Changing Gender Roles

In the first of Radcliffe's academic contributions to Harvard's 350th, a historian, a literature expert and a self-proclaimed "scholar and advocate" yesterday discussed their contributions to the discipline of women's studies.

Women's studies "questions the masculinization of intellectual authority," said Catharine Stimpson, dean of the Graduate School of Rutgers University and a long-time feminist activist.

Stimpson, who opened up the discussion in "Changing Gender Roles, Past and Present," called the introduction of women's studies in college curricula "one of the most profound intellectual revolutions in the last part of the 20th century."

In what she intended to be a broad overview of the multiplicity of scholarship in the field, Stimpson touched upon, among others, the work of feminist literary critics, feminist anthropological theories and the critique of masculine approaches to science.

Duke University historian William Chafe suggested that the women's movement has been split over its tactics. While some women's groups hope to advance the status of all women through non-hierarchical organizations which emphasize participatory democracy, others, he said, have sought individual gains over that of the whole group.

Chafe went on to endorse the more inclusive of the two factions, saying "the progress made underlines the importance of the collectivist remedies."

Margaret Wilkerson, associate professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, read excerpts from and analyzed five plays by Black women writers, including "Toussaint" by Lorraine Hansberry and "Wedding Band" by Alice Childress.

"The peculiar burden of Black women in confronting slavery gave impetus to the white women's movement that developed alongside it. So, it is natural and inevitable that Black women would be involved in" the struggles of both the Black and women's movements.