Sexual Biases

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I must say that The Crimson's reporting on the Undergraduate Council is looking much fairer than in bygone days. Yet, I feel compelled to illuminate two mistakes in the October 17th article about UC elections, "Council Elects Eliot Senior to Top Post. The errors may seem insignificant to many, but they carry significant implications.

Ken Lee was not elected chairman of the Undergraduate Council. He was elected chairperson. Likewise, Noam Bramson will not serve as vice-chairman, but as vice-chairperson.

I'm not trying to be trivial. The UC intentionally titled its leadership positions so as not to reflect a gender bias. Despite last year's tabling of a resolution supporting anti-discrimination that called on final clubs to admit women, I believe the UC supports equal opportunities for women and men.

I don't feel that the mistake was deliberate. Rather, I think it reflects an ingrained societal attitude--the person in charge has typically been male, thus chairman naturally emerges in everyday language.

This inherent, unintentional assumption of masculine leadership (not just in the UC) is one facet of what I feel inspire six undergraduate women (myself included) to develop a conference on women's leadership that was held the week prior to the start of the fall term. John Yoo, in his October 17th opinion piece "Marshals of the Resume Parade," referred to this workshop, stating, "Or you can join something important-sounding that few people have ever heard of, like the 'Radcliffe Women's Leadership Project/Conference.'" John's statement focuses on two key elements of the conference, but with an unwarranted negative connotation.

The Women's Leadership Conference, which has developed into the Harvard-Radcliffe Leadership Project: Women '88, is more than "important-sounding." It is important. One can clearly see from the errors in the UC article, and from another October 17th Crimson article detailing the unequal pay of the 7 percent of Harvard's full professors who are female, that there is an underlying malaise about women in leadership in the Harvard community.

Further, if John Yoo had researched the history of the conference, perhaps he would have understood why "few people have ever heard of" it. The conference was held from September 8-13, 1988--just over a month ago. The core group of 30 undergraduates is actively developing proposals to promote leadership on campus, with a focus on women in leadership. We are reaching out to fellow students, but it takes time to gain a foothold at Harvard. Perhaps if campus publications better informed the student body of newly created organizations, more people would know of the group's creation.

The lack of accuracy in the article on the UC, and John Yoo's seeming lack of research prior to his implications about the Leadership Project: Women '88, concerns me greatly. Crimson reporters, please strive for accuracy. It's needed to be a newspaper that truly represents the Harvard community. Lori Outzs '91