According to concentration statistics taken from upperclass students each November, twice as many men as women have concentrated in fields such as economics and computer science for the past four years.

Women, on the other hand, made up more than double the number of men concentrating in areas such as anthropology and English and American literature and language.

“Women are slightly more inclined to study humanities, men are a little more inclined to do social science, and a few more men do natural sciences—not by much though,” McGrath Lewis said. “I think the main thing is to make the point that you can choose among them and we meet all kinds of needs.”

WOMEN’S NEEDS

But many student leaders say the College has a long way to go in meeting the needs of women on campus.

“The [three] person number is a symbol,” Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) Co-Chair Ilana J. Sichel ’05 says, referring to the number of more women than men accepted this year to the College.

“There is a veil of total equality and it is even more important to think about the history of gender at Harvard and how that might affect the current situation for women—what does it mean that for many centuries it was majority men?” she says.

RUS Co-Chair Carolyn D. Amole ’07 says that the admissions numbers could be a wake up call for Harvard but that she’s felt for a long time that Harvard was more like “a boys school that they let girls into.”

Sichel says a greater number of women at the College could influence her organization’s mission to establish a centralized location for women’s resources.

“It could affect our goal for a women’s center,” Sichel says. “This is getting a lot of press, and I think the first-years who come to Harvard next year will be really aware of the historical context they’re coming into.”

During prefrosh weekend RUS constructed a tent outside of the Science Center meant to represent a women’s center.

Angela A. Smedley ’04, vice president of the Association of Black Harvard Women (ABHW), also says there is a need for a women’s center and that with the admittance of more women to the College, her organization will be forced to recognize the need to align with other women’s groups.

“We want to represent ourselves in women’s issues more than we have,” Smedley says. “I think it’s interesting that we don’t talk so much about having a women’s center when half the campus—and now more than half of the [first-years] coming in—are female.”

Spaces for women has long been an issue for RUS and other women student leaders on campus. Although the College stipulates that student groups, even gender specific organizations, must admit everyone regardless of race or gender, some men on campus have additional social space because of the presence of non-recognized final clubs.

Amole writes in an e-mail that she is not a very big fan of final clubs but she would rather focus on obtaining space for women.