University Wants More Women on Faculty

With little more than a month left to make Corporation appointments effective for next year, the Harvard Administration has stepped up its efforts to increase the number of women in the Faculty and in the Administration.

Earlier this week the Corporation promoted two woman faculty members to the rank of full professor, increasing the number of tenured woman faculty members throughout the University to 14.

There are 738 male full-time professors in the University. Judith N. Shklar, a lecturer in intellectual history and political theory, will be the first part-time woman professor and the sixth woman professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Elizabeth Ann Owens, an expert on international taxation and environmental control, will become the first full-time woman professor on the Law School Faculty. There are 56 tenured male professors at the Law School.

On Monday, President Bok appointed Eleanor Shore '51, research associate in Microbiology, as Assistant to the President. She is the first woman appointed to the Bok Administration.

Push for Recruitment

The impetus to recruit more women comes from two Administrative levels--President Bok and the five-member Standing Committee on Women, chaired by Morton W. Bloomfield, professor of English.

Harvard is presently drawing up its third Affirmative Action Plan in accordance with the Health, Education and Welfare Department's demands that it hire more women and minority groups.

Asked if pressure from HEW has affected the recent efforts to recruit more women Winifred S. Barad, Equal Employment Officer and member of the Standing Committee, said:

HEW the Catalyst

"Obviously if a federal agency gives money to any organization and puts regulatory measures on universities to act in a positive way, naturally it will be a catalyst to get these programs speeded up."

Phyllis Jones, former co-chairman of the raduate Women's Organization, commented on the new administrative appointment: "It's a tardy and less significant gesture than we had hoped for, when the four vice-presidencies, and just recently the deanship of the College have gone to men."

Bok is presently formulating a set of "procedural safeguards" to ensure that women will not be overlooked for faculty appointments by the different departments "through inadvertent bias." The plan will be implemented within the next month.

"If there is no satisfactory evidence that the qualified women in the field have been considered we'll send the department choice right back." Bok said last week.

"However we can not interfere unduly with the affairs of the department without causing much resentment," he added.

Proposed Safeguards

The three most important aspects of the "procedural safeguards" will be the creation of data banks of qualified women in different fields at the Radcliffe Institute; the placement "wherever feasible" of women on search committees to find faculty appointments: and an inquiry at the ad hoc meetings to determine whether women have been adequately considered.

Last Fall, Bok sent memos to all department heads warning them that they would have to show "explicit evidence" at the ad hoc meetings they have satisfactorily considered women and other minority candidates. Bok will have about ten more ad hoc committee meetings to consider appointments within the next month.

Dunlop to Warn Departments

The Standing Committee on Women--set up last Spring by the Committee on the Status of Women and passed by Faculty vote in May--also sent out a memo endorsed by Dean Dunlop to department heads which warned that in May Dunlop would ask each department head to show "the number of women in faculty positions" and what steps were taken to increase their number.

"We have no official power. All we can do is visit department heads and ask them to consider more women. Since there are only about 15 tenured appointments made a year, we are emphasizing getting more assistant professors and instructors, okay."

"I think two full-time tenured woman faculty member appointments a year would be a wonderful thing," he said, adding that he was more optimistic about increasing the number of woman assistant professors.

Predicted Increase

Barad predicted that the number of woman assistant professors will increase this year.

"I'd like to see the number of assistant professors go up form seventeen to twenty-five but I can't be sure of how many," he said.

Despite these increased efforts by the Administration, the selection of faculty members rests mainly at the departmental level. Each department creates a search committee which then presents its choice to an ad hoc committee chosen by the President. The President has the final decision-making power.

Most faculty appointments are made between January and April although selection of full-time faculty professors can be made any time in the year