While students, alumni and University officials yesterday praised the first appointment of a woman to the Harvard Corporation, outgoing Corporation member Andrew Heiskell said he didn't think her selection would change the 339-year-old governing board that much.

"I suppose one says 'lady and gentlemen' instead of 'gentlemen,' but [otherwise] I don't think it makes that much difference in today's world," said Heiskell.

As the last Corporation member never to sit on a board with women, Heiskell might well have underestimated the impact of Judith Richards Hope, named yesterday to the seven-member Corporation, will have on North America's oldest self-perpetuating board.

But Heiskell's comments highlight the difficulty of gaging what impact the Corporation's new-found diversity will have on the previously all-male board's policies.

Although the Corporation is no longer an all-boys club, its decisions may still reflect the traditionally conservative slant to which student and alumni activists have long objected. Hope's ties to the Republican political establishment and what friends describe as her "pragmatism" may reveal more about the newest Corporation member's future voting record than will her gender.

Hope's successful career, as with most women of her generation, has included its share of tokenism. While Hope maynot consider herself a "pioneer," she is nostranger to being the first woman member oftraditionally all-male institutions.

As a student at the Law School, she was one ofonly 12 women in her 1964 graduating class. Sincethen, she has become the first woman on theexecutive committee of her Los Angeles-based lawfirm, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker.Colleagues there acknowledge that she brought amuch different perspective to thetraditionally-minded law firm.

And while Hope says she is not sure what kindof issues she wants to take up on the Corporation,she said yesterday that certain women'sissues--women's collegiate athletics, forone--would be among her priorities.

"I think you do bring perspective and I thinkyou bring a different understanding," Hope said.

But progressives might be disappointed withother aspects of Hope's background. Gender aside,Hope fits neatly into the traditional Corporationmold that activists have so strongly protested.

Though a distinguished 25-year law veteran andformer federal district court judge nominee, Hopeis known as much for her status as a Washingtoninsider as for her work as a transportationlawyer. Holding on to many of the connections shemade 25 years ago as a law student, Hope has keptclose ties to prominent Republican figures likeSecretary of Labor Elizabeth H. Dole and Sen.Robert Dole (R-Kan.).

Former Law School classmates describe her as ahard worker who was not caught up in the activismof the 1960s, and colleagues say she is a"pragmatist" committed to "getting the job done."

Even her concern for women's issues is oftencharacterized in a business-like way.

"She believes strongly in equality for women inopportunities and remuneration in themarketplace," said James Cannon, who worked withHope in the Ford Administration.

But Hope herself says that she thinks women'sprogress will inevitably happen as more and morewomen enter the corporate and academic elites.