The Sociology department, which has recently been charged with sex discrimination, voted this fall to offer tenure to Nancy B. Tuma, a tenured professor at Stanford, who would be the department's first female tenured faculty member, it was revealed this week.

The recommendation must still be reviewed by an ad hoc committee of sociologists from outside the University and Harvard social scientists, and then must be approved by President Bok.

Sociology is one of 13 departments cited in a 1980-81 Faculty report on affirmative action for having fewer tenured women Faculty members than the available pool of female candidates would warrant.

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Summer plans are beginning to shape up for Dean Rosovsky and five other Harvard deans, who will visit China for two weeks to discuss educational issues with officials from four or five leading Chinese universities.

This will be the first official Harvard trip to China since it became communist in 1949. "We are among the last major universities to visit the country." Rosovsky said last week, adding that he accepted the Chinese offer because "I wanted to be sure there wasn't a feeling that we were separating ourselves from what was going on in terms of academic relations with Harvard.