Charge - February 2005

As part of a broad effort to affirm its commitment to the advancement and support of women in academic life, Harvard has announced the formation of a university-wide Task Force on Women Faculty, chaired by Evelynn Hammonds, Professor of History of Science and African and African-American Studies, and charged with making recommendations concerning the design and implementation of a series of concrete measures designed to promote gender diversity in faculty ranks and in academic leadership positions across the University. The examination of issues relating to women faculty will include attention to the particular challenges and barriers faced by minority women pursuing academic careers.

The Task Force will consider and make recommendations with respect to:

• The creation of a senior position, presumably to be occupied by a tenured faculty member, in the University’s central administration that will include as one of its key elements the consideration, implementation, and oversight of new and continuing efforts to enhance gender diversity on the faculty;

• The use of targeted searches as a means of enhancing gender diversity on the faculty;

• Means for enhancing the effectiveness of the University’s existing “Outreach Fund” that supports the appointment of outstanding scholars from groups that are underrepresented in a department or major subject area within a Faculty or School.

In addition, the Task Force will evaluate existing means, and consider potential new ones, for:

• Improving the conduct of searches for senior faculty, junior faculty, and other academic positions, with a view to increasing gender diversity on the faculty;

• Enhancing Harvard’s capacity to recruit outstanding women faculty members identified through search processes, to create an environment conducive to their remaining at Harvard once appointed, and to support their successful career development and achievement;

• Ensuring that women are fully and fairly considered for positions of leadership in the University and for various forms of recognition and honor;

• Enhancing institutional support for faculty members balancing the demands of work and family, including but not limited to childcare;

• Exploring such other measures as may enable Harvard to improve its effectiveness in recruiting, retaining, and supporting women faculty.

The Task Force will be expected to consider and make recommendations concerning the most effective means for accomplishing the goals outlined above, taking into account best practices, proven effectiveness, and the distinctive cultures and hiring practices of Harvard’s various faculties and Schools. While careful analysis and thoughtful deliberation will be required to ensure that the University adopts approaches that are effective and durable, it is hoped that the Task Force will complete its work by the end of the 2004-05 academic year, and that its recommendations may be considered for implementation in time for the beginning of the 2005-06 academic year, or sooner if practicable.

Membership

Chaired by Professor Evelynn Hammonds, the Task Force includes junior and senior faculty from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and from Schools across the University. Task Force members include:

Evelynn Hammonds, Professor of History of Science and of African and African American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Chair

Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies and Director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and American Literature and Language and of Visual and Environmental Studies, Director of the Humanities Center and Director of the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Sue Goldie, Associate Professor of Health Decision Science in the Faculty of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health

William Graham, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity; John Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity; Honorary Associate and Former Master of Currier House; Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Myra Hart, MBA Class of 1961 Chair and Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School

Elena Kagan, Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law; Dean of the Faculty of Law, Harvard Law School

Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values; Radcliffe Fellow, Kennedy School of Government

Toshiko Mori, Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture and Chair, Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Design

Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Department of Government and Director of Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Ann Rowland, Assistant Professor, Department of English and American Literature and Language, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Christine E. Seidman, Professor of Medicine & Genetics, Harvard Medical School

Robert Selman, Roy E. Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development; Graduate School of Education and Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science; Associate Dean for Computer Science and Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Drew Faust, Lincoln Professor of History and Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, ex officio

Clayton Spencer, Associate Vice President for Higher Education Policy, Advisory

Staff

Kasia Lundy

Amy Paradis

Jared Craft