Women Forge Their Own Paths to Leadership

For centuries, Harvard has been viewed as a bastion of the old boys' network, an exclusive club where men could send their sons to learn how to smoke cigars and rule the world.

Twenty-five years ago, Harvard and Radcliffe merged with the aim of giving women the chance to live in and succeed in the same kind of society that their mothers were entering in the Real World.

The College has come a long way since that time, as the number of female presidents of organizations has grown to correspond with their representation in the College.

But problems with the "glass ceiling" in society seem to have been reflected in the largest and most prominent Harvard extracurriculars.

While women have made strides in the workplace and in Harvard activities, large gender gaps exist in the leadership of these activities.

Of the students over the past five years who have run 14 of the most influential organizations--including The Crimson, the Undergraduate Council and Phillips Brooks House--just 30 percent are female, according to a study compiled by Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee Chair Avery W. Gardiner '97.

"That to me shows that we have a problem with women not achieving high leadership positions on campus," Gardiner says. "The causes are a little more difficult to get a handle on."

While some women believe that the problems are the result of coincidence or lack of interest, others blame an atmosphere that actively discourages women from taking leadership roles.

"When it comes to having intellectual, high-level conversations, women seem to be assumed to be less versed in these things than men," says Marina C. Santini'98, co-managing editor of Perspective. "I think I've spent a certain amount of time trying to prove myself because there were all these men and they were all brilliant and they weren't necessarily going to ask my opinion when it came to something intellectual or the computer or the layout of the magazine or something like that."

Faculty and Administration

Regardless of how active female students are in undergraduate organizations, they still come face-to-face with a male-dominated administration and Faculty.

In fact, more than three-quarters of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences is male. And top decision-makers--including the dean of students, the dean of the College, the deans of Harvard's nine faculties and the University's president and provost--are almost exclusively male.

Many women say the lack of women in high positions at the University leads to a less-than-optimal number of women pursuing leadership positions.

According to this argument, having women in higher levels affords female undergraduates valuable role models.

"I think having women in the administration is an important component of increasing the comfort of women undergraduates at Harvard," says Lamelle D. Rawlins '99, vice president of the Undergraduate Council.

"I guess it's not hard for me to get advisors or people to talk to or mentors or any of that," says Marya L. Hill-Popper '96, who is involved in Radcliffe's Women's Leadership Project. "But the people that I think, 'Oh, I could be them' or 'I want to do what they do' are all men. I'm not really sure what kind of negative effect it has; but I kind of feel it has a vague negative effect."

Santini says that aside from looking for mentors, it can be difficult for women who do achieve leadership positions to interact with a largely male administration.

"I think that tends to quiet women a little," says Santini. "I know that I've been intimidated by the all-male presence in a room. There's a lack of connection."

Gardiner says this scarcity of women directly affects student organizations as well.

"I think every undergraduate organization has to have a faculty adviser," says Gardiner. "That means that if there are very few women on the Faculty, there are going to be very few women advisers."

Those in the administration defend Harvard's record on faculty and administrative hiring.

In particular, they point to the fact that three of Harvard's five vice presidents--Vice President for Administration Nancy H. "Sally" Zeckhauser, Vice President and General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall and Vice President for Finance Elizabeth C. "Beppie" Huidekoper--are female.

They add that the University is tenuring women at a rate that reflects the number of females attaining doctorates.

"As far as the Faculty goes, I think it's a moot point," says Peter A. Gibbons '97, who is a member of a committee advising Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 on the experience of women at Harvard. "Not many women apply for positions, and you can't tenure women who don't apply. That's a tough situation."

Huidekoper adds that Harvard's administration provides good examples for undergraduate women.

"I think in terms of role models there's all kinds of opportunities for undergraduates to connect with whomever they'd like to connect with," she says.

Radcliffe

With a separate administration but no faculty of its own and its name on the diplomas of women who have never taken a class there, Radcliffe seems self-contradictory to many.

Radcliffe sponsors a number of programs aimed at encouraging women to activism and assertion. In 1988, the first Women's Leadership Conference was organized to increase female involvement in University life. In addition, Radcliffe runs a mentorship program and the Lyman Common Room.

Students are divided, however, on just how positive Radcliffe's presence is in terms of women's leadership at Harvard.

Some, like Gibbons, believe it draws the focus of energetic women away from the rest of the University.

"I often wonder if Harvard does sort of shirk the responsibility of dealing with women's issues by saying, 'Well, we have Radcliffe, that's what they're there for," he says.

Other students say that Radcliffe is simply too detached from the rest of the University.

"There may be a lot of women involved in leadership positions but it's kind of seen as separate, which is not very good," says Hill-Popper.

Gibbons agrees.

"I wonder whether women at other schools which don't have this Radcliffe thing, where it's all under one banner, whether they feel more included," he says.

Despite these qualms, however, students stress that Radcliffe does at least attempt to offer women a place of their own at what can sometimes seem like a very male-dominated University.

"While some might argue that Radcliffe doesn't do all that it should, I think clearly Radcliffe is making efforts," says Harvetta E. Nero '96.

Leaders of the Future

Harvard is often seen as the training ground for the future leaders of the country: a top echelon of alumni across a broad spectrum of society from Vice President Al Gore '69 to former Cambridge mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72.

Harvard has been preparing men for this role for centuries, but if the experience of leadership at Harvard is significantly different for women, they are also learning different things about leading in the real world.

Some students, like Tiffany C. Graham '96, say that while some women graduates become prominent leaders, their success is due more to talent than to any special effort on Harvard's part.

"It's Harvard's [doing] in the sense that they admit talented women," Graham says. "In that sense, Harvard has a role, but I would give most of the credit to the women themselves."

However, many students say that equal treatment is appropriate and Harvard should not go out of its way to encourage women more than men.

"I think Harvard prepares everyone the same," Gibbons says. "It's sort of blind justice. They prepare us by ignoring us. It's tough love."

Sarah H. Lieberman '96, former co-president of the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), also says that the lack of specific advantages or considerations for women is more realistic.

"On the one hand you could say women should be prepared to take leadership roles in institutions dominated by men," Lieberman says. "In that way Harvard is the perfect training ground."

However, many students also argue that women still face enough disadvantages that a helping hand from the institution would not only aid them in overcoming these challenges, but also make students, both male and female, more aware of women's issues.

"I think there are certainly going to be a lot of women leaders who come out of Harvard," says Hill-Popper. "But not necessarily who are conscious of themselves as women leaders but [rather] just as leaders."

Nero also says she thinks Harvard prepares women for leadership, but a leadership that may be insensitive to the difficulties that other women face.

"I think that women here are being perhaps trained to be leaders but not maybe trained to be female leaders," Nero says. "If you do not have the experience in being sensitive and aware of issues I don't think Harvard is the place you will learn that."

Although some say that Harvard offers equality by ignoring women's issues, many female students say they still feel they are competing on uneven ground.

"Women go through the same academic programs and sit through the same classes as men do. Women also have access to all the same activities that men do," says Dori K. Takata '96, who is on the board of the Women's Leadership Project. "I think part of it is culture that needs to change. Women need to form their own networks whereas men have had these networks for a long, long time."

Harvard offers an equality that does not accommodate for the challenges that women face in society; Radcliffe sometimes seems an entirely separate world where women can practice their leadership skills without disturbing the rest of the University.

But as generation after generation of women make their ways through this University and out into the world, they are learning to lead, either in spite of the prejudices against them or because of them.