More Harvard Sexism

An acclaimed professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, Martha Schwartz, has decided to remain at the school, despite her charge that the department is a bastion of sexism.  Schwartz, a noted landscape architect, has taught at the school since 1992.  Two weeks ago, Schwartz submitted a letter of resignation to interim president Derek Bok, noting that the landscape architecture department had never had a tenured female professor in its 106-year history.  In the letter, Schwartz said the department's record with regard "to the fair treatment of women...is appalling."  She went on to ask Bok, "How can this lack of parity be allowed to exist in this day and age in any department within Harvard University no matter how small the department may be?"

Harvard's landscape architecture department has six tenured faculty members, all male, and 11 untenured faculty members, four of whom, including Schwartz, are women.

After talks with Graduate School of Design Dean Alan Altshuler, Schwartz decided to withdraw her resignation. She told the Associated Press that a couple of people she highly respects "encouraged me to try to change things from the inside."

Schwartz is currently on a leave-of-absence, living in London, but she'll soon face another review for the post of professor-in-practice.  If the review is successful, she'd become the first tenured female professor in the department's history.

Just last year, former Harvard President Lawrence Summers was forced out after he gave a speech about female faculty members that many viewed as sexist.
 

Comments

[Eleanor at OutOfDoors]

In fact, the author of this post did not bemoan "fair treatment" and "a lack of parity", those were quotes from Martha Schwartz. Further, the only aspect of this post that could be construed as anything other than reporting the facts, or "meaningless statistics", is the headline More Harvard Sexism, which is totally appropriate to the story covered.

[Stuart]

You wrote: "the landscape architecture department had never had a tenured female professor in its 106-year history"

and

"Harvard's landscape architecture department has six tenured faculty members, all male, and 11 untenured faculty members, four of whom, including Schwartz, are women."

These could be meaningless statistics. The real question is: Are women being passed over for tenure because they are women or are they being passed over because they haven't been producing the same quality or quantity of work? If you know that the former is true, then you have a complaint. But if you don't, then you are only assuming that some wrong is being done.

Be careful that in bemoaning "fair treatment" and "a lack of parity" that you don't call for a quota system based on an equalitarian presupposition that the women must be doing as well as the men. Unless you are intimately involved with the inner workings of the Harvard School of Design, then you don't really know that to be the case.