M. Elizabeth Tidball, a physiology professor at George Washington University whose surveys of graduates of womens-only colleges pointed to the advantages of such institutions and had an enduring influence on debates about academic and professional opportunities for women, died Feb. 3 at the Buckinghams Choice retirement community in Adamstown, Md. She was 84.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Margaret Shannon, the historian and archivist of the Cathedral Choral Society, the resident symphonic chorus of Washington National Cathedral. Dr. Tidball sang in the choruss alto section for nearly five decades and was the societys president from 1982 to 1984. She was the first woman to hold that post.

(Family photo) - M. Elizabeth Tidball, a physiology professor at George Washington University and a member of the Cathedral Choral Society, presents flowers to Paul Callaway, the groups founder and first musical director, after his final concert in 1984.

A look at those who have died this year.

Known to her acquaintances as Lee, Dr. Tidball joined George Washington University in 1960 and remained a researcher and professor in the physiology department until her retirement in 1994. She was widely known as an advocate for women in academia generally and the sciences in particular.

Her prominence stemmed in large part from a study she began in the late 1960s. Dr. Tidball examined 1,500 listings in the reference guide Whos Who of American Women and found that graduates of womens colleges were two to three times more likely than graduates of coeducational colleges to be included in the guide for their professional accomplishments.

The article appeared in the journal Educational Record in 1973. Critics have noted that the study did not control for socioeconomic background or the self-selecting nature of student body populations. But for years, the article continued to be cited in discussions of womens educational and career paths.

Its publication followed closely the enactment in 1972 of Title IX, the federal legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in education, and coincided with an intensifying debate about the role of womens colleges in American society. The number of such institutions fell, according to the New York Times, from 300 in 1960 to 70 in 2000.

Dr. Tidball a graduate of the womens-only Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. steadfastly championed their advantages. Among their merits, she argued, was the greater proportion of female faculty members and administrators who could be role models for female students.

In the 1970s and 80s, she conducted variations on her original study, including surveys of women who received doctoral degrees and who were admitted to medical schools. Those surveys, too, pointed to the merits of womens institutions, said Lisa Wolf-Wendel, a co-author with Dr. Tidball of the volume Taking Women Seriously: Lessons and Legacies for Educating the Majority.

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M. Elizabeth Tidball, GWU professor and Cathedral Choral Society president, dies