Sisterhood Multiplies, Divides and Conquers

Women's groups at Harvard are amoeboid: they proliferate by fattening and subdivide spontaneously. The groups take pride in their lack of structure, so that it is difficult to isolate specific organizers. "We are leaderless," said Susan Cole '74, active in Radcliffe Women to Keep Mind and Body Together. Questioned about their activities, each member adds links to a long chain of referrals by naming three or four others who can provide information. Gone is the competition which predominates wherever one can vie for political position.

Mind and Body Together, is the most active women's group in the university. It evolved last year out of a North House collective, and its first concerted action came when it drafted a reply to an infamous letter of F. Skiddy Von Stade Jr. in which he stated that he "would shudder at the thought of changing the balance of males vs. females at Harvard."

The group focuses on women's personal rather than political problems. In keeping with these interests, Mind and Body Together influenced Pamela Lowry's appointment as sex counselor with an office in Currier House. After a number of rapes in the area last spring, the group also got a course going at the Radcliffe gymnasium on Tai-Kwon-Do, or self-defense.

The group has been divided internally on some issues; the women's March 8 takeover of the Architectural Technology Workshop forced a confrontation between political factions. "Some of us were involved in the takeover," said Liss Jeffries '73, but others remained opposed to militant action. The entire group, however, had been working since last February to set up a regular place where women could meet.

Their efforts met fulfillment October 26, when the Women's Center opened in the Moors Hall basement, where space was provided by cleaning out an old mattress storage area next to the maids' room. The center is broadly based and is open to all women.

The Women's Center, staffed on a volunteer basis, is a place where women can drop in for discussion of subjects of common interest. The library is to be a source of information for undergraduate papers and theses on women's issues. The Center has also established a liason committee to keep in touch with the Graduate Women's Organization, RUS, Radcliffe Institute and alumnae.

A group met at the Women's Center this past Monday to organize Women's Studies courses. A nucleus of about fifteen, including Tasha Tennebaun, teaching fellow in Latin American history, Ruth Hubbard, lecturer on biology, and Janet Fjellman, lecturer on social anthropology, suggested that those interested in the courses should call the People's Switchboard at 4953454. The format may be oriented toward a group experience or may take a more traditional and scholarly approach. Among the topics considered were the biology of sex differences, a history of the women's movement, lesbianism, an anthropological study of women in various cultures, and women in the third world, in socialist countries and in religion. A more action-oriented course may be offered in divorce legislation. Also in the planning stages is a study group on women workers at Harvard and solidarity in the various roles here. This study will point up the important but relatively unrecognized part secretaries play in the university.

By means of questionnaire results, the People's Switchboard is bringing together faculty and students interested in these subjects. "They are conducting a kind of laboratory in education and are open to still more suggestions," said Louise Nemschoff '72--an active member of the group. An index by subject of student and faculty interests--located in Stoughton basement--is open to all.

The Center will also be a meeting place for feminist organizations such as the Harvard-Radcliffe Women's Abortion Action Coalition and Women Scientists, a Boston group. The Abortion Action Coalition is available to anyone in the Harvard community. Part of a national campaign, it is coordinated through the Boston committee. The group formed during the first part of August and began providing abortion assistance at the beginning of the new term. Earlier this fall members held an abortion debate, and they expect to stage a benefit performance about women in the arts sometime this year. They are now building toward a demonstration to be held in Washington, D.C. on November 20, to express solidarity with all women. Marchers intend to follow the route that suffragettes took in the early part of the century. The Harvard group is busy stimulating public interest in the demonstration while others are working the legal aspects. Typical of feminist groups, the Abortion Action Coalition has no single leader.

Ursula Goodenough Levine of the Women Scientists, observed that her group focuses on problems women face in combining a career with family life. She named Tufts as a haven for women scientists, saying that Tufts's hiring policies are less biased against women than Harvard's.

RUS supports women's groups in principle and principal. It donated $600 to the Women's Center--which will go toward decoration and library materials--and distributed the Yale Guide to Sex on Campus this fall. Football tickets, previously given free to Harvard students only, are now available to Radcliffe students. RUS also gave $1200 to the United Women's Contingent, which is part of the Boston Peace Action Coalition, the money coming from an anti-war fast held two years ago, in which students skipped three meals and sent the rebate to the Moratorium Committee. Their check was never cashed. Three weeks ago the RUS legislature passed a motion allowing the money to be given to another anti-war group that met the mandate's requirements. RUS is also planning a Colloquium on women to be held in December, at which Boston women who hold jobs currently unusual for the female labor force will speak.

Women's groups are active in several Harvard houses. A Men's and Women's Issues Table meets at Dunster House every Tuesday for discussions with guest speakers. The group developed out of a Women's Issues Table which Phyllis Jones, a tutor in the House, started last spring after she had been working on women's admissions and a House tutorial on daycare. Men were invited before, but only this year has the issue of male sex roles been included in the discussions. The number of participants varies from about 15 to 25. Recent speakers have included a priest and a nun who explained their choice of celibacy and Dean Barbara Soloman, who spoke on "Views of the Women through the '50's and '60's."

The group is planning to meet with President Bok to discuss the House's co-residential questionnaire. This questionnaire is the work of another Dunster organization, the Committee on Co-residency, which grew out of the issues table, and continues to meet to work out problems of co-residential living.

Dunster House also recently instituted "milk and cookies," a long-standing Radcliffe tradition. The purpose of this function is to allow women in the House to socialize and get to know one another.

Adams House has also seen the beginnings of feminist activism. Earlier this year Phyllis Blum, assistant senior tutor in the House presided over a meeting of Adams women. Blum said there seems to be less dissatisfaction among women now than there was last year. She attributes the easing of strains to the increased number of women.

The Adams group recently decided in favor of a Men's and Women's Issues Table, as at Dunster. Posie Knobler '72 is organizing speakers, who have included Sissela Bok, who talked about euthanasia. Knobler also arranged for the group to see "The Women's Film", a California made film on women's rights.

In Quincy House a Women's Table spontaneously evolved out of a group of seven seniors who enjoyed having dinner together. Nancy McKeague '72, one of these seniors, said various members of the group are inviting speakers. Mary Bunting will come for an informal dinner there, and Matina Horner, assistant professor in clinical psychology, will talk on Motivation Theories of Women.

"Involvment in women's groups can change your whole life," said Marion Lennihan '73 of Mind and Body Together. "Most girls don't realize that women's liberation can be part of their lives too. It can improve their relationships with other women. Most guys are sort of curious about the groups and aren't put off by them at all."

Whether educational, personal or political, the groups are bringing the female community together. Women are learning that others share their resentment of discrimination on the job and in social activities. Though in some Houses efforts to get collectives going have met little success, the amorphous movement is bulging here, shrinking there, but fluidly spreading all the while.