There were quotations around the word "conservative" for a reason - if I had meant an actual conservative, I would't have put quotes around the word. The quotation marks were intended to make the word seem sarcastic.

I was referring to the (old money, East Coast-bred, pearl-wearing, and superficially "conservative") gals who attend women's colleges with the rather outdated view that college is merely a stepping stone along the way to marriage (sort of like a four-year debutante ball - think Mona Lisa Smile). The strange thing is, despite the fact that women's colleges claim to be about empowering women, we had very little access to information about salary negotiation or job searches.

Our "career center" consisted of several three-ring binders that contained photocopied information about a few DC summer internships with legal firms. And this was in 1999!