Six student panelists struggled to define feminism and pinpoint its role at Harvard in a debate last night at 2 Divinity Ave.

Increasing debate has surrounded feminism and the experience of undergraduate women following rape allegations against Joshua K. Elster '00 last spring and his guilty plea this fall. Questions about the future of Radcliffe have also been a focal point for contention.

Last night's panel--titled "Is Feminism Dead?"--attracted about 40 undergraduates.

Although the panelists--who represented a range of political backgrounds--did not agree on the definition of feminism or its role on campus, they all agreed that feminism is changing.

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are equal," said Kamil E. Redmond '00, a member of the Undergraduate Council.

Redmond, who is also a Crimson editor, said contemporary feminism has nothing to do with bra-burning and man-hating.

"It's the notion that women should see themselves as an integrated whole. Everyone here is a feminist if they think women are equal," Redmond said.

Panelist Hugh P. Liebert '01, a writer for the conservative publication The Harvard Salient, disagreed with Redmond's definition.

"Modern feminism--the academic and radical feminism--has identified society as patriarchal, phallocentric...all society is a male construction to keep women down," Liebert said.

Liebert cited a 1992 study by Time magazine in which 63 percent of women refused to define themselves as feminists.

While the debate remained amiable, panelists' disagreement over the definition of feminism extended to the status of women on campus.

Redmond, along with panelists Mia Bagneris '99 and Kathleen E. Campbell '00, co-chair of the Women's Leadership Project, said the women's experience at Harvard is vastly different from that of male students.

"I think there's a problem when you can go through your entire Harvard career and not be taught by a single tenured woman professor," said Bagneris, who is co-chair of Radcliffe Union of Students.

But Liebert said he believes another group is also underrepresented on the Faculty.

"I think there's a greater need for Republican tenured professors than for women tenured professors," Liebert said, adding that there are only a few Republicans in Harvard's major academic departments.