Speakers Advise Persistence

Pursue projects that interest you and stick with them until you succeed, a slew of distinguished female professionals speaking at the Harvard-Radcliffe Women's Leadership Conference advised their audience this week.

Forty-six students are attending five days of panels, debates, speeches and workshops designed to help participants develop leadership skills and confidence.

"Once you know a lot about something, don't let anyone undercut your expertise," said Rose E. Frisch, associate professor emeritus at the School of Public Health, said at yesterday's health and science panel.

Frisch and the other panelists discussed issues and problems facing women in science.

Assistant Professor of Biology Colleen Cavanaugh said that although most undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate biology programs enroll similar numbers of men and women, the ratio of women to men suddenly plummets at the junior faculty level.

This is due not to unfair hiring practices, according to Cavanaugh, but to a lack of female applicants--after completing postdoctoral work, she said, women seem to "drop out" of the field.

Women in Politics

Perseverance and self-assurance are equally necessary for women in politics, according to Monday's panel on women in the public sector.

New Hampshire State Senator Susan McLane and former Massachusetts State Senator Patricia McGovern agreed that women need encouragement from organizations like the Women's Campaign Fund if they are to continue to make strides in the public sector.

"I needed that support," McLane said, referring to the financial and moral backing of the campaign fund. "I didn't have it in me to think,~'Oh yes, I'd be a perfect member of Congress."

She strongly emphasized the importance of tenacity for public office-seekers.

"If you lose, that is life... [but] get up and try and run again," she said.

Most of the speakers during the entire conference agreed that women have unique qualities to contribute to their professions.

"The public finally recognizes the important qualities that women [in government] bring to the table," said political consultant Jane Danowitz, a former executive director of the Women's Campaign Fund.

Danowitz said that in the 1992 election year women did well because they were the "candidates of change" in a country that wanted to depart from the status quo.

Not all of the women at the conference, however, agreed on the nature of the contributions women should make in society.

Janet Parshall of Concerned Women of America, an organization devoted to preserving traditional values, said women should lead by serving their families and people in need.

"Be more willing to self-sacrifice rather than self-actualize," she said.

The conference will conclude today with a discussion of the academic climate at Harvard and with remarks by Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson, Vice President and General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III.