A Woman's Place

There is a strange philosophy at large in Harvard today--a strange fear of the menace of the emancipated Radcliffe girl. This fear expresses itself in the following argument: Harvard and Radcliffe have had joint instruction now since the war and a swarm of Annex women has pushed its collective foot into the College door; now that the first barriers are down (alas), this plague of women will move on to the clubs and organizations of Harvard. These girls, like the Yellow Peril, will sweep over the organizations. The resulting "feminization" will be the undoing of the Harvard club.

This philosophy is best seen in the blanket rule of the Dean's Office which excludes Radcliffe girls from a club by requiring it to have 100 percent Harvard membership. This philosophy fails to consider either the statistical inferiority of Radcliffe, or the obvious success of such virtually spliced groups as the orchestras. It is a backward-looking, over-pessimistic, misogynist, and utterly pernicious doctrine.

A second and far more respectable viewpoint is exactly the opposite. Harvard has already swallowed Radcliffe intellectually, the argument runs, and there is a danger that it will swallow it socially, too. Picture the poor defenceless female outnumbered five to one, trying to make her way in the august councils of the Liberal Union; far better that she be allowed develop her executive and organizational talents in the smaller confines of a Radcliffe club.

The view is espoused by the Harvard Council committee on Harvard-Radcliffe group relations. Bowing gracefully to the obvious, the committee recommended last Monday that girls be allowed to join groups which had no competing counterparts at the Annex, but that where there was a counterpart or where there were more than 20 girls in the Harvard club, a stick-to-Radcliffe policy should be enforced.

But this point of view is over-solicitous of Radcliffe. Besides being uncomplimentary to the Radcliffe girl, it fails to consider for whom it is making its rules. Since the motive in making rules for Harvard organizations is supposed to be the well-being of these groups, the Council should ask whether the girls will harm the groups they join (perish the thought), not the groups they leave. The Radcliffe Dean's Office and Council are quite capable of legislating about the latter.

Fortunately the committee that recommended these rules suffered an acute administrative crisis in the midst of the Council meeting and has withdrawn its report for a week. But the subject will come up again Monday.

The proper rule for Radcliffe girls in Harvard organizations is this: any girls should be permitted to join any club that will have her. Only when women on the club threaten to outnumber the men (which would make it no longer a Harvard, but a Radcliffe, club) should girls be excluded. Eventually provisions should be made for joint Harvard-Radcliffe clubs.

This rule would be simple to administer and entirely fair. Perhaps the Council will consider it next Monday.