The New Curriculum

Under the Summers' presidency, Harvard has begun a review of its entire undergraduate educational program, and CEWH is calling for an investigation of how the college plans to incorporate women's issues into its new curriculum.

Of particular concern to us, is the place of women's studies in the general education (core) program, for it is here that students acquire the common knowledge viewed by the college as essential to the educated person. We recommend that women's studies have a reasoned and structured place within the new core curriculum, on the basis of both its content and its methodologies.

The relevance of women's studies is present at all levels of 21st century life. Dean Kirby and President Summers have mentioned internationalization and ethical behavior, respectively, as important components of Harvard's new educational program for undergraduates. Surely, education for full and responsible participation in a global society calls for a cross-cultural awareness of gender as a social issue. Moreover, many problems of equality and justice that arise in our own social institutions involve considerations of gender, and students, both female and male, must be prepared to deal with them effectively. Finally, a person's moral development is rooted in early family experience. The functioning of family members within that social structure has been a focal point for research in the area of women's studies.

The feminist theory that underlies the academic discipline called women's studies is concerned "with recovering women's lives; with documenting sexist and patriarchal practices; and with considering the ways in which language and culture organize our lives and experience through the prism of gender" (Shulamit Reinharz). The impact of this work has been widely felt across the various academic disciplines. Missing information in areas such as history has been filled in, and new theoretical frameworks and methodologies have been developed. Therefore we recommend that a component of women's studies be included in a significant number of course offerings in other disciplines throughout the core curriculum.

The fulfillment of Harvard as a coeducational institution involves much more than the "joint-instruction" and "integrated housing" of its undergraduates. For Harvard to succeed in its educational mission - the pursuit and transmission of truth - it must go after the full story, the story that also tells about women's roles in history, that also tells about gender as an issue in social contexts both global and at home.

The ideas set forth here have been forwarded to Dean Kirby and to Provost Hyman. CEWH has already expressed to Dean Kirby its concern that all of the faculty members on the Committee on the Core Program are men. Nevertheless, as progress is being made toward the equal representation of women and men on the Harvard faculty, the stage is being set for a next phase in the achievement of women's equality at Harvard, namely the true and proper inclusion of women's issues throughout the curriculum.

Sue Williamson, Ph.D.

URL: http://world.std.com/~cewh/
November 2004