Women Leaders

To the Editors of The Crimson:

In response to Susan Glasser's opinion piece of October 27, "Leading Women," we would like to challenge the depiction of Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) as a sexually discriminatory organization. We agree that "women face significant barriers to advancement within the Harvard community" but we feel that we have been misrepresented.

Although our current president and vice president are both male, in the past five years, three presidents, three vice presidents and three treasurers have been female. The current Steering Committee consists of seven women and six men and the Cabinet, who are the leaders of the programs, consists of 49 women and 39 men.

Representatives of the women leaders at PBHA are the directors of the summer programs. PBHA runs seven summer camps, which require extensive fundraising (up to $40,000), community organizing, negotiating with local leaders, as well as hiring and managing a staff of up to 13 counselors. This year, the directors of six programs are female. In addition, summer camp directors, both male and female, often do not even run for Steering Committee because they prefer not to. They find their work as directors more engrossing, fulfilling and challenging than an administrative role as an officer of the Association.

By simply considering the names of the the "top positions" and concluding that women are not represented in leadership roles at PBHA, Ms. Glasser displays a narrow view of leadership. Leaders are not merely those who meet with the deans, whose names are on the letterhead and who have the longest resumes. Jill Cunningham '88,   PBHA Steering Committee   Terri Gerstein '90,   PBHA Steering Committee   Silchen Ng '89,   PBHA Fundraiser   Marjorie S. Rosenthal '89,   PBHA Events Coordinator   Maria Salas '90,   PBHA Steering Committee   Nhan Truong '90,   PBHA Steering Committee