The part of the report dealing with child care has been totally disregarded. Despite long waiting lists for each of the five centers at Harvard and Radcliffe, and despite repeated requests made by members of the Steering Committee on Child Care and of the Graduate Women's Organization (GWO), no day care administrator has been appointed nor has even the smallest Fund been set up. The Permanent Committee, according to Bloomfield, wrote letters to "tell people we need more day care," but these have apparently not moved the Administration either.
The day care situation was actually better under the Pusey Administration. After the non-merger merger, Harvard took away janitorial services (which generally come to about half the cost of the space) from the Radcliffe and Memorial Church Centers. And while Radcliffe allowed fund raisers for the centers to use the addresses of alumnae. Harvard denied them access to their records--which include those of all Radcliffe graduates since 1963.
If women are to be allowed to participate professionally and intellectually during their child-bearing years, the option of good, parent-controlled day care is essential.
Several successes in implementing the recommendations of the Report on the Status of Women do shine through. The University Health Services has probably made the most noticeable and effective changes within the University to improve their treatment of women. For the first time last Fall, UHS published a booklet outlining exactly what services are available there. The consulting gynecologist has added an extra half day to his time. An assistant to the director of UHS. Margaret S. MacKenna '70, was hired to deal with special health problems, including giving birth control advice and informal sex counseling.
In the area of job placement for recent Ph.D.'s, a year of investigation is about to pay off. Members of GWO and the Equal Employment Opportunity officer of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences compiled closely coinciding sets of recommendations to standardize placement procedures for graduate students. Yet another committee is being appointed by Dean Dunlop to study the recommendations further, but hopefully the model placement procedures will be in effect in time for the 1972-73 year.
President Bok has said that "the future role of Radcliffe within the University should very much reflect the feeling and wishes of Radcliffe's President, students and alumnae." Most women at Harvard would probably agree with Bok, and many are trying to shape that role to their "feeling and wishes." But his goal is clearly impossible without a responsive Administration which is committed to improving the status of women with more muscle than "the uttering of pious generalities." It is a grave mistake to shift the primary responsibility for the place of women (i.e. the role of Radcliffe) within the University onto the women themselves.
The final responsibility for increasing the number of women who are educated for professional careers and encouraged to enter them, and for increasing the number of women who hold Harvard professorships, lies not with the Dean of Radcliffe or the Radcliffe Institute, but with the admissions, scholarship, appointments and tenure committees of individual Harvard departments. (Report on the Status of Women)
With a lot more consciousness-raising among the faculty, and a great deal more action and commitment on the part of the Administration, Harvard may be able to reverse its history of neglect of equal rights for women.
"I'm not very proud of what we've accomplished this year...We're trying to say that you've got to pay more attention to women, but we have no real power."