Even after the negative response to her first proposal, Skocpol still strove to work towards a resolution between the Faculty and Summers. Skocpol says that she put forth a more moderate, cooperative motion concurrently with Matory’s because most Faculty members doubted that Matory’s would pass and she wanted something to express faculty concerns “if the no confidence motion failed.”

Ultimately, however, both motions passed, and Skocpol’s commanded only a few more votes.

One of the main distinctions between the two motions, however, was that Skocpol’s explicitly expressed disapproval of Summers’ remarks about women as well as his manner of leadership.

“She is someone who is deeply interested in issues of equality,” says Verba, who has worked closely with Skocpol since she joined the government department in 1995 and is currently collaborating with her on a major research project on civic participation in American democracy from 1790 to the present.

Skocpol says the University still lags behind in its acceptance of women.

“There has been a lot of improvement over the years...there are many more senior and junior women on the Faculty, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” she says.

Summers’ remarks were especially relevant to Skocpol given her experience as a working mother. In his now-infamous remarks, Summers said that “the relatively few women who are in the highest ranking places are disproportionately either unmarried or without children,” in trying to explain why there are fewer tenured women.

Skocpol told The Crimson in 1995 that she had waited to have her son until after she had been tenured. “I sometimes feel it would have been nice to have two children instead of one,” she said. “That would have been possible if we’d started earlier.”

Despite any differences they may have, Skocpol and Summers will be working together much more closely when Skocpol assumes the reins of the graduate school in July. But Skocpol says that she will still make her voice heard.

“I’m at least considering the possibility that occasionally I will speak in Faculty meetings,” says Skocpol, in what she says will be “a daring departure from past precedent.”

“I do expect to be involved in the future of the Faculty of Arts and Science,” she says.

—Staff writer Nina L. Vizcarrondo can be reached at nvizcarr@fas.harvard.edu.