Just a few weeks before the Kanter lecture, for example, the Seneca sponsored a cocktail party with the Fox, another final club.

"I don't feel like we should be discriminated against for attending a barbecue at the Fox, because we don't have other options," Akinshemoyin says. "This is our whole mission, to create options. If we want to have fun, it's a fun atmosphere. Lots of our friends are there."

If the women of the Seneca feel that few social options exist outside of the realm of final clubs, they say they are also loath to cut their ties to the clubs.

Many see the men's organizations as potential allies.

"Men have power and influence on campus, and they could be our greatest allies," Patricia Ivonne Thompson '01, the Seneca's co-president-elect. "We don't want to burn bridges. We don't want to create animosity. We don't want people to think that we are fighting final clubs."

Still, Redmond says association with the final clubs--however slight--could prove damaging to the Seneca's credibility as a women's group.

"I think the Seneca should be aware of the connections--their message may not be quite as powerful," Redmond says. "It's feminism emanating from a system so many people have a problem with on campus. I still feel a little uneasy."

But Seneca members say they hope the group's spirit of inclusion can actually change the social scene at Harvard.