Gender Not Key in HCS Story

To the editors:

Re "HCS Elects First Female President" (Dec. 14): Certainly, it is exciting that the Harvard Computer Society has elected a woman president, but no doubt the newly-elected Virginia Beauregard '01 has more to her than her sex. The newly elected male in the article, Business Manager Michael Bodell '01, gets to be quoted about the exciting new individuals in the organization, the potential for the future and the prospects for new innovations. Meanwhile Beauregard is left to insist that she never thought much about the gender balance in HCS and doesn't think there are barriers for women in HCS in the first place.

Thus we see the uglier side of identity politics. I know nothing from your article about Beauregard's plans for the upcoming year or experience in the organization. I know only that she is the first woman to be elected president. By exalting her as the first woman, you have also pigeonholed her into her sex and diminished her ideas and record otherwise. BETH A. STEWART '00   Dec. 15, 1998

The writer is the president of the Undergraduate Council.