At Radcliffe, how to know which way the wind is blowing. Photograph by Stu Rosner

Inclusivity

Three conferences in one November weekend explored the place of women at the University, in research universities, and in the law (see "A Weekend on Women," September-October 1998).

In Radcliffe Yard, the Schlesinger Library and Harvard's Warren Center for Studies in American History sponsored "Gender at the Gates: New Perspectives on Harvard and Radcliffe History," a day of lectures and conversations comprising the first step in a yearlong project of revisiting Harvard's gender-biased self-portrait. "History is limited not by what we can know, but by what we care to know. Womanless history is a Harvard specialty," noted conference organizer Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Phillips professor of early American history and professor of women's studies. Round-table discussions generated ideas for further research to help fill in the background of the University's old self-image.

An alumnae/i group, the Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard, hosted a national conference to address the institutional changes still needed to fully integrate women into the major research universities that train most of the nation's scholars. Those institutions face mounting challenges: among them, competition for graduate students and faculty from for-profit educational businesses and corporate think tanks and labs. Meanwhile, a growing body of research indicates that when supporting conditions are similar, women and men prove themselves equally quali-fied scholars, whatever the field. CEWH's conference aimed to identify and publicize policies that foster supportive conditions. Cora B. Marrett, provost of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, stressed the importance of having such a group, "that cares about inclusivity and the excitement of knowledge, at the table where the future of research universities is being discussed."

Harvard Law School--with a student body now 42 percent female--was honoring the forty-fifth anniversary of its first graduation of women: with talks by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, L '59, Attorney General Janet Reno, LL.B. '63, and Professor Lani Guinier '71; professional panels; and peer discussions. More than 5,000 alumnae have followed 1953's 13 pioneers; each generation's professional breakthroughs were celebrated--even as the mixed personal implications of those achievements were acknowledged. "Women are making it in the profession, but the profession is making it harder to be human," observed law professor Martha L. Minow.

At CEWH's conference, Cora Marrett had commented, "Most human beings can be excited by the life of the mind, once they see what it involves. It's necessary today for the big universities to show how their research connects to education" that nurtures society. A suggestion floated generally throughout the weekend of conferences: if Harvard and its peers want to make that case to the country, they can ill afford, as CEWH puts it, "the ignorance resulting from the exclusion of women."

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