This February wasn’t the first time that Theda Skocpol went to bat against the Harvard administration on gender inequality issues.

When Skocpol emerged as one of Summers’ most outspoken critics this spring, she had a history of standing up to the University—in the early 1980s, she fought and won a sex discrimination battle against Harvard after she was initially denied tenure.

And when University President Lawrence H. Summers apologized at the Feb. 15 meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for his contentious comments about women in science this January, Skocpol, the Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, was the second professor to stand up and openly criticize the president for disrespecting and bullying his associates.

“When things do not go well, the president always seeks to blame and humiliate others,” she said, calling the current controversy just “one instance” of a “broader crisis of trust…and leadership.”

Skocpol, who was named the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences last week, continued to play an active role in the ensuing debates, but her contributions evolved to be more conciliatory than castigatory.

After her initial criticisms of Summers, Skocpol went on to advocate the formation of a committee—consisting of herself and two other Faculty members—to facilitate communication between the Faculty and Summers. When Professor of Anthropology and of African and African American Studies J. Lorand Matory ’82 presented his motion for a vote of no confidence in Summers, Skocpol put forward a more conciliatory statement of criticism.

Skocpol was once charged as having a “combative attitude,” and at the February meeting, she admitted to a lack of subtlety. “Forgive me for speaking bluntly,” she said, “but I am known for that, and I know no other way.”

”A STRONG SENSE OF INTEGRITY”

In 1980, Skocpol had already taken a B.A. from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from Harvard. She had also just published her first book, “States and Social Revolution,” which garnered her two prestigious awards, including one from the American Sociological Association. That fall, after five years as an associate professor of sociology and tenure offers from four other universities, Skocpol was narrowly voted down for tenure by Harvard’s all male department.

“She has a very strong sense of integrity,” says Sociology Department Chair Mary C. Waters, who has co-taught Social Analysis 54, “American Society and Public Policy,” with Skocpol for about 10 years. “She really stands up for what she believes in…if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be here now.”

“In a department with no tenured women, someone who stood their ground was very threatening,” Waters says, adding that “in some ways, Skocpol became a lightning rod for a lot of things that weren’t really about her.”

Barely a month later, Skocpol filed an internal grievance against the department, alleging that she had not received tenure because of sexual discrimination.

“At a personal level, I am deeply hurt by this unnecessary rejection, coming when the department has several vacancies to fill,” Skocpol said at the time.

That April, a three-person review panel concluded that Skocpol had been a victim of sexual discrimination—but as her application for tenure was being reviewed, then-University President Derek C. Bok intervened on the grounds that he needed as much as three years to appraise Skocpol’s scholarly work and make a final decision himself. Four years later, during which time she served as a full professor at the University of Chicago, Bok granted Skocpol tenure.

But when Skocpol returned to Harvard’s conflict-ridden sociology department after turning down rival offers, she was not unanimously welcomed.