Women's Groups Mobilize After March

Students estimate that between 700 and 1000 Harvard affiliates marched last Sunday in Washington, D.C. for abortion rights. And that experience may translate into greater women's activism on campus now that the marchers have returned, say women's group leaders.

"I feel like this has been a really active year in terms of women on campus, and the march underscores the importance of women's issues," says Holly R. Zellweger '90, co-president of the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS).

"I think [the march] really reenergized people," says Jennifer A. Dunne '89, who organized the 11 charter buses that brought Harvard undergraduates to Washington. "It was really exciting to see it happen and come together. I was astounded at the number of people who went." The level of activism at Harvard, too, is on an upswing, she says.

The state coordinator for Massachusetts NOW and a former president of RUS, Ann Pellegrini '86, says she thinks the march will spur campus activism by getting younger students actively interested in campaigning for their rights.

"I think this brought out a lot of young people to the march. We keep forgetting that our mothers and grandmothers lived through times when we didn't have these rights," Pellegrini says.

The outgoing president of the Women's Law Association (WLA), Bonnie A. Savage, also says that the march made college students more aware of the need for activism. The WLA sent 40 people to Washington, many of whom are not normally involved with WLA activities, Savage says.

"I think that this can only have a positive effect," Savage says of the march. She says that several marchers to whom she spoke expressed "feelings of euphoria and renewal of commitment" afterwards. "Especially for the younger women, there was an awareness that fundamental rights are in jeopardy," she says.

But while the march itself may be a stimulant to on-campus activism, Zellweger says that is because certain issues--such as improved campus security--have been highly visible at Harvard that women may become more mobilized here.

For example, the rape of a Harvard employee in the Science Center last December galvanized women and resulted in the formation of a new group, the Coalition Against Rape, to discuss campus security concerns. A march of more than 100 students and staff was also prompted by the rape.

In terms of campus activities, the issue of security--and the recent rape--is directly related to the national mobilization around abortion rights, Zellweger and other activists say.

The timing of the March on Washington--sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW), the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Abortion Rights Action League--also coincides with campus plans.

Just two days after the march, the RUS- sponsored Take Back the Night week began, which is a series of events to increase awareness of violence against women. The Take Back the Night series will culminate next Tuesday with a rally and march "to symbolically reclaim the night," Zellweger says.

Dunne, who coordinates women's issues for the Harvard Civil Liberties Union, says that she hopes that women's activism at Harvard will become more organized. The institution of a phone tree similar to one used by NOW in Boston to organize protesters when anti-abortion groups such as Operation Rescue come to town and the formation of a Harvard Students for Choice group are some of the possibilities to which she looks forward.