Even without the broad student support that the committee is actively seeking ("We're not doing this just for our own narrow interests," Stokes says) its members have an answer for those who say the subject has too little support. They are fond of pointing to departments like Sanskrit which enjoy very little undergraduate support.
Problems remain, even if one accepts women's studies as a valid area and recognizes its potential student support. Faculty interest seems limited. Goodenough says that all existing specialty committees have had strong individual faculty lobbying in support of them. For the previously mentioned reasons, that seems unlikely to happen for women's studies. Last year, the subcommittee that has grown into the current group sent letters to 800 faculty members asking for support. The response was negligible. The committee remains undaunted, and Stokes says, "The more faculty support the better, but if given a choice between faculty and a broad student base, we would choose the students."
Those who teach the few women's studies courses at Harvard are divided on how to establish their field. Catherine Widom says she would favor a concentration if it was to be an interdisciplinary committee because "There's lot of potential for people in a separate department to be put aside and forgotten. Teachers might have a stronger position in a regular department." As an interim measure designed to integrate the material into general courses, she suggests that the committee prepare information packets for professors, who she thinks would be receptive to such attempts. Goodenough favors any efforts in the direction of establishing women's studies, but believes that the most practical way to go about it might be to work on getting many more courses into the current curriculum before creating a concentration.
Susan Ware, a graduate student in History who has taught women's studies sections, is in favor of a concentration because "you can't depend on the good will and free time of grad students." She points out the danger that women might not come to Radcliffe because of its failure to compete with other schools that do offer women's studies.
Carol Lasser, a graduate student in History who is now teaching a section on women in Soc Sci 3, "Central Themes of American History," disagrees somewhat. She favors a concentration if there are those students who want one, but believes that the long-range goal for those interested in the subject should be the incorporation of such material in all relevant courses, to avoid the kind of isolation exclusive interest in women's experience can cause.
As an example of this, she points to a section she taught last year in which students knew a great deal about the subject of the course, "Women and the American Experience," but little about the broader context it took place in.
Stokes answers such objections by saying that the danger of a loss of perspective is a valid one, which is why a concentration must be interdisciplinary. As for the long-range goal of complete integration, Orgel says it is of course ultimately desirable, but "it's too idealistic" for the present.
Even after dealing with the lack of courses, teachers, student interest and the differences in tactics, there is still the administration to face. Although, as Orgel says, "No one is willing to say they're against women's studies," their attitude towards an organized concentration is at best lukewarm. Alberta Arthurs, acting dean of freshmen, says, "A separate women's studies departments seems to be less useful and significant in the long run than courses within various existing departments and concentrations through the usual channels of special majors."
Committee members say they recognize all these problems but consider them solvable. In the immediate future, they plan meetings, dinner tables at Houses, and co-operation with Afro-American Studies concentrators concerned with the future of their department. They are also writing a proposal to be given to Dean Rosovsky in several weeks, articulating their demands.
No one expects the work of the committee to be easy. But the group is dedicated and keeps in mind that just as they are now partially reaping the benefits of the work accomplished by the workers of 1908, future Harvard students will gain from their efforts. As one committee member says. "We're doing this for our granddaughters."