Horner Tells Alumni of 'Stereotypes'

President Horner yesterday called for "equal access and equal opportunities" for women at Harvard and said that "women are welcome in pupils' chairs" here "but not in Faculty chairs."

Speaking at a breakfast meeting of Harvard and Radcliffe alumni officials, Horner said the persistence of "stereotypes" especially hampers equal opportunities for women.

"We must free ourselves of outdated myths about women, especially at Harvard," she said.

Horner cited figures on the career plans of the Harvard and Radcliffe Classes of 1972, showing that men and women at Harvard have similar goals, as proof that the stereotypes "society persists in shaping" about women are often wrong.

However, Horner said that overcoming sexual stereotypes is difficult because they often represent "unconscious and not deliberate discrimination," and because of the financial state of the country.

"Things would be less difficult if the economy hadn't reared its ugly head with such force at this particular moment," Horner said. "We have overcome blatant and overt discrimination, but fighting in the job market is the only way to actualize it."

After Horner's speech at the Faculty Club, members of the board of directors of the Associated Harvard Alumni, the Radcliffe College Alumni Association board of management and the Radcliffe board of trustees walked to the Lowell House junior common room, where the Harvard and Radcliffe deans of admissions discussed their first year of working in the same building.

Alberta Arthurs, Radcliffe dean of admissions, financial aid and women's education, told the alumni that "rumors about drastic differences" between male and female applicants "are just that--they're rumors." The admissions offices' statistical measures for men and women, such as standardized test scores, are "remarkably similar," she added.

L. Fred Jewett '57, Harvard dean of admissions and financial aid, said he hopes that in the future the admissions offices will be "doing the best job of picking the best people without worrying too much about whether they're men or women."

The alumni will end today a three-day meeting that focused on the role of women in the University.