The Fight Of Her Life

This February wasn’t the first time that Theda Skocpol went to bat against the Harvard administration on gender inequality issues.

When Skocpol emerged as one of Summers’ most outspoken critics this spring, she had a history of standing up to the University—in the early 1980s, she fought and won a sex discrimination battle against Harvard after she was initially denied tenure.

And when University President Lawrence H. Summers apologized at the Feb. 15 meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for his contentious comments about women in science this January, Skocpol, the Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, was the second professor to stand up and openly criticize the president for disrespecting and bullying his associates.

“When things do not go well, the president always seeks to blame and humiliate others,” she said, calling the current controversy just “one instance” of a “broader crisis of trust…and leadership.”

Skocpol, who was named the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences last week, continued to play an active role in the ensuing debates, but her contributions evolved to be more conciliatory than castigatory.

After her initial criticisms of Summers, Skocpol went on to advocate the formation of a committee—consisting of herself and two other Faculty members—to facilitate communication between the Faculty and Summers. When Professor of Anthropology and of African and African American Studies J. Lorand Matory ’82 presented his motion for a vote of no confidence in Summers, Skocpol put forward a more conciliatory statement of criticism.

Skocpol was once charged as having a “combative attitude,” and at the February meeting, she admitted to a lack of subtlety. “Forgive me for speaking bluntly,” she said, “but I am known for that, and I know no other way.”

”A STRONG SENSE OF INTEGRITY”

In 1980, Skocpol had already taken a B.A. from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from Harvard. She had also just published her first book, “States and Social Revolution,” which garnered her two prestigious awards, including one from the American Sociological Association. That fall, after five years as an associate professor of sociology and tenure offers from four other universities, Skocpol was narrowly voted down for tenure by Harvard’s all male department.

“She has a very strong sense of integrity,” says Sociology Department Chair Mary C. Waters, who has co-taught Social Analysis 54, “American Society and Public Policy,” with Skocpol for about 10 years. “She really stands up for what she believes in…if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be here now.”

“In a department with no tenured women, someone who stood their ground was very threatening,” Waters says, adding that “in some ways, Skocpol became a lightning rod for a lot of things that weren’t really about her.”

Barely a month later, Skocpol filed an internal grievance against the department, alleging that she had not received tenure because of sexual discrimination.

“At a personal level, I am deeply hurt by this unnecessary rejection, coming when the department has several vacancies to fill,” Skocpol said at the time.

That April, a three-person review panel concluded that Skocpol had been a victim of sexual discrimination—but as her application for tenure was being reviewed, then-University President Derek C. Bok intervened on the grounds that he needed as much as three years to appraise Skocpol’s scholarly work and make a final decision himself. Four years later, during which time she served as a full professor at the University of Chicago, Bok granted Skocpol tenure.

But when Skocpol returned to Harvard’s conflict-ridden sociology department after turning down rival offers, she was not unanimously welcomed.

“Skocpol will divide the department,” said then-professor of sociology Ezra Vogel. “Wherever she has been, there’s always been conflict.”

According to Waters, most of Skocpol’s opposition came from the same individuals who had initially rebuffed her. “When she came back to the sociology department it was very hard for her,” says Waters, who arrived on campus that year. “The people who had voted against her still here weren’t very nice or friendly…and she was only woman in department—she had to really establish herself.”

Skocpol only added fuel to the fire when she began publicly decrying Harvard’s treatment of her, such as when, in a speech to the American Sociological Society, she called Harvard “the most arrogant university in the Western World.”

LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

But Waters says there may be other reasons for Skocpol’s interest in Harvard’s current conflict. Despite Skocpol’s criticisms, she cares very deeply about the institution and her tendency to get caught up in its affairs is a reflection of her desire to help avoid tension and hostility like that which surrounded her tenure experience, Waters says.

“I think she’s very interested in great relationships with colleagues, in working things out,” says Waters. “With the whole Summers thing, she wants to keep communication open.”

And Skocpol—who has written eight books and edited eight volumes on comparative and American politics to date, participated in policy discussions with former President Clinton, and currently leads the Social Science History Association as president—has emphasized the importance of communication and compromise in her involvement in recent Faculty meetings.

In her remarks at the first meeting, she stressed that “we as a Faculty must talk among ourselves…and do much more to find solutions.”

Skocpol says that the purpose of the proposed three-person mediation committee “wasn’t so much mediation,” but “to familiarize ourselves with the concerns of the deans and faculty…which would certainly not get sorted out in those giant [Faculty] meetings.”

Although the committee—comprised of Skocpol, former Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, and Pforzheimer University Professor Sid Verba ’53—was rejected by the majority of the Faculty for being “undemocratic and prearranged,” Skocpol says professors did not listen to a full explanation.

“I think more people would have liked it if we had a chance to explain it,” she says. “We weren’t going to substitute for faculty council activities.”

Verba, on the other hand, now says that even he was unsure of the committee’s function.

“In retrospect, I think mistakenly, we thought we could play a moderating role between various factions, [but] we had no particular authority,” he says. “I’m glad we gave it a try but was relieved because I wasn’t 100 percent sure what we were going to do.”

While Knowles, as former dean of the Faculty, and Verba, as director of the University Library, have worked with Summers more closely, Skocpol says she has a good relationship with the president.

“My relationship with Larry Summers has always been mutually respectful and a relationship in which there is vigorous discussion back and forth,” Skocpol says.

Even after the negative response to her first proposal, Skocpol still strove to work towards a resolution between the Faculty and Summers. Skocpol says that she put forth a more moderate, cooperative motion concurrently with Matory’s because most Faculty members doubted that Matory’s would pass and she wanted something to express faculty concerns “if the no confidence motion failed.”

Ultimately, however, both motions passed, and Skocpol’s commanded only a few more votes.

One of the main distinctions between the two motions, however, was that Skocpol’s explicitly expressed disapproval of Summers’ remarks about women as well as his manner of leadership.

“She is someone who is deeply interested in issues of equality,” says Verba, who has worked closely with Skocpol since she joined the government department in 1995 and is currently collaborating with her on a major research project on civic participation in American democracy from 1790 to the present.

Skocpol says the University still lags behind in its acceptance of women.

“There has been a lot of improvement over the years...there are many more senior and junior women on the Faculty, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” she says.

Summers’ remarks were especially relevant to Skocpol given her experience as a working mother. In his now-infamous remarks, Summers said that “the relatively few women who are in the highest ranking places are disproportionately either unmarried or without children,” in trying to explain why there are fewer tenured women.

Skocpol told The Crimson in 1995 that she had waited to have her son until after she had been tenured. “I sometimes feel it would have been nice to have two children instead of one,” she said. “That would have been possible if we’d started earlier.”

Despite any differences they may have, Skocpol and Summers will be working together much more closely when Skocpol assumes the reins of the graduate school in July. But Skocpol says that she will still make her voice heard.

“I’m at least considering the possibility that occasionally I will speak in Faculty meetings,” says Skocpol, in what she says will be “a daring departure from past precedent.”

“I do expect to be involved in the future of the Faculty of Arts and Science,” she says.

—Staff writer Nina L. Vizcarrondo can be reached at nvizcarr@fas.harvard.edu.