Unclear Conference

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The recent (April 8, 1983) Radcliffe College Presidential Conference entitled "Challenging Conventional Wisdom: A Decade of Research on Women and on the Third World," unfortunately in no way reflected the vast amount of scholarly research and advances made in these areas over the last ten years.

It is unclear whether the conference topic was "third world" women (joint issue), women and the "third world" (related issue), of on women and on the "third world" (separate issue). The result was a conference characterized by a lack of cohesion, outdated information, no sense of direction, and simplistic models wherein slogans took the place of rigorous analysis. The panelists seemed to suggest that--structural constraints notwithstanding--with good planning and a little good will the problems of women and of development would be resolved.

One is bewildered by the criteria used to select the panelists. Given the impressive talent at Harvard/Radcliffe, one would expect to have seen more women and more "third world" scholars. Instead, the audience was subjected to laborious men culpas from a series of men who informed us regarding their moment of personal enlightenment on women's issues. The discussion was disjointed as the panelists--with regrettably few exceptions--seized the opportunity to present their own research findings regardless of any relevance to the subject(s) at hand.

In an atmosphere of unwarranted complacency, conventional wisdom remained unchallenged. Given her significant contributions to women's studies, it is unfortunate that this was the occasion chosen to honor Matina S. Horner's tenth anniversary as President of Radcliffe College. Nadla Malley   Cynthia Sonborn   Cathryn Thorup   PhD. Program in Government   Harvard University