When Hagenbuch moved from the exclusively female arena to Harvard's Economics Department, however, her perceptions changed. In her classes at Harvard, Hagenbuch perceived the sharp division between Harvard and Radcliffe. "I felt uncomfortable talking in class, because I felt they were better than I was," she says.

While Radcliffe students in general depended on Harvard professors to cross the Cambridge Common and deliver lectures, Hagenbuch and her classmates often registered in specific Harvard classes relevant to their concentrations.

But not all felt intimidated in co-ed classes. "There certainly was no such thing as militant feminism," says Mary Douglas Dirks. "But we felt equal if not superior intellectually to the men that we knew. We were very proud of being chosen to go to Radcliffe. I suppose you could say we were very snotty."

Derderian sees the move to co-ed classes for Harvard and Radcliffe as a step backward in some ways. "Mixing up the sexes got in the way of women's learning to be their own person and training their leadership," she says. "The men diverted their attention from their studies."

To Helman as well, single-sex education presented as many opportunities as obstacles.

"As a small women's college, we enjoyed close contact with professors," Helman says. "There were opportunities for leadership which, at least at the beginning, was harder" with co-ed arrangements.

Still, Helman does remember the limitations of being a woman at Rad-

Pearl Harbor made it clear that even the Ivory Tower was not immune to international turbulence.

To some Radcliffe alumnae, the move to co-ed classes was a step backward, in many ways. cliffe, even in terms of library access. "We had one room not much larger than a telephone booth in Widener, and they brought books to us," she says. "We couldn't just wander around."

In science classes, men and women used separate labs for the same projects. "There was no mingling of the sexes," says Derderian. "I was surprised that in the sciences we had our own labs for chemistry and physics," she says. "Educationally, we were pretty much equal, except for the segregation."

Outside class, however, the situation remained even less equal for Radcliffe women. From signing in and out of the dormitories to getting permission for road trips, Radcliffe students faced a far more stringent set of expectations, laid out in the "Red Book" issued to incoming students.

Even the WAVES, women training for military service, had to appear proper when drilling in the Quad--to the point of executing maneuvers in high heels.

"They tried very hard to be very crisp and dedicated," says Larrabee. "I remember when they were wearing galoshes and high heels, and when they did a quick about-face they slipped in the mud."

Helen Russell Allegrone served in the WAVES as an officer in communications and cryptography from 1943-46, despite her plans to study public health at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"My father said, 'My God, if anyone wants you to do something, do it,' so I went into the WAVES," says Allegrone. "At the time, I thought I was giving up the thing I wanted to do, but I enjoyed the WAVES."

In a time of strict expectations for proper female behavior, many Radcliffe students saw the war as an opportunity to defy the standard female role society offered.