MISSION STATEMENT

As alumnae of Radcliffe and Harvard, the members of the Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard have undertaken the responsibility of addressing issues of women's equality at Harvard. Our resulting work constitutes a contribution to Harvard beyond the merely monetary.

The Committee seeks full equality, in every area, for all women in Harvard's educational community, including undergraduates, graduate, and professional students, as well as faculty and research staff members.

BEYOND EQUAL ACCESS
THE COMMITTEE FOR THE EQUALITY OF WOMEN AT HARVARD

The Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard is dedicated to the pursuit of women's equality in every area of university life, curricular and extracurricular. Beyond equal access, the Committee seeks equal accommodation, equal participation, and equal recognition for women throughout Harvard's entire educational system.

Academic life In the academic area, the Committee calls for the equal representation of men and women on the Harvard faculty. Such equality would not only demonstrate the university's fairness in hiring, but would also provide all students with essentially equal exposure to educators of both genders.

It does not suffice for women simply to have equal access to Harvard's academic services, such as academic advising. These services must be evaluated and, if necessary, modified to serve women's interests and goals as well as those of men. The academic course and program selections made by students must be examined by gender, and any differences investigated and explained.

In order to provide equal opportunity for educational experience, financial resources must be equally available to women and men, including scholarships, fellowships, research grants, travel funds, and all other forms of financial support.

Full equality of women at Harvard requires continuous development of women's studies in order to counterbalance the historically male orientation of academic subject matter. Besides its value as an innovative, interdisciplinary field of study, women's studies serves as a tool for transforming traditional disciplines by incorporating women's history and perspectives, and as an important focus of productive scholarly research.

Among the features of the newly established Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study is a sustained "commitment to the study of women, gender, and society." The transformative effect of this commitment upon the larger Harvard educational community must be encouraged and supported.

The career aspirations of women must receive attention equal to that given to the career interests of men. The distinctive nature of women's careers must be addressed with particular emphasis on their importance, on the possibilities for a sequential ordering of careers, and on the exploration of many types of career paths.

Non-academic life The Committee seeks women's full equality throughout Harvard's entire educational community, including its cultural, recreational, athletic and residential components, as well as in its more strictly academic areas. Women must participate equally in the setting of priorities in all areas of extracurricular activity. Thus, for example, the university's cultural programs should reflect women's tastes and preferences as well as those of men, as should the balance of financial support among cultural, recreational, and athletic activities.

Equality of women at Harvard includes their equal occupation of leadership positions, as well as their equal participation at all levels of governance. Inequalities in these areas must be identified, addressed, and remedied.

The structuring of community at Harvard must be analyzed along lines of gender, and suitably transformed for the equal accommodation of men and women.

Within a general setting of equality, opportunities for women to interact socially and intellectually as women must be provided for the strength and enrichment offered by women's own association. The historical role of Radcliffe College as a women's subculture must be examined as well as Radcliffe's role in shaping the notion of community at Harvard.

Climate The Committee advocates a climate of mutual respect and cooperation between men and women which pervades the entire university, a climate in which women are equal in importance to men, a climate which gives equal support to women's sense of competence and to the full development and use of women's abilities.

The Committee urges Harvard to play a proactive role in the achievement of women's equality as an essential element of its educational excellence. In this way, Harvard can serve as a role model for gender equity in all institutions of higher education and in society at large. The process for carrying out this mission must reflect the equality that it seeks to establish. The process must therefore be open, inclusive, and fair, and women must participate equally in its design.

Susan Williamson, CEWH

URL:http//world.std.com/~cewh/
November 2000