Boston College feminist theology professor Mary Daly refused to allow two males into her “Introduction to Feminist Ethics” class in December. BC officials told her she had to let the men in or take early retirement. She opted instead for a leave of absence, the third time in 25 years she has had to leave town when she raised a ruckus. Daly’s reason for keeping men out of the class: Their presence would prevent women from fully expressing themselves in class.

Daly supposedly knows firsthand the struggles women have faced in their fight for equality. Her actions are as wrongheaded as those of the men who relegated women to second-class status in the past, treating them like property for decades.

If a male professor tried to keep female students out of a class, he would find himself scouring the help wanted ads. Such behavior has no place in higher education. Each student at a college has the same right to receive an education.

Daly’s class is supposed to serve as a depot of female empowerment. Yet this episode has had the opposite effect, painting women’s studies classes as nothing more than a group of angry women who hate men.

Daly violated the basic tenets of her job. By barring males from her class, she was no better than the men who kept women “in their place” for generations. After a quarter century of researching the struggle for equality, Daly should have known better.