Panel Discusses Women in Politics

Four prominent women attorneys discussed issues of women in law and politics in this "year of the women" at Harvard Law School last night.

The four women, all politically active, agreed that today's women face unique challenges in trying to break into the political arena.

Dianne Wilkerson, a Democrat who, if elected next month, will become the first Black woman to serve she has faced gender discrimination during her campaign.

"It's a totally different ballgame for women," Wilkerson said. "It's been an experience, even in the kinds of questions you get asked that are decidedly sexist."

Clinton/Gore campaign activist Nancy Gartner said that women are forced to work harder than men to achieve the same status.

Despite the discrimination the panelists said they had faced, they encouraged other women to follow their political interests.

"I feel that for me, it was essential," said Clinton activist Cathleen Douglas Stone. "Without a form of activism, I just was not comfortable being a human being." Stone is national and state co-chair of the Clinton/Gore Environmental Advisory Committee and state co-chair of the Clinton/Gore Women's Committee.

Eleanor D. Acheson, who co-chairs the Clinton/Gore Finance Committee of New England, emphasized that the legal community often supports active political involvement.

"If you carry your own practice and do your own work and contribute to your firm, these things are very much encouraged," Acheson said.

Approximately 50 people, mostly women, attended the event. The panel discussion, co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Democrats, the Women's Law Association and the Office of Public Interest Advising, was part of a series organized by third-year law student Laurie M. McTeague and second-year law student Anne E. Hoskins.