Women Discuss Leadership

The female heads of three of Harvard’s most prominent political organizations spoke in Boylston Hall last night, reflecting on their experiences serving in elected office and offering advice about how to pursue political success to the mostly female audience.

The presidents of the Undergraduate Council, the Harvard College Democrats, and the Institute of Politics offered their thoughts as part of the Women’s Center’s “Women’s Week 2009: Engendering Change.”

Many of the stories shared by the panelists were tales of difficulty.

UC President Andrea R. Flores ’10 recalled a male member of the UC telling her, “You only won secretary because you’re a cute girl,” after she won an internal UC election.

“He, like, crushed my day,” she added.

IOP President Mary K. B. Cox ’10 said that she entered her organization without a deep knowledge of politics.

“Most of the people there were men who had known about politics and had known about politics their whole lives,” she said.

Including Cox, the last three IOP presidents have been women. Eva Z. Lam ’10, the president of the Dems, said that for the last four years men and woman have been alternating in the position of president.

Although the IOP and the Dems have roughly equal membership between the sexes, only one-third of UC representatives are female.

Although three out of the Council’s four top spots are currently held by women, there is only one freshman woman on the Council.

During yesterday’s panel discussion, audience member Danielle M. Gram ’11 said her female friends questioned whether she was “fierce” enough to run for a secretary position in the Dems.

“You shouldn’t have to be seen as fierce,” responded Lam. “What about being the secretary of the Harvard College Democrats would require you to be fierce?”

Cox was careful to qualify the advice.

“Of course, we’re trading in stereotypes here, so there are individual exceptions to all of this,” she said.

When two men in the audience got up to leave toward the end of the event, Lam called for a round of applause for the men in the audience.

Lam later said that if she walked into a room outnumbered to the extent that the men were, she would feel “a little uncomfortable.”

“I think it’s really, really important that men as well as women are talking about the role of women in office,” she said.

—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.