Opening Pandora's Box

In the 15 years since Harvard and Radcliffe introduced coeducational living to the 12 residential houses, the two colleges have had to respond to a host of women's problems, some new, some as old as time.

In the last six years, Harvard has had to cope with an increase in undergraduate complaints of sexual harassment, which only recently has been recognized, by Harvard and the world, as misconduct subject to official censure. In the last five years, Harvard has created at least three committees, one within the College administration, one for the College's disciplinary board and one for an academic department, whose purpose is to raise awareness of and work to combat sexual harassment on campus.

At the same time, Radcliffe has poured out more and more funding for female-oriented peer counseling services, which have sprouted up in the last three years to advise undergraduates in areas including rape, eating problems, and contraception and pregnancy.

Rape

Several recent studies have estimated that one out of every 10 college women is raped each year. The majority--some estimate as many as 80 percent--of those women know the rapist, but, confused or upset, they do not report the attack to the police or tell other people about the incident, counselors say.

In recent years, as women have fought vehemently against the myth that they secretly desire to be sexually dominated, psychologists and law enforcement authorities have begun to recognize so-called "date rape" as a reprehensible form of abuse.

A woman goes out on a date with a man she knows well or only casually, and against her will, they have sex. She did not say 'no' loudly enough, or she yelled 'no,' or she wasn't really asked, or she was too scared to say 'no.' She was, as experts are beginning to say, date raped.

Yet at Harvard, as elsewhere, women are frequently unsure when the boundary has been crossed. The transition from flirtation to harassment to date rape is not clearly defined, counselors say, so a victim may be left with only a vague sense of unease, humiliation or abuse.

Because many cases are never reported to authorities, Harvard experts agree that it is difficult to find out how many women have been victims of date rape.

In a 1983 survey of 2000 undergraduates, .3 percent of the 1000 women polled said they had received unwanted pressure for sexual favors, and 10 percent said they had been subjected to unwanted pressure for dates. The study, conducted by two undergraduates through the office of the dean for undergraduate education, provided the first clues to the extent of peer harassment at Harvard, particularly among undergraduates.

In the spring of 1983, a peer counseling group named Response was formed to provide support for victims of sexual abuse. Counselors, who field between one and two calls per night, agree that the majority of the attackers described by callers are not Harvard students.

But, they say, in cases where a Harvard student is accused of date rape, the College's Administrative Board will do little if there is any hint of drug or alcohol use by either individual. The College has, however, formed an ad hoc committee within its Administrative Board to hear cases relating to peer harassment. The problem, says Ellen Porter Honnet, assistant dean of the College for coeducation, is that "two students with different interpretations of the same series of events make it very difficult to determine blame, even though one's sympathies lie with the victim."

Counselors at Response suggest that at coeducational schools such as Harvard, more relationship problems lead to a higher incidence of date rape. Honnet, however, says that a coed school might "have an advantage in that men and women living together as friends have greater potential for understanding and communication."

Next year, at the urging of the College's four-member Coordinating Committee on Sexual Harassment, peer counselors will hold voluntary workshops during freshman week to increase awareness of date rape. In an independent effort, two Harvard juniors this year collected 1000 signatures urging that such workshops not only be held, but be mandatory for all incoming undergraduates.

The committee "is trying to present the issue [of sexual harassment] without men feeling victimized and women embattled. We are teaching men to be more sensitive and women more assertive," says Honnet.

Sexual Harassment

While most experts agree that harassment can be directed at both men and women, all of the complaints received in the past few years by the College's sexual harassment hearing officer have been made by women.

Teaching fellows are most frequently implicated in cases of harassment, says Lisa I. Backus '86, a Response counselor. Because of the typically small age gap between graduate students and undergraduates, the line between appropriate and inappropriate behavior is often blurred, and teaching fellows often do not realize the power they hold over their students, Backus says.

But it was the sexual harassment cases involving three esteemed senior faculty members that focussed nationwide attention on Harvard. All three cases implicated tenured professors of government, and all three resulted in official censure. The latest of the three cases, which became public through an extraordinary statement released by Harvard in February 1985, resulted in the extremely rare resignation of a tenured professor.

An earlier case--which became public in 1983 and which resulted in the punishment of another government professor for sexually harassing a junior faculty member in his department--prompted the University to refine its definition of sexual harassment and to revise and publicize its procedures for handling such misconduct. The University presently defines sexual harassment as "unwanted sexual behavior such as physical contact or verbal comments or suggestions, which adversely affects the working or learning environment of an individual."

Still, the Government Department has seen the number of females accepting offers of graduate admission drop significantly within the last three years, at least in part, Chairman Robert D. Putnam admits, because of the harassment cases. Last fall, the department also had to battle a vigorous protest among students who believe they should not be forced to associate in any way, either in the classroom or before examination boards, with professors implicated for sexual misconduct.

But administrators are somewhat hopeful that the new, clarified procedures, as well as the greater acceptance of sexual harassment as a valid complaint, have helped make students more willing to report sexual harassment incidents to the University. A report released in September revealed a rise in the number of cases reported to University officials, but the officials say it is impossible to determine whether this trend reflects increased awareness or an actual increase in sexual harassment incidents themselves.

The annual report, which tallies complaints from students at the College and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, revealed that two students had filed formal sexual harassment complaints (in which they officially asked the University to reprimand the accused offenders) during the 1984-85 academic year. It also revealed that during that same year, 56 others asked University officials for advice about a sexual harassment problem.

The report, prepared by the Coordinating Committee on Sexual Harassment, lamented that only a fraction of sexual harassment victims ask the University to intervene on their behalf. It also expressed concerns over what it termed "serious problems" of sexual harassment by peers.

A 1983 survey on sexual harassment revealed that 34 percent of undergraduate women had experienced some form of sexual harassment, loosely defined as anything from lewd jokes and suggestive comments to unwanted touching or rape. A subsequent survey, which used a stricter definition of harassment, revealed a much smaller percent.

Officials say they cannot pinpoint a cause for sexual harassment, but most admit it is more common than the few reported cases would suggest. Honnet attributes the problem at least in part to the dearth of tenured women and, by extension, strong female presence at Harvard, where fewer than 25 out of 350 senior professors are women.

But scholars agree that Harvard's willingness to handle the cases involving its senior professors in a public fashion has made the problem appear more common here than at other Universities. They say the problem is widespread, and that few scholars consider the three publicized harassment cases a reflection on the quality of Harvard's academic programs.

Eating Problems

Officials say the number of students coming to Harvard with eating problems is on the rise, and that an overwhelming 90 to 95 percent of them are women. In response to the trend, which parallels that at other schools nationwide, Harvard students three years ago began a counseling service in the basement of Memorial Hall to help students who are preoccupied with their weight.

Eating Problems Outreach (EPO) handles anonymous calls from students suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimia and other eating disorders. Those with anorexia, which has been recognized since the Middle Ages, are preoccupied with dieting and lose at least 25 percent of their original body weight yet still see themselves as fat. Bulimia, only recently recognized as a disorder and more difficult to detect, involves a cycle of binging and self-induced purging.

According to a 1982 and 1983 Radcliffe survey that strictly defined bulimia as purging once a week, between 4 and 8 percent of the 400 women and fewer than 1 percent of the 200 men surveyed at Harvard and another Boston-area college could be classified as having bulimia, according to Norma C. Ware, assistant dean of Radcliffe. These findings are consistent with other surveys conducted nationwide.

"Our environment creates a real crazy attitude in demanding people to be thin and exercise a lot, be successful and perfect, all as a package deal. There's also the suggestion that we can still eat what we want and [maintain this image]. There's no woman who isn't affected [in some way by this pressure]," says Honnet.

Since 1950 the body weight of women between the ages of 20 and 30 has been increasing, yet the ideals for women have been decreasing, says EPO co-director Julie M. Mihelich '86. "Women are biologically heavier, but [are under pressure] to become slimmer," she says.

Yet, while only 5 percent of all individuals with eating disorders are men, Honnet believes men are starting to become more vulnerable, especially as men's fashion magazines place a higher premium on men's weight and physique.

Eating problems may develop when people feel a need to gain control over their lives, says Mihelich. "In college, they enter a new situation. At home you are controlled by your parents. At school there are more issues over which you have direct control--how much you eat, study, if you stay out late," she says.

Coeducation may exacerbate a woman's vulnerability to eating problems, experts say. This is in part because women have been socialized to believe that their attractiveness, particularly to potential male partners, is solely a function of body shape.

Women's self-esteem all too frequently becomes inextricably bound to body size. "There's an equation: If I don't have a nice body, I'm not worth anything. This seems to be a pervasive attitude. Many charming, attractive young women come in thinking they're 'gross,'" says Dr. Margaret S. McKenna '70, a University Health Services psychiatrist who advises students on eating disorders.

In many cases, anorexics and bulimics may need medical attention or therapy to overcome the effects of their disorders. "Plenty of people may tell them they look great, but they don't believe it," McKenna says. "And these are extremely successful people."

This story is based on reporting by Kristin A. Goss, Laura S. Kohl and Allison L. Jernow.