflict resolution, environmental awareness and Internet training.

Movies on women - such as ``Behind the Veil: The History of Women in Convents'' and ``Forbidden Love: Lesbian Lives in the '50s and '60s'' - also are on tap, followed by discussions. ``Not a Love Story,'' about pornography, and a film on women comedians are being considered.

Most programs are free but donations are accepted.

One of the more successful events was a tribute in August to the 75th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. Some 200 women from all walks of life turned out to celebrate.

Matrix is planning programs for girls, with the idea that the earlier girls address women's issues, the better prepared they'll be to deal with them. Matrix also rents space to women's groups for meetings, usually for a nominal fee.

Its white Victorian house sits on spacious grounds. Built in the 1920s, the two-story house is airy and bright, with a wraparound veranda, hardwood floors, high ceilings and two fireplaces.

Matrix is made up of 15 board members who work by consensus, rather than following majority wishes on issues. They discuss at length - sometimes for months - to bring out as many opinions as possible. Because consensus is based on valuing people for their differences, it places equal respect and weight on the most passive and the most active voice.

``Our intention in creating the group was to help it be an exercise in feminist process,'' says McKinstry. One of feminism's key values is sharing power equally. ``We wanted an organization that didn't function in a hierarchical fashion.''

Women need to get together to learn about power and how to manage it, says affiliate member Patty Callaghan, owner of a bookstore. ``They don't really know about power because they haven't had it.''

MEN AREN'T BARRED

One challenge is to build Matrix as a center for women, yet educate men as well. Men and boys are allowed at some events.

``Certainly one cannot be separatist and expect to effect most kinds of social change,'' says board member Karen Barr, who owns an advertising and marketing agency.

But Barr says it's important that Matrix be a place where women's voices can be heard and their experiences shared and affirmed. She cites an essay called ``Orchids in the Arctic'' by author Kay Hagan. Hagan points out that orchids need a special environment to survive in the unfriendly arctic.

Many women compare the status of women to that metaphor, and feel that for them to grow, thrive and empower themselves, they need just such an environment - a special place for women. Especially, Barr says, in a culture where men have been assigned one role and women have a lesser one.

``Women in a women's community can learn to have a fuller personality, and I think that's always empowering,'' she says. ``I think we learn to be strong and more assertive but not necessarily aggressive. We actually learn to be gentler and more loving because feminism is so inclusive and such a loving concept.''

About 500 people have attended events at Matrix, including women of all ages, incomes, sexual orientation and social status. Most live in St. Petersburg. There are few women of color, but that's something the group is trying to change.

``We don't want to be known as a white, middle-class group of women trying to do women's issues,'' says Barr. ``We look for diversity and are actively searching for women who will be interested.''

A used book sale raised $354 in October. Matrix also hopes businesswomen with higher salaries will contribute to the group. Keeping the 1 1/2-year-old organization afloat concerns board member Lynne Naas, an office manager.

``We talk about the glass ceiling, but really, isn't it the cement floor that's the problem?'' says Naas. ``So many women are stuck in the lower echelon, in the much lower-paying fields.''

All women are welcome at Matrix, and members hope women who don't like the f-word - ``feminist'' - won't be put off.

``I think `feminist' is a very honorable word,'' Naas says. ``It's really sad what's happened to that word, the way the larger culture has demonized it. Because I'm not a demon. I'm not evil, nor are my desires and hopes for women anything but positive.''

After decades of falling enrollment, the schools are experiencing a rebirth.

TAMPA - Past generations called women's colleges future homemaker clubs where young ladies went for ``Mrs.'' degrees. Today, the schools often get labeled as havens for feminists where women learn men are the enemy.

``Stereotypes die very, very hard,'' said Paula Brownlee, former president of Hollins College, an all-women's school in Virginia. ``People either have images of women's colleges as places where young ladies sit around drinking tea or schools filled with aggressive feminists who don't like men.''

While the stereotypes linger, many women's colleges are enjoying a rebirth in the'90s. It comes following three straight decades of decline that saw the number of liberal arts colleges for women plunge from 298 to 84. Since 1992 enrollment has jumped 20 percent, and surveys show their students are among higher education's most satisfied customers.

``I don't think there has ever been a better time for women's colleges,'' said Jadwiga S. Sebrechts, executive director of the Women's College Coalition in Washington, D.C. ``They are at an all-time high for self-esteem.''

They have high-quality professors and great dormitories, according to the 1996 edition of ``The Best 309 Colleges.'' Five women's colleges rank among the top 10 U.S. schools in quality of professors and eight made the top 10 for best dormitories.

Enrollment for the 84 colleges, none of which is in Florida, is now at 105,000.

``To be perfectly honest, it was my parents' idea,'' said Meredith Bunch, a sophomore at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va. ``There was no way I was going to a women's college.''

Bunch, a Lakeland High School graduate, already had been accepted and sent her deposit to the University of Florida. Tulane University was also offering her a $20,000 scholarship.

But Randolph-Macon continued to recruit Bunch. An admissions officer called Bunch at home, inviting her to a Tampa reception. Bunch couldn't make it. No problem, the admissions officer said, I'll come to Lakeland.

``They were persistent in a good way,'' Bunch said. ``I kind of became spoiled by their personal touches.''

Women's colleges have become ``more savvy in their recruiting,'' said Brownlee, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., since leaving Hollins in 1990. ``They're much more assertive than they were 20 years ago.''

It's become a necessity.

The price tag at many women's colleges is at least $20,000 a year. Cost along with the fact only 2.5 percent of female undergraduates attend women's colleges means ``our target market is very limited,'' said Gay Culverhouse, president of Notre Dame College of Ohio.

Culverhouse, former president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, took over at Notre Dame, a suburban Cleveland school with 750 students.

As a selling point to high school students, Culverhouse and other women's college leaders are quick to mention their success stories. Today, 25 percent of the women in Congress and 33 percent of the women on Fortune 1,000 boards are graduates of women's colleges. Women's college graduates are twice as likely as their coed counterparts to get a doctorate or medical degree.

It's proof they're ``providing an education necessary for women to climb careerwise,'' said Ed Custard, former admissions dean at the University of South Florida's New College in Sarasota and author of ``The Best 309 Colleges.''

The rising popularity of women's colleges can be traced to the U.S. Senate hearings in 1991 over Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas' alleged sexual harassment of Anita Hill. Until then harassment and bias against women ``had only been feminists' issues and not talked about by ordinary folks,'' Sebrechts said.

The televised hearings helped create an awareness of the obstacles facing women working to build careers. Young women, often with their parents' prodding, began looking at all-female colleges as places they could learn how to overcome those obstacles, Sebrechts said.

`LIKE BEING A NUN'

A solid core of women's colleges has existed for decades. Three of the Northeast biggies - Wellesley, Smith and Bryn Mawr - were ranked among the top 15 national liberal arts colleges in ``U.S. News & World Report's'' 1995 college guide.

As a group, women's colleges have come a long way in the last 30 years from the ``marriage marts'' described in a 1994 ``Town & Country'' magazine article. On weekends, men from other colleges were brought in by bus and train to meet young women working on their Mrs. degree. Along with a diploma, many of the women were seeking a ``ring by spring'' of their senior year.

But starting in the 1960s ``going to a women's college was like being a nun,'' said Randolph-Macon President Kathleen Gill Bowman.

At roughly the same time women's colleges were losing their appeal, the Ivy League and other top-rated universities were going coed. Many all-female colleges were left with a choice: Go coed or out of business.

The survivors appear stronger, but there is room for improvement. Especially when it comes to practicing what they preach.

For instance, a majority of Notre Dame College of Ohio's trustees are either men or nuns. ``Where are the women executives?'' Culverhouse asked her bosses at the Roman Catholic school. ``Where are the women role models? In today's world, not many women are going to college to prepare to be nuns.''

Despite the turnaround for many women's colleges, another threat to their survival looms in the near future.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a case against Virginia Military Institute, which refuses to admit female students. If the court decides that all-male schools are unconstitutional, VMI supporters say women's colleges will be forced to start accepting men.

Some members of the Women's College Coalition insist the VMI case doesn't apply to them. Their argument: VMI is a public school while they are all private institutions.

``None of the lawyers we've spoken with say that there are real implications for women's colleges,'' Sebrechts said.

CREATING LEADERS

Women's colleges say they must remain in business because America needs them.

``The romance with coeducation is over,'' Bowman said. ``We all assumed that when male colleges began accepting women there would be equality in the classroom.''

Studies show otherwise.

Women don't receive equal treatment in the classroom, even when taught by female professors, higher education researchers say.

Culverhouse, a former USF education professor, said it's not uncommon for professors to give their male students more attention.

``Our society is keyed around men being the leaders,'' she said. ``Just look at corporate America.''

Research reported by the Association of American Colleges and Universities indicates women's colleges ``promote and foster leadership, individuality and confidence within their students.''

Without men in the classroom, women are likely to ``speak up more,'' said Brownlee, the association's president.

Jennifer Moore, a senior at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, said she's ``never been a real big talker in class. Every teacher I've ever had since kindergarten has put that on my report cards.''

It's one reason she's considering Bryn Mawr in suburban Philadelphia. During a visit she found the school to have a ``feminine atmosphere - very relaxed, very homey.''

Berkeley Prep senior Kelly Tapp also noticed a difference between Wellesley College and some of the coed schools she visited. The environment at the school outside of Boston was ``very intellectual but also a place you can still have fun. Walking through the halls I could hear conversations about world politics, Machiavelli and the latest football game.''

Although she still hasn't committed to Wellesley, Tapp said she can see the benefits of a women's college. ``I think it's more conducive to studying. You don't have to worry about impressing that cute guy in the third row because he's not going to be there.''

Some women's colleges allow males from nearby schools to take classes on their campuses. And outside the classroom, ``you don't need to worry, you'll meet men,'' said Bunch, the Randolph-Macon student from Lakeland.

Still, when Tapp tells friends she's considering Wellesley, ``I get strange looks and questions like, `Why would you want to go to an all-women's college?' ''

But for more women today, the question is becoming, why not?

FAMOUS GRADS

Here are some notable graduates of women's colleges

-- Julia Child, food author and cooking teacher, Smith '34

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady, Wellesley '69

-- Nora Ephron, writer and humorist, Wellesley '62

-- Hanna Gray, President of University of Chicago, Bryn Mawr '50

-- Ellen Goodman, newspaper columnist, Radcliffe '63

-- Margaret Mead, anthropologist, Barnard '23

-- Barbara A. Mikulski, U.S. Senator, Mount St. Agnes '58

-- Sylvia Plath, poet and novelist, Smith '55

-- Nancy Reagan, former First Lady, Smith '43

-- Diane Sawyer, national TV correspondent, Wellesley '67

Source: Women's College Coalition

With Women's History Month drawing to a close, we end our March Monday odes to significant women in history with a few historic women, some nonhistoric but significant women and some tender, perhaps painful points to ponder.

What has been wonderful about your submissions is that you wrote with passion and eloquence about an eclectic group of women. What has been somewhat frustrating about the effort to focus on historic women was the paucity of those entries.

Maybe there hasn't been enough focus on such women in history books and in the media. Maybe we also don't ask enough questions or pay enough attention, possibilities that local historian and author Doris Weatherford suggests.

For instance, Weatherford, whose books include ``American Women's History,'' ``Foreign and Female, Immigrant Women in America,'' and ``American Women in World War II,'' points out that while we honor Roger Williams, who was banished for speaking out about religious freedom and free speech in Colonial days, few have even heard of Mary Dyer, who was hanged by the Puritans for the same thing.

Even women of note from earlier this century are largely unknown. We often don't remember them or celebrate them.

Weatherford wonders why.

``Could it possibly be that we find it difficult to acknowledge that earlier generations actually did something? Are we too lazy to look, too busy taking credit for change in our era to ferret out the facts about what others did?

``It is worth our time to learn these things. They serve as personal, daily inspiration that it is possible to go forward and win - and that it is also possible to go backward and lose.

``There are ghosts whispering to us from our past, if only we listen. They have priceless lessons to teach us, if only we read and learn and tell.''

-- -- --

Winston Smith of Tampa wants to honor his sister, Nellie Marion Smith Hancock Hudson, 91, of Palatka.

A teacher, Hudson began her career in 1920 in Simms Creek School in Putnam County, where she had 14 pupils in first through sixth grades.

Hudson retired in 1966 in Palatka, where she taught for 20 years. She also had taught in Bostwick, Green Cove Springs, Center Hill, Frances and East Palatka.

Hudson's daughter is a retired teacher and three granddaughters teach school.

``She must have set a good example,'' Smith says of his sister. ``I think so.''

-- -- --

Nancy Lee McKay of Tampa submitted Jean Ross Howard Phelan, founder of the Whirly-Girls, an international organization of women helicopter pilots.

McKay met Phelan in 1971 at a conference on the use of helicopters in emergency medical service. Phelan was then the director of helicopter activities for the Aerospace Industries Association.

She was honored by her peers last year by being chosen to give the Lindbergh Memorial Lecture at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

-- -- --

Eugene Sevensma of Tampa wants to honor Elizabeth Crosby, professor of neuroanatomy at the University of Michigan, who was his professor in 1938.

``She instilled in me a wonderment of the brain, spinal cord and nerves that lasted more than 50 years,'' said Sevensma, a family doctor and psychiatrist.

``I have now been retired for more than eight years, but her inspiring presence and lectures are still a high point in my medical school life, and the years that followed.''

-- -- --

Lynn Adams, a women's studies major at the University of South Florida, nominates Sister Thea Bowman, a black nun who helped introduce black American culture, song and ritual into Catholic liturgy.

Bowman, who died in 1990, helped found the Institute of Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University and organized the 1987 Black Catholic Congress. In 1990, she was awarded the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame University, the highest honor given to American Catholics.

USF CAMPUS - When the name of the game is publish or perish, time to do four loads of laundry, get dinner on the table and put the children to bed can disappear in nothing flat.

It's a situation familiar to many professional women, when juggling the demands of a career while still doing the majority of housework often means something gets dropped.

And in medical schools, where few women hold the top positions - that of full professor with tenure - it's easy to lose perspective, says Verena Jorgensen, a physician and assistant professor at the University of South Florida's College of Medicine.

That's where the college's Barbara McClintock Society for Women Junior Faculty comes in. Every three months a group of women - most of them in the lower ranks of the medical school's faculty - meet to share tips and insights on making tenure.

``Women often commit to things that won't help them get promoted,'' Jorgensen said.

``They're busy being nice and doing what needs to be done instead of keeping their eye on the ball. This group helps me keep my eye on the ball.''

Why are there so few women at the higher tiers teaching?

Partly because women weren't accepted at medical schools until fairly recently, says college Dean Marvin Dunn. And partly because women tend to be overlooked in the promotion process, say women in the McClintock group.

For decades, the few women admitted to medical schools meant few were available for the promotion pool, Dunn said.

Twenty years ago, just 9 percent of the nation's first-year medical students were women. Last year, 40 percent of the 1993-94 class was female, according to a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

And the current crop of first-year women is clamoring for role models, Dunn said. But since time, as well as ability, play a part in making tenure, the small numbers of women in the earlier classes means few have been around long enough to make it to the higher levels, he said.

Last year about 25 percent of all full-time medical school teachers were women, more than triple the number in 1975, according to the medical colleges association.

But fewer than 10 percent of them had made it to the top ranks; almost half were assistant professors, with about 20 percent at the rank of associate professor, the study said.

``If we're going to have any women as role models, we have to help the young women who are joining our colleges [as faculty] move their careers along,'' Dunn said.

Two years ago, he encouraged the McClintock group to form and approved a $5,000 budget for speakers and meetings.

The USF medical school's number and distribution of women faculty mirror the national trends. Of the 444 faculty in USF's medical school in 1994, about one in five is a woman, according to the college.

Most of the women were concentrated in the lower teaching levels, according to a survey of the 1994 faculty list. Nearly half - 43 percent - were assistant professors. Another 7 percent were associate professors and only 9 percent were full professors.

``USF is a really good climate for women,'' said Anna Parsons, an obstetrician and assistant professor.

``It just hasn't been a habit to promote women. We're not protesting anything [with the McClintock group]. We just want to make people here aware of us.

``We've decided to be our own mentors,'' Parsons said.

Nationally, women move up the ranks slower than men do. Of all the faculty appointed to their first full-time positions in 1976, 10 percent of the women but 22 percent of the men had reached the full professor rank by 1991, according to the medical college's study.

Another piece of the problem is the rigid time-line associated with tenure, say Dunn and McClintock Society members.

Traditionally, once teachers reach a position where tenure is a possibility, they have five years to prove their worth to the university, Dunn said.

Miss that deadline and teachers were encouraged to leave. Bluntly, it was up or out.

And meeting that deadline is tough when family demands eat time traditionally reserved for research and teaching, group members say. ``It's a matter of finding the time and juggling the schedules to do everything,'' Jorgensen said.

What to do with tenure is hotly debated throughout the academic community. But Dunn said he favors extending the deadline to allow faculty members to cope with outside pressures while working toward tenure.

Ironically, the group's namesake, Barbara McClintock, probably wouldn't want to join the group, Jorgensen believes.

McClintock, who died in 1992, received the 1983 Nobel Prize for medicine. She was only the third woman to receive the prize since it was established in 1901, and the first to receive it without sharing the honor with colleagues.

``She wasn't a joiner,'' Jorgensen said.

Working alone with a microscope and a few corn plants, McClintock discovered that genes can move from one cell to another. For 30 years her research was ignored, but she continued her studies.

The discovery led to a greater understanding of how cancer forms and spreads through the body.

``We chose her for her spirit of perseverance,'' Jorgensen said.

``She presented her findings and was universally scorned and booed. But eventually, science caught up to her. She did it all by herself, and she was right.''