In 1984, Harvard Graduate School of Education lecturer Catherine G. Krupnick published "Women and Men in the Classroom: Inequality and Its Remedies," a study that revealed that under male teachers, men speak nearly two and a half times as long as women. The examination of 24 Harvard professors across disciplines also showed that under female teachers, women speak for nearly three times longer than in classes with male faculty members.
In the decade since Krupnick's study, individual professors and departments, as well as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) administration, have undertaken a concerted effort to make teachers more sensitive to discrimination against female students both inside and outside the classroom.
But female undergraduates say they continue to feel intimidated and silenced at Harvard today.
One female biochemistry concentrator says she has never faced any problems in a classroom because of her gender--until she came to Harvard.
"I always thought of myself as different, not confined by societal chains of gender," she says. "But then I came here. My male peers shouted over my comments; my male professor looked through me."
And another junior, a female economics concentrator, says she was overwhelmed--and afraid to talk--when confronted with a section last week where she was the only woman.
Students, faculty members and national education experts agree that social inequalities in the classroom represent a significant problem today.
Many say that women tend to participate less in classroom discussion, although participation varies with the subject matter and gender ratios.
And others say that women are sometimes shafted in student-teacher interactions outside class time.
Improving women's position in the classroom is necessary, Krupnick Club House--No Girls Allowed! Harvard, clearly, is not immune to the problem. Universally, though, faculty members say women face greater challenges in some departments than others. "This [problem] is found in all disciplines but is exacerbated in the hard sciences," says Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics Howard Georgi. "It is much more acute in the mathematical sciences." Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell says he recognizes that some differences in classroom participation do exist. But he maintains that it's not always the case. "It is commonly said that women are supposed to be the more silent class members than men. My own experience, however, doesn't square with that," says Buell, who is an English professor. "In a field like literature that is more gynocentric to begin with, I don't sense an appreciable difference." And Professor of Physics Melissa Franklin says she may actually have more contact with her female students than her male students. "I was intimidated when I was young," Franklin says. "[But] I haven't noticed women participate less in the classroom. In fact they do come to speak to me more during my office hours." Like faculty members, female undergraduates do not agree on the extent to which Harvard women face discrimination in the classroom. "I have generally felt for a long time that women do tend to speak less in class, and this is sadly in effect here. I, however, have not personally felt it," says Lamelle D. Rawlins '99, the Undergraduate Council secretary. Two sophomore pre-meds who wish to remain anonymous agree that they have noticed a marked difference in talk time between females and males. "In the large lecture classes like [organic chemistry], it is evident that women do not speak nearly as much as men," says one sophomore. "Not to mention the fact that it doesn't help that there are so few women T.F.s, if any at all," adds the other woman. But another woman, a junior concentrating in government and women's studies who wishes to identified only as Jane, denies that women participate less in class. "I think this whole attitude furthers the perception of women as weak and inferior," says Jane. "In my experience in Historical Study A, government and women's studies classes, women are just as vocal as men, if not more so." Nevertheless, Porter Professor of Philosophy Robert Nozick has commented more than once in his Philosophy 192: "Thinking About Thinking" class that women tend not to raise their hands to speak during the question-and-answer period of the course. Survey Data Krupnick's 1984 Harvard study verifies the impressions of undergraduate women who have sensed discrimination in the classroom. In responding to questions from instructors, Krupnick says, women are more contemplative, while men quicker to answer. She refers to this phenomenon as the "tyranny of fast reaction time." "Males use most of the time because they are the first to talk," she says. "Many male students put up their hands before they think of what to say; their thoughts are incomplete." As men continue to speak in order to qualify their answers, women are deprived of an opportunity to talk, Krupnick argues. Krupnick's report gives four major reasons for women's reluctance to speak out and speak first: "Their demographic status as members of a minority in the classroom, their inability or unwillingness to compete against men, their vulnerability to interruption and the fact that men and women talk in runs." According to Krupnick, women are more likely to feel more comfortable interrupting each other rather than interrupting men. This contributes to an additional lessening of women's speaking time. Krupnick also reports that speaking patterns are developed within the first few weeks of classes. Therefore, if women are too intimidated to participate in the beginning--such as the junior in an all-male section--they are not likely to begin speaking during class discussion later in the semester. But Assistant Dean of Co-Education Virginia L. Mackay-Smith '78 says that intimidation is not the biggest problem. When female students meet with her, they "use the word 'intimidating' less than 'annoying,'" Mackay-Smith says. "Women are so frustrated because there is not a check on when guys start talking before they have figured out what to say." Breaking the Barriers The Faculty of Arts and Sciences does not have a uniform policy for dealing with the problems faced by women in the classroom. But, according to Buell, "the faculty on the whole are quite aware for needing to compensate for social stereotypes." The primary efforts of the FAS in combating discrimination against female students are coordinated through the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. The Bok Center's orientation program for teaching fellows includes a component on women in the classroom. Mackkay-Smith says she does not think it is a problem that these orientation sessions are not mandatory for all teaching fellows. "It is wise not to require it," Mackay-Smith says. "People who are compelled to take it may not take it as seriously, but if you choose to participate [in the orientation session] because you see it is important [that lends a whole new credibility to the program]." For the last eight or nine years, the Bok Center has published a pamphlet geared toward TFs and faculty that addresses "how to render the classroom more open to all women," says Lee A. Warren, the center's associate director. According to Warren, the pamphlet makes four main points: "1) making teachers aware of all the possibilities [for classroom interaction]; 2) not assuming all women are [passive]; 3) helping the TF to include women in the classroom; and 4) helping to teach people who talk how to listen." Additionally, the Bok Center, working closely with Krupnick, has just completed an educational video for teachers that uses vignettes to show different strategies for including women in classroom discussions. The Bureau of Study Counsel also offers support groups on assertiveness in the classroom and speaking in class. Departmental Efforts The Bok Center works particularly carefully with several departments, including physics and government, to address the issue of women's participation and success in those fields. When Georgi was chair of the physics department, he developed mechanics to allow people to get to know one another and form study groups by publishing lists of phone numbers and addresses. He argues that getting to know other students makes the classroom environment warmer and more comfortable. Georgi sent out materials sensitizing teaching fellows to the issues of gender in the classroom, in addition to making the orientation session obligatory. The government department also sponsors mandatory orientation sessions during which "ways of drawing women into the classroom are discussed using gender neutral techniques," says Professor of Government Stephen P. Rosen, the department's T.F. coordinator. Buell also stresses the "gender neutral pedagogy" that the government department uses in lectures and problem sets. Radcliffe sponsors the Science Alliance for entering female students who are interested in science. The group deals primarily with "what it means to be a women in a classroom dominated by men and how to stay in science," says Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson. The organization helps first-year women get to know each other, network and meet Bunting Fellows and faculty members in their area. Women in the Sciences at Harvard-Radcliffe (WISHR), an extra-curricular student organization, also forms support groups for women concentrating in the sciences. An Historical Look Without question, the situation has improved since Harvard's classes first went co-ed around the time of World War II. Harvard's first female professor Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, for instance, did not receive tenure until 1956. "All through the 60s, 50s and 40s there were faculty men who weren't keen on teaching women," Wilson says. "There are [reported] cases of when faculty members would walk into a classroom, see only women and leave saying there was no one there." Even today, though, students may receive gender-specific treatment from their instructors, Georgi says. "A typical case entails two equally qualified students, one male the other female, asking a question and receiving completely different responses," Georgi says. And though Krupnick's findings and Franklin's observations support a belief that female students participate more in classes led by women, others say that have a female teacher may not help at all. "Female teachers are just as discriminatory in favor of men as male teachers," says Radcliffe Assistant Dean Joanne L. Allen-Willoughby. And Mackay-Smith says the determining factor is the sensitivity of the instructor, not his or her gender. "It is the understanding of the teacher that makes a difference [not the gender]," MacKay-Smith says. "It so happens that the person's understanding of a situation has a lot to do with personal experience. If there are more women teachers, there is more opportunity to see what women are thinking."
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