In light of Women’s Week at Harvard, I wanted to share this fascinating article, titled “Birth of a Feminist”, from the Harvard Gazette written in 2005 by Ann Shapiro, Radcliffe Class of 1958.
I think we rarely hear about Harvard’s rich history — nevertheless the history of Radcliffe (what is now the Quad) — so reading this article was very illuminating. There are some great lines - the author is a great narrator - so below are some gems I particularly enjoyed:
“Both Harvard and Radcliffe had elaborate parietal rules to assist us. At Radcliffe we had a limited number of ‘one o’clocks’ and we dutifully signed in at the end of the evening. It is hard to imagine what lewd activities all this prevented, but there seemed to be tacit agreement that as long as we were locked in the dormitories by 1 a.m., all would be well.”
“Although I became fairly adept at keeping my blouse buttoned even amidst the periodic fumblings in the back seat of a car, I was almost defeated one warm spring evening by a wise Harvard junior who accused me of ‘bourgeois morality.’ Having just read Karl Marx, I knew enough to eschew everything bourgeois, but my mother had not lectured me in vain about used women. I won the debate in the back seat of the car, but I lost my Harvard junior.”
“Those of us who forgot that we were not permitted to enter Lamont, the undergraduate library in Harvard Yard, were unceremoniously expelled from the premises as ‘trespassers.’”
“At Harvard, the B School was the only one that actually closed its doors to women, although the Harvard Business School Wives Club awarded its members a Ph.T. (Putting Hubby Through) diploma, a mimeographed document suitable for display on the refrigerator, not in the executive suite.”
