Women in Science

The Faculty's Standing Committee on the Status of Women has found that the Faculty has yet to achieve all of the goals set forth by the 1990 Report on Women in the Sciences at Harvard.

That report made sweeping recommendations for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, including day care resources for junior faculty members, a call for a mentor system between non-tenured women professors and senior faculty members, and a strong push for more female senior and junior faculty in Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) science departments.

Although some progress has been made, and the 1990 report's principal author says there is reason for hope, the Faculty's natural sciences departments have a long way to go toward improving female faculty recruitment and the overall environment for female scholars.

Of 150 tenured professors in the natural sciences, for example, only seven are women, according to the 1993 Affirmative Action report. Of 64 ladder, non-tenured faculty, 10 are women.

The committee's 1990 report on women in the sciences found "blatant and appalling" examples of sexual harassment and sexism. Today, jokes and pictures that make women scholars uncomfortable can still be found in Harvard science labs, according to McKay Professor of Computer Science Barbara J. Grosz, who was chair of the committee when the report was written and is still a member.

"Imagine yourself in a group, all of whom are different from you and think what you're doing doesn't matter very much," Grosz said of the situation for some women. Although some departments have tried to change the atmosphere, "I don't think Harvard up to this point has made nearly the effort it could make," Grosz said.

Graduate students interviewed yesterday said they personally have felt fairly comfortable but sometimes isolated as female scientists at Harvard.

"I look around me and see a lot of women having struggles," said Catherine L. Hirshfeld, a graduate student in the physics department. "I've had a couple of interactions with faculty who I felt had preconceptions about me because I was a woman."

"In general, it's pretty comfortable," said Amy Anderson Chang, a graduate student in biophysics. "It's not really an outright harassment...sometimes there's a feeling out there that no one really understands you."

Donna B. Johnson, a graduate student in chemistry, said women in her department have this year begun coming together for meals and talk.

"I think when there are few women there [in the department], you tend to suppress your feelings," she said. "It's been a lot of fun to get together with the women and get to know them."

In her lab group, she said, she is fortunate to have a significant proportion of women researchers.

"Even if I feel uncomfortable, I'm pretty free to say something," she said. "I think there's a sort of typical male joking...you just have to speak up."

The standing committee is nearly finished with a long process of interviews, research and tabulation on the status of women in science at Harvard, and Grosz said she is "cautiously optimistic" about the Faculty's progress, though preliminary findings are mixed.

Committee members have interviewed graduate students in the sciences and officials have also spoken with chairs of departments about efforts to recruit and retain female professors, Grosz said.

Grosz said there is hope for progress. She points to some reforms the University has implemented since the 1990 report. For example, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has begun an escort service and parental leave policy, she said.

But in the area of female faculty recruitment, results have not been so positive. The number of women in the natural sciences faculty has actually decreased in the past year, according to the 1993 Affirmative Action report.

Mallinckrodt Professor, of Physics Howard M. Georgi '68, who chairs the physics department and is also a member of the committee, said his department is making strong efforts to recruit and retain women professors and graduate students.

The physics department last year tenured Professor of Physics Melissa Franklin, and Georgi said eight of the 22 graduate students accepted so far for next year are women.

"The most important thing we try to do is to make a real effort to attract a number of women students," Georgi said.

But not all departments have changed. "One can only hope the leaders will improve the departments that haven't moved," Grosz said.