Peter Berkowitz

June 8, 1999

The writer is associate professor of government.

Name of Seneca Club Inappropriate

To the editors:

Some students joke that the term "final club" refers to the notion that it is the final club you will ever have to join in your life. Indeed, a final club provides a vast social web, allegiance to which affords its members a network of connections that not only extends far, but continues long after one's time at Harvard. With final clubs existing as selective, male organizations, it is unsurprising to me that women at Harvard would endeavor to create a similarly beneficial network for female students and alumni.

An article (News, May 10) reviewing the emergence of the Seneca--a new all-female undergraduate social organization--explores an alternative to filling the gap of a female network. Promising to provide and develop such a support for Harvard females, the Seneca reportedly exists to aid the entire female population, and it is pointed out that the name "signifies women's advancement." The Seneca seems to be a noble idea with positive intentions. However, the resolutions from the Seneca Falls Convention called for equal participation of, and an enlarged sphere of opportunities for women, but did not aim to achieve this goal through inherently elitist means.

The appropriation of the name Seneca seems a blasphemous move by an organization that not only establishes itself as single sex but also proceeds to whittle its potential female members through an application process, and possibly even through dues, which only further an elitist theme. The Seneca Falls Convention called on all women, rather than a select few, and a full third of attendees and signatories were male. I am left wondering for which lucky women at Harvard the Seneca Club seeks to improve life at the expense of which unlucky women.