Riesman to Preside at Conference For Review of Women's Education

David O. Riesman '31, Ford Professor, emphasized Monday the need for women's colleges to re-examine their goals. This Saturday he will preside over a conference on "The Future of Women's Education" at Sarah Lawrence College.

Commenting on the importance of the conference, which will include students and alumnae from 14 Eastern colleges, Riesman underscored the influence of college training on the changing role of the career woman in society.

The sociologist observed that, at 40, many women college graduates lack a sense of purpose in life, "unless they have been doing something to keep the pot boiling," preparing them for their return to a job. "After their families have grown up," he said, "women should be able to go back to full careers, and by that I don't just mean running teashops."

Riesman felt that women's colleges should give graduates confidence in their own ability to extend the range of careers open to them. In many cases, he said, women exclude themselves from attainable professions.

Students, not faculty members, Riesman added, will be mainly responsible for discussion at the conference. "There is," he stated, "an over-production of cliches on the subject of women's education by 'experts,' and an under-awareness of what students themselves think."

For this reason, explained Riesman, he did not intend to make a speech at the meeting. He said that Harold Taylor, president of Sarah Lawrence College, and he had planned the conference "to learn "what brings girls to women's colleges."