Despite this low response rate, Welch says the endeavor was useful, and helped the committee get a sense of the biggest problems facing female faculty at the University: child care availability and inconvenient meeting schedules.

Dimmitt, who headed up the survey, says the group’s most surprising finding did not come from the female professors’ concerns, but the lack of response from female faculty members when the group asked if they could put the respondents in touch with each other.

She says this points to a more serious problem—a lack of initiative on the part of female professors themselves.

“The women faculty probably, one, they wish to be able to function in their academic environment without harassment and hassle and, two, they are very overworked,” says Welch. “You put the two together they’re going to try to follow a course that will not hinder their own position.”

Nancy Tobin ’49 says members have been similarly surprised by undergraduates.

For instance, a female undergraduate told the group that she was not bothered by the lack of female professors and did not believe in the need for affirmative action for women in academia.

“We were shocked to hear this,” Dimmitt says.

Welch says that even if undergraduates do not perceive problems now, they still exist. She did not feel discriminated against as an undergraduate either, she says, but can see the flaws in the system now.

“It takes many years before the blinders come off,” Tobin says.

The committee has met with undergraduates in the College’s feminist groups, such as the Radcliffe Union of Students and the Coalition Against Sexual Violence, but the Radcliffe alums say they realize that most students simply do not have time for five-hour meetings with lengthy agendas.

CEWH members say they are in a unique position that allows them to speak up when they see problems, with nothing to lose.

“The advantage is that we’re not connected officially so we can pretty much say what we want,” Tobin says.

Recently, members e-mailed Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby to complain when they noticed that there were no women chairing the committees formed last fall to review all aspects of the undergraduate curriculum.

And committee members make sure they stay up-to-date on the intricacies of the College’s controversial sexual assault policy.

Two CEWH members, Elisabeth “Betsy” R. Hatfield ’58 and Tobin, recently visited Women’s Studies 131, “Women, Violence and the Law” to listen in on the class.