"Perhaps we should place more emphasis on how to enhance the chances of junior faculty to do well," Friend says.
"The approach at Harvard is still one of looking for superstars," Skocpol says. "By the time Harvard decides that a woman is a star she may be settled someplace else. That is why bending over backward for junior faculty is so important--they are already here."
But the new Bunting fellowship, which serves just one professor next year, is not the answer, Kirshner says.
"It seems like it would be of no use," he says. "It has very little to do with what scientists really need. What scientists really need is research money. If there were a research fund, that would be helpful."
Indirect Effect
Faculty say the best Radcliffe can hope for from the report is an indirect result.
"It's a starting point, a beginning." Friend says of the Bunting fellowship. "It could have a kind of catalytic effect."
"I would like to see a move for more consideration of the junior faculty," Georgi says. "I think it could have that good collateral effect."
Ultimately, despite the posters, articles and activism, Radcliffe will remain on the sidelines, they say.
"Their role is sort of as a watch dog," Skocpol says. "They can't certainly be involved and won't be involved in the process of tenuring women. They can be active in gathering information about how the situation is changing and not changing and that's what they do."
The alumnae committee's actions may also help those within the University who are trying to change Harvard's policies, some professors say.
"It could be a voice raised in concert with a voice that's raised internally," Winter says.
But the new activists say they are satisfied with such an outside "watch dog" role.
"Our role is to educate and keep the issue to the fore, to encourage the students and younger alumni to be more aware of the issue," Schmertzler says.
"The students and the alumni, are a powerful combined force," she says. "We don't have to be careful what we say. We can be honest and forthright. That gives us a freedom that others who are concerned might not have."