Four years later, gender relations exploded in a Commencement-week confrontation between Crimson President Ira E. Stoll '94 and several female editors who were attempting to carry the president's chair from its place in the Sanctum into the women's bathroom as part of a prank.

According to the editors involved, an enraged Stoll saw the prank as the culmination of ongoing tension between himself and the female editors. According to The Crimson's official account, he used a "hurtful" obscenity specifically directed at women in a violent exchange and was later formally censured by the staff.

"[The incident is] hard to describe, but I can understand after being a president myself why he was so stressed," says Stoll's successor, Marion B. Gammill '95. "Not that excuses what he did. Ira said those things. They came from his head."

Gammill recalls that as she and her classmates prepared to seek executive positions, "people started saying it was `The Year of the Woman.'"

"I don't think that [Stoll's actions] specifically influenced their decision," she says.

"I did try to make sure women felt comfortable at The Crimson," she adds. "I also tried to make men feel comfortable too. I had to be president for everybody."

Editorial Decisions

As women gained a stronger voice at The Crimson, the editors were forced to confront gender issues in the pages of the newspaper.

The Crimson first wrestled with the use of gender-neutral terminology in 1973, debating whether to use "chair," "chairman/chairwoman" or "chairperson" in articles.

But gender-neutral terms continued to be used inconsistently through the '70s and '80s until a permanent policy solidified under Glasser and Rebecca L. Walkowitz '92.

"The correctitude of the paper was to the nth degree," Cramer says. "We did whatever was the most politically correct thing at the moment."

Current Crimson form includes the terms "first-year," "letter carrier" and "chair."

Playboy magazine tested the virtues of a cash-strapped Crimson under Chira by submitting an ad soliciting women to pose for its "Girls of the Ivy League" issue.

When the staff voted to reject the ad, Playboy made the refusal national news.

"Playboy made a big deal out of it--'Look at these naive women's libbers at The Crimson,'" Chira says. "There was a lot of mockery."