Others say they feel an extra burden because they are among the few tenured Faculty women in their department.

"It's crucial that women Faculty not be `token females' because if so, everything [they] say is the `female perspective,"' Winter said.

If It's Broke, Fix It

The report makes several suggestions to help remedy the gender imbalance still prevalent in most departments at the College.

Doherty said improvements could be made in the pre-tenure periods to help women create careers at the same time that they are forming families.

Extending the number of pre-tenure years would allow women to have more time to establish themselves in their fields, and doing more to make child-care affordable would let women maintain their progress once they already have children, according to Doherty.

Currently Harvard provides facilities for childcare but gives no subsidies to pay for the care.

Harvard has already taken some initiatives to help women junior faculty members. Following the birth of a child, junior Faculty men and women who are the primary caregivers of the child may take a semester of teaching relief. Faculty members who have taken this relief may also have the possibility of extending their pre-tenure appointments by one year.

Garber said actions by both the administration and by the departments to review the report will also help women's situation in the FAS.

According to the report, departments should adhere to Harvard's affirmative action policies that ensure diverse applicant pools. They should also give junior faculty members course reductions for the first year.

The report also says junior Faculty members should be informed of their prospects for tenure promotion, and if they will not receive tenure, departments should assist them in finding positions at other universities.

Equity between junior and senior Faculty members in their departments should be increased, the report says.

Junior Faculty should be included in departmental meetings, meetings should be scheduled, if possible, during daytime hours to accommodate Faculty members who have nighttime engagements, and departments should encourage junior Faculty members to be active in forming curricula, to teach courses and to join committees, according to the report.

But as the report states, dramatic changes in the status of women in the humanities will only come with an increase in their numbers.

Although Winter says she recognizes that the vast majority of Harvard's Faculty is male--only 13.4 percent of current senior Faculty members are women--she said she sees improvement coming.

"I think the University really is interested in improving these numbers," Winter said. "Even in the last 10 years, changes have been made, but at the same time, it's important that everyone take the patterns in the three reports seriously and find ways to implement change in institutional and departmental culture."