9. Not until the mid-twentieth century feminist movement were women,
even most Radcliffe women, given encouragement and free rein to use
their strengths and education to try to reach their full professional and
personal potential. The feminist movement has affected us all, men and
women, in different ways. How has your own life been affected?
Radcliffe
Deeply Affected by, and/or Active in, the Feminist Movement
I was for many years active both personally and professionally in the feminist movement. It was a joy
to participate, contribute, and occasionally to offer some leadership, intellectually and morally. The
women I knew in this work were brave and generative. I am glad I was involved.
My career and intellectual life in women's studies are centrally shaped by the women's movement.
As an early leader in the feminist movement, it has been pivotal to my own development
I was actually not hired for a job for being pregnant in 1970. When pregnant again in 1971, I denied
it. I have been at the cutting edge of the feminist movement.
Feminism gave me a language and a community to support me as I tried to work in a resistant
environment- academia of the 70's
I was part of every possible opportunity to create greater gender equity—a challenge which still
exists in our country and elsewhere in the world.
I joined a women's group in 70's Berkeley. It changed my life.
But I was a feminist at least since high school, always expected to have a professional career, and
have worked for women's rights as a writer, lawyer, activist, etc. ever since. The movement encouraged,
involved, and empowered me.
my whole career - my views of family and work - all affected by feminism
It took many years of reading MS, being in a feminist support group, etc for me to realize my
potential
The class of 62 for women was really grounded in the '50's - and although feminism was there, it was
not much read or discussed. Civil rights made the obvious connection for me, and I was engrossed
throughout the '60's (and still am) at achieving those fundamental objectives for both women & AfricanAmericans.
My major was influenced by the fact that I would be stuck at a drawing board if I became an
engineer. Yet as I evolved and changed careers, I opened new doors. I sued my state for sex
discrimination and won a job no other woman had been given.
Benefitted from the Feminist Movement
We came to adulthood at such a transitional time. The expectations I had for my life when we
finished college were very different 10 years later, when I embarked on a very satisfying career, and the
feminist movement made it possible.
The feminist movement helped me get all my earliest jobs — I was generally one of the few women
in the relevant organization and have to believe being female was at least one reason jobs came so
easily.
I actually benefitted a lot from the opportunities that had just opened up for women when I was ready
to enter graduate school and the job market. It took a lot of moxie to blaze the trail, but there were always
some sensitive sensible men around to offer encouragement. Just way too few female role models!
Opportunities became available that were missing just a few short years before.
I ended up by doing work that I never would have expected to do. I often had the feeling that I was
somehow a fake, but nevertheless managed to survive and even do some good.
The feminist movement encouraged me to return to graduate school and earn a PhD in entomology.
Feminism allowed me to live this wonderful life to the fullest. It gave me the courage to get divorced,
find a profession and be myself.
I hit the academic job market at exactly the point that major universities were starting to wake up to
the need to hire women. In effect I was an affirmative action hire.
The feminist movement gave me courage to try my wings professionally. It also has made me feel
somewhat inadequate because I have been primarily a wife and mother.
I have had opportunities that didn't exist a generation earlier, but also missed out on opportunities
that would have been much easier to avail myself of a generation later.
I went to law school and became a lawyer.
There was no way I would not have a professional career, in any case, but the feminist movement
made it easier for us, I think.
Birth control was a given for me. Unwanted pregnancy has been a non-issue. Work opportunities
have opened up. We were the generation that felt like pioneers doing what today's graduates assume
they have to do.
I couldn't have imagined getting a business degree as an undergraduate! I remember Polly Bunting
exhorting us to be all we could be, but I couldn't see what she said relating to me.
I was given the chance to prove myself professionally on an equal footing with men.
I am sure opportunities came my way because I was [a competent] woman in the early days of the
feminist movement
I was not involved in the movement but it informed me as I found my voice for gay rights.
I headed into a largely male career right out of college; the primary effect of the feminist movement
has been to give me far more women colleagues than would otherwise have happened
It was very rare for women to attend architecture school in 1962; by the time I managed to get there
(fall of 1979) the class was 50% female. I regretted that it took so long, but have never regretted getting
this long-delayed education.
Barely Affected by Feminism
Harvard-Radcliffe didn't help here. Only later in life did I reflect on our second class living
arrangements in Cambridge. My career choice was in a traditionally feminine helping profession, so I
didn't struggle there.
My own reluctance to push boundaries at home delayed made my own career and I think a glass
ceiling affected my progress through my professional life. Nevertheless, I ended up with much more
satisfaction than I would ever have anticipated.
I was raised by modernist, feminist parents: much of my life has involved unlearning the cruder
aspects of their teaching and learning the full Biblical perspective.
I fought rather hard to get equal pay for equal work at my government agency—part of what you
have to buck is where you started when you came, which in turn was affected by being female. I didn't
have enough confidence in myself and believed what people told me some times too much—although
when I entered graduate school, 1/2 of the small class was women. I wasn't mature enough to realize
some of my capabilities. My family, however, was always supportive. Radcliffe was in many ways a
lonely place in terms of real student support—and women also were aspiring to be part of Harvard—the
Crimson vs. a Radcliffe paper, etc. I never was much of a feminist, but in many ways I managed to
survive pretty well for my era in regard to being independent and 'pressing on'; e.g., I engaged in
'prepared' childbirth and all that, even changed doctors when I was about to attempt to have a child so
that the group were supportive of what was fairly cutting edge at the time. And yet, I was also my own
enemy. As a graduate student, I was taken advantage of and didn't really realize it as I might have now.
The status of a brilliant man was overpowering.
I majored in Architecture. When I asked about applying to the GSD prof. said 'We don't want women
in architecture. So I married, went off and designed clothes in Paris. Twelve years later, divorced. Still
wanting to design and build houses, I apply to local trade school which is starting up a class in plumbing
and heating. They don't want me, say I'm not 'serious'. I go anyway (with a scholarship) and am the only
one to pass the plumbing exam. Become the first female licensed master plumber in the state. It was a
vehicle to get into the building business. Later, after partner dies, I focus on designing kitchens and
bathrooms. The plumbing experience is invaluable now. Because I am a woman I have been forced to
work for myself in my chosen field as nobody would hire me as a plumber - they said because I was a
woman. Not that that's a bad thing! Customers loved me (I no longer do plumbing, hence past tense)
because I was non-threatening, reliable, explained what I was going to do and always cleaned up after
my work. I also worked for cheap for the elderly, many of whom lived in my town.
I had always been encouraged to find my own strengths. If I were five years younger, I'd probably
have had more of a career, more affordable child care, etc.
By changing countries I found my 'American' identity was so striking that my 'female' identity often
didn't register. I think I was allowed all sorts of freedoms, including professional ones, because I was
unusual and this let me rise through some of what would otherwise have been barriers.
I just a little too old—and probably too innately conservative—to have changed my behavior as a
response to it. But it provided a perspective completely different from mine for my daughters, and of
course I have had to react to that.
I was very confused at Radcliffe—I didn't know how to make my education work for me and my
model was my mother, who didn't attend college. My grandmothers had, however—one Radcliffe 1904
and one Bryn Mawr, also 1904. They took me under their wings as a child, teaching me what they
loved—Latin, French, poetry, Shakespeare—but by college they had died and my parents were far away.
As a result, I struggled to maintain my grades and figure out what I should do. Ultimately, my time abroad
followed up by working at a nonprofit and then seeing my daughter assume she would work and
supported by her father allowed me to understand the feminist movement and its importance to women—
and men.
Not much could be changed in my life as my way of thinking was too deeply engrained. Also, living
abroad in a country where the changes are slower. However my daughters feel the impact and this has
an indirect effect on me.
As a mother of daughters—both strong feminists—I cannot help but be affected.
Not Affected
I was an only child, so I got a lot of parental mentoring that would have gone to a brother had I had
one.
I did not pursue a career; but if I had, I think the feminist movement would have benefited me in
pursuing a career.
Studying piano and organ has been open to women for a long while!
This one is hard to judge in some ways. The atmosphere in the early 60s led me to high school
teaching rather than pursuing graduate work for an academic career. On the other hand, I could argue
that I accomplished at least as much in the high school classroom and beyond as I would have in a postsecondary setting.
I was surrounded by people who were passionately involved in the movement, yet I didn't seek
sisterhood in it. I may have always partially thought of myself as a male due to my father's choosing me
as his first child to receive some of his investment of ego and concern.
As a musician, I have never felt sexist discrimination.
I think the feminist movement has been over-emphasized in our society. In my profession, success
has been determined by merit, rather than gender, during the years of my career.
I was a high school teacher but stopped working for pay during the years my children were at home
and became heavily involved in volunteer activities.
The big changes and opportunities came too late for women of our generation in business.
See my narrative report. But I think your statement above is a little oversimplified. Plenty of women
with grit got that free rein.
My mother wouldn't marry until she had a job and could support herself. This was before the mid20th century. That was my lesson.
My mother had a professional job, my aunt had a professional job, and I assumed that's what women
did!
My mother provided a spirited and energetic model which encouraged me to seek changes in
antiquated policies even before feminism took hold.
I feel my voice has been heard and balance of power in my marriage. My husband has been the
primary bread-winner
The Bad Old Days
When I was at Radcliffe, I took Nat Sci 9 because Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin who taught it was the
only female full professor at Harvard. We were all fully briefed about how the Govt department selected
Lloyd over Susan Rudolph for the professorship covering India, although she was much better and both
his wife and former pupil
Imagine that we graduated before Rowe v. Wade! Men were not allowed above the first floor of the
dorms, we were not allowed - except for extreme weather - wear 'male attire' below the second floor of
the dorms.
I recall being led past a cage full of books in the basement of the Radcliffe Library. 'This is the X
cage, which houses a collection of books and studies by various women,' the tour guide said, and we
passed by quickly. Oh, the work on women's history that later emerged from that 'X' cage. . .
I had never known a professional woman except teachers until I went to college, and had been
limited to expect to be a teacher, nurse, or secretary.
Persisting Inequalities and Worries for the Future
'Even most Radcliffe women...?' My sense is that women at the non-male institution affiliated seven
sisters were more encouraged/mentored to develop their potential than we were at Harvard/Radcliffe. I
first taught social science classes in a Women's Studies program at a large public university in 1976,
made personally significant by having 3 daughters all of whom attended a very different Harvard with
respect to surface equity! Apparently many undergraduate and graduate students don't 'see' the
continuing gender effects existing. In contrast, for 'our' Class of 1962, differences in the social regulations
and educational opportunities for men and women were public. (See MIT's study of female faculty for a
discussion of how subtle, 'invisible' differences early on can have long-term effects.)
I did not do the consciousness raising, feminist thing. I lived it and supported some of its goals. My
question is where is it now? Do young women care about any of the goals like equal pay or abortion
rights, or are they just interested in making money? Are they feminists?
As one of the first women full professors at my university, I was often called upon to serve on
committees that had been all male. I felt glad to do this but on the other hand the university, for me,
remained a male club and I was disappointed never to rise to administrative positions.
As a woman, I feel the indignities strongly. They are still pervasive despite the progress and have
deformed men as well as women. The process of equality has taken much longer than I thought it would.
Harvard
Comments with “daughter” (41)
Married to a strong woman, and as father of two talented young women, I necessarily took an
interest in the women's movement and the benefits it could have close to home. My daughters are the
beneficiaries of the efforts of women of our generation, and their supports.
My wife and daughter have been greatly affected and I somewhat by association
My wife, daughter, mother, and mother-in-law, and female colleagues at work have always been
My wife, a very successful university professor, is a living embodiment of the women's movement.
We have always had a marriage of complete equality and sharing, including in the raising of our daughter,
now also a university professor (I wonder why).
My first wife caught the wave and went to medical school. my second runs her own business. And I
have two daughters. . .
From the beginning, the movement 'made sense' to me as another aspect of the Civil Rights
movement. It impacted the way I parented my daughter and I'm very happy to see how fulfilled a whole
person she is.
My mother would have been a physician were it possible in her day. My wife and daughter are - very
fulfilling for them.
With four daughters (two brought me by my third wife.) and four (soon to be five) granddaughters, I'm
VERY thankful for the feminist movement! Also, where would I/we be without Mary Catherine Bateson,
Mary Oliver, and Donella Meadows? (So go qv!)
Three daughters makes a difference in perspective. [Winner, Class ’62 of Understatement Award]
I am the husband of an intelligent woman and the father of two intelligent, strong-minded, and well
educated daughters.
Primary impact on my life is the realization that my wife did not have the same opportunities coming
out of college as did I. The opportunities for our daughter and her contemporary women in business,
sports etc. are gratifying as we move, albeit slowly, towards more of a meritocracy.at least regarding
gender.
If not my wife, my daughter has an unequivocal sense of gender equality.
our daughters all believed that had a right to be right and exercised sufficient independence to lead
meaningful lives
I have an accomplished wife and daughter. Their lives have been affected.
My wife and 2 daughters are infinitely better off because of this change
It has been a positive event for my wife and daughter
I wanted our daughters to feel there were no gender-based limits on careers they could follow.
My wife has been a feminist (and so have I). she and I raised three daughters while we both were
professors. My daughters combine families (two children each) and careers (lawyer, therapist, novelist).
And now I'm watching my four granddaughters and two grandsons mature.
I have a wife and a daughter, so I could hardly avoid being affected. I would hardly dare to give my
wife advice, but we did try very hard to raise our daughter with high aspirations and without any hint that
gender is limiting. About ten years ago, I was chair of a committee on promoting advancement of women
in plasma physics, and I'll never forget telling my teen-age daughter about this and having her say that
girls weren't interested in stuff like that, they were more interested in shopping. However she did grow up
to be a biologist. [Winner, Class of ‘62 Roll with the punch, you never can tell award.)
I have a wife who worked, a daughter who works, several daughters-in-law who work, and two
granddaughters — how could I not be affected! I also work every day with talented woman lawyers. And
my mother worked till she was 90.
I am thrilled by the accomplishments of my wife, daughters, and our women friends. [Amen! –editor]
I have three daughters and a feminist wife, and I see the gains in women's rights as a parallel to the
gains in the civil rights and gay rights movements.
I had a daughter—-need I say more!! [Double amen!! Runner-up, understatement. –editor]
My good wife's staying home until high school time, as more than a full time mother (her militant
choice), contributed more than any other possible course of action to our daughter's freedom to be
herself.
Very conscious of opportunities for my daughters. married a strong and aware wife. watched my
students and my profession change very rapidly. learned to be aware of discrimination, of gender blinders
and of vocabulary in ways that were personal growth opportunities.
It meant that my children, all daughters, could achieve their potential.
Have enjoyed watching my wife [] grow from a shy girl to an outgoing, self-confident women. Equally
pleased that my sons have married smart self-directed women, and I am eager to see my grand-daughter
follow in their steps.
I am the father of three daughters. Their lives were significantly different in terms of opportunity from
their mother's.
The birth of my first daughter was a watershed moment for me. I have seen in my profession
enormous advancement by women that was unimaginable when I was in school.
First: I have worked for and with women much of my adult life, and benefited greatly from this. I have
a daughter, 5 granddaughters, 4 stepdaughters - I want the world fully available to them. I do not want to
think they could be treated as one of my professors, Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin, was treated. Second:
Radcliffe NEVER should have folded, robbing its graduates of the power of having been nurtured in a
place committed to absolute equality with men. Wellesley is an exceptional example of sovereign
commitment to women's empowerment.
My daughter is a lesbian and works on GLBT issues
My daughter has married her wonderful partner, in Massachusetts and is a mother. Thanks to them
and to many others close to me, I know deeply the value of recognizing people as people
Insofar as my daughter came out right after college, and has enjoyed the most fabulous relationship
with her spectacular partner of 10+ years. (Did I mention I am just crazy about both of them?)
I came out of the closet in 1977 - 15 years after leaving Harvard. That year I met the man I am still
living with 34 years later. We got legally married at Cambridge City Hall in 2009. Together we raised
my/our daughter through high school and college. I worked as a HIV/AIDS educator in public health
clinics and as a psychotherapist/counselor at the first residential facility for people living with AIDS in
Jacksonville Florida in the 1990s.
I have a lesbian daughter.
My daughter has opportunities that would have come to women only with difficulty when I was
young. Although my own life has, otherwise, been only 'somewhat affected,' in a larger framework I'm
enormously grateful about the successes of the various civil rights movements.
Comments with “mother”
[6 above, 9 here]
My mother became a strong woman when my dad divorced her in 1946, and my mom, sister and I
moved 2,500 miles away and were on our own. Equality for women was built into the bedrock of the
atoms and molecules of our existence. I was almost born a feminist. Years later, first male member, []
Area League of Women Voters.
I had to learn my wife was not going to be like my mother. I do at least half he cooking.—I have
mentored women leaders.
I have respect and admiration for women achieving careers. I only wish my Radcliffe 1939 mother
could have benefitted from it.
My mother was very bright and influential, so I had a head start on this movement. Radcliffe built on
that, and my career as a lawyer/judge really just build further.
My Mother was a strong role model, so I grew up loving women. Even though I grew . up in an age of
male dominance, I learned to respect women for their strengths and . personalities and preferences.
My mother and aunts were all college-educated women of high achievement. So were their friends.
Feminism seemed unnecessary, at worst a form of self-promotion
My mother was the CEO of a major publishing company and was a major influence on my life.
Grew up in family with mother working full-time and in full partnership with father around the house
and in all decisions. Literally never occurred to me to disrespect women though also only lukewarm
activist in their support when others did disrespect them. Have watched society catch up.
Because of my field of research, my mother and my wife, it transformed my life
Comments with “wife”
[19 with daughter, 3 with mother, 30 here, = 52)
I have been a feminist from Day 1, including changing jobs in order to be home with my kids when
my wife took a demanding job requiring constant travel.
My wife has carved out a career in the non-profit world.
feminist professional wife
My wife made her own way without much help from activists.
My wife turned out to be an invaluable partner in my career. Shortly after our twenty-fifth reunion, I
left academic medicine and went into private practice. At first this career change did not go well. About
three years later I asked my wife to manage the practice. Her skill, independence, and toughness made
the difference in turning the practice into a very successful enterprise.
My first wife joined a consciousness-raising group in the mid-70's and shortly thereafter our marriage
ended, which probably enabled us both to grow in ways we couldn't have together.
Positive: My wife has had an active, professional, respected career — and that has enhanced my life
as well. Negative: I had a female supervisor who used her feminism as a weapon. I didn't survive there,
The most interesting and exciting women (e. g. my second/current wife) are those who've explored
their full professional and personal potential.
It took long and difficult discussion for my wife and I to work through this issue, because it is so
difficult to get past cultural assumptions that one grows up with. We were married right after graduation
and we are still married. I am a feminist for the simplest of reasons. Fairness and equality are owed to
every citizen in our land.
My wife has been much involved in women's career development.
I am one of a fairly small percentage of Harvard graduates who has never married. At the same time
I am not gay. I am not a sexual virgin either, but I have had no lasting relationships. Had I married it
probably would have been at about age 30 to a women from a different nation (New Zealand), and that
would have totally changed my career which was just beginning in PA. Of my very best friends one has
been divorced twice (now has a third wife) while another has a stable marriage but no children. 'Ozzie
and Harriet' type families probably still exist in the USA, but they are certainly not as common as they
were when we were undergraduates.
my wife gained an international position of high regard in the financial world
My wife's career was paramount in our 20s and 30s, and its priority is a partial although not total
explanation of why we chose not to have children.
My wife is a professor of chemistry. Many good female students have been in our research group.
My wife was at the transition point, entering the actuarial field when her salary was deliberately set at
2/3 that of a comparable male because she was expected to leave the workforce and have babies.
My wife has been and is very involved in women's volunteer and educational organizations. The
feminist movement has not directly affected me, except that I saw in the military over many years the
advances women have made.
I prefer strong women who do something with their lives, and I am very happy to have a wife more
successful in her career (nursing and then academia in the nursing and public health field) than I am.
My first wife was a successful banker and still is. She was among the first in her company forty years
ago to be elected an officer of her bank. Her success has meant a great deal to our children and to her
own ultimate independence
My wife was strongly affected.
I've come to realize and accept my wife's need for fulfillment and a sense of importance, through
working, now that rearing our own children is past.
I think that many of our Radcliffe classmates were ahead of their time (meaning ahead of the feminist
movement that emerged in the next decade) in their aspirations and in their achievements. While for
others, including my wife, it took some years of transition following 1962.
I encouraged my wife to enter graduate school when she was well into her 30's and embark on an
entirely new career as a clinical psychologist. She had to work very hard for a great many years. My great
reward for supporting her in her adventure is seeing what she is able to do to help others make their lives
more fulfilling.
Sharing my wife's problems and successes during the last 50 years—I've shared part of the feminist
revolution.
I have long been interested and engaged in feminist and gender issues. My former wife and
continuing best friend is one of the leading feminist scholars of our generation, an honorary degree
recipient at Harvard and longtime professor at the Institute of Advanced Study
My wife has been a great inspiration to me, showing me what women have the potential to
accomplish — not by offices held, but by the compassionate work that is done.
Mainly through the resulting opportunities afforded my wife.
My wife, who has a very successful career in medicine, has taught me a lot — mainly because I have
learned the pleasure of living with a woman who has her own life.
My wife, while not a 'feminist', is living her life in a rich and fulfilling manner. We encourage each
other to be open and straightforward in our communication with one another — and also with others.
My wife had her own career when I met her, and she still does. It forced me to grow and respect
women.
My wife has a very senior, sensitive and demanding job in the national security area of the federal
government. She would not have this type of job 40 to 50 years ago.
Other, mostly very positive
I have been a strong advocate for the increased use of women in the military. I have strenuous
objection to actions of Harvard to arbitrarily limit the choice of its students by prohibiting ROTC and/or
military recruiting.
I treat women with the respect they deserve, on a case by case basis, and expect the same from
them.
Women were finally allowed to be equal Physicians with men.
The feminist movement created a very different marriage for me than for my parents.
Living with a feminist meant occasional hostility from her and her friends.
both my own attitudes and multiple interactions with others
I have been very much involved in the 'men's movement,' which was, I believe, inspired by the
women's movement.
Although not an ardent 'women's liber', I have always admired women and enjoyed their company,
both socially and professionally, as equal or superior, so I am very happy that they have received much
greater recognition in recent years.
I've really enjoyed watching my female colleagues, friends, and relatives find their way into positions
they might never have attained when I was young, and I admire the richness and diversity of their
contributions to community and to family life.
supportive and represent values of integrity and honesty. (The same has been true of male friends.)
wives have careers, too
The quality of my working environment has become increasingly affected by the ever-growing
number of women in that environment.
Progress in gender equality is one of the major developments in my lifetime in USA.
This is an entirely positive development on every level.
Most of the movement delivered a positive impact on my life, and I wish it had matured a few
decades earlier.
People are people. sex should not be the factor.
The freedom, which women now have, and there is still a long way to go, to pursue their interests is
important to our present living well-being is critical to future global survival.
As a male, I have always strongly supported most of the feminist agenda, but I have not been
personally affected much.
My chosen profession, law, has become feminized, and to the good
I have been part of volunteer organizations - Jaycees and Rotary - who have been at the forefront of
allowing female membership. It has meant a lot to my involvement in both organizations.
Many of my supervisors have been women, whom I hope I have respected regardless of their sex.
Feminism brought with it female assertiveness and divorce. it has also produced equality in malefemale friendships and professional associations
Worked for many women bosses, and they were all excellent.
Fifty years has brought about much change favorable to women. Now many. educators and thinkers
are concerned boys are being left behind.
Gratifyingly, the very democratic US Attorney's Office had lots of women in leadership and peer
positions. Gender was really basically irrelevant. As it should be.
While working hard to overcome the unconscious biases I absorbed during an upbringing in a malecentered society, I have also been active in promoting the advancement of women's rights and status.
Women are still little represented in my research field. This is getting better slowly in computer
SCIENCE, but only at a glacial pace in computer ENGINEERING.
I don't believe I've ever had an issue with women in the workforce and have always welcomed them.
During my years of interviewing and hiring large numbers of engineers I've probably hired as many
women as men. My one big issue is with women who play the feminist issue too strongly. Frankly, they're
a turnoff and I've rarely hired these women for fear they would be disruptive in the workplace.
I have always gravitated towards strong women. They're just more fun. The feminist movement has
empowered them and I have been the beneficiary.
Most of the women whom I know had all the advantages and opportunities which I had. For them,
the major contribution of feminism has been to provide a ready excuse for their failings.
It really rocked my first marriage, for better and worse.
When growing up I was never exposed to the idea that women should not pursue goals of
professional or personal achievement, the whole idea of 'sexism' was, and is, a mystery to me. And
happily, I was in an academic field which has long had admirable women practitioners (I think my
department at the University of Wisconsin usually had a higher percentage of women on the faculty than
any other department apart from Nursing).
Not least because I am the father of three girls, and no boys. That really converted me!
In my field (psychiatry) women are beginning to outnumber men and this has enhanced the
profession immensely
I can now have friends and colleagues who are women.
Probably because I began teaching (at the graduate/professional level) in 1971 and worked with
students for the next forty years. I learned from the students and for the students.
I've been tremendously influenced by the ideas and ideals of strong women throughout my life.
I am still amazed that Japan keeps women down. Their status is rising, but at a glacial pace.
My early willingness to hire and train bright, educated women gave me a competitive advantage over
most of my peers who paid the same money to hire less talented men.
Feminists put happy homemakers in an uncomfortable bind, the results of which are still to be
measured.
The woman I fell in love with and married and still am with did not need the feminist movement to be
sure of herself, self-confident in many ways, unconflicted about having a career, asserting opinions,
saying what she thinks. Possibly she was encouraged to do this by the feminist movement but I doubt it.
As a male I was only indirectly involved, and personally I've always lived amongst very able and very
independent women. My view is a bit Marxist: the economy needed working women. I do regret the cost
some of them paid for what should have come more easily.
I have been a lawyer in a large firm all my adult life. When I began, there were very few professional
women at the firm. now, women constitute at least 50% of the professionals.
Women certainly should be given the same opportunities as men, but absolute equality is
unreachable because we are all mammals, and females must do 99% of the reproductive work.
Men have made such a mess of things it's unlikely women could do worse. Perhaps better.
In 2000 women comprised approx. 35% of practicing ObGyns. By 2020 they will be ~66%. Women
have been a very significant source of my post-doctoral education in ObGyn
I had to defend women I hired from overt anger expressed by males who did not like the competition
and sexual tension that women brought to their chosen professions. Put me in tough positions in the
1970's in particular and ruined families of some men that I directed. We worked it out in the 1980's.
I like women. I'm married to an excellent woman. I like working with women, and enjoy their
company and perspective.
I married an MIT undergraduate (who later received her degree from Harvard, 1964). She has been
a lifelong partner in both research and raising a family. However, we together needed to break some new
ground so that we both could pursue our passions. I have mentored and collaborated with an
extraordinarily large group of extraordinary women.
.Some of the brightest and most productive employees, teammates and executives in my companies
over the years have been women.
Great admiration for 'feminists'. My relationship with my current partner depends on my shedding 'my
father's beliefs' about women's role in our society.
Women have been prominent in my profession and added to its quality.
As a male, I approve of the direction things have moved, but I am not sure I have been directly
affected much.
I believe it has improved the climate in business and many other organization, e.g. the priesthood in
the Episcopal church. I'd like to see the trend toward equality continue.
Strongly affected two wives, not all for the good.
I grew up in a very traditional home, and expected to have the same as an adult. That expectation
was a factor in the breakup of my first marriage. As I evolved and became more appreciative of the new
reality, I became a better husband, father, manager and person.
I have been married for 33 years and have had to adapt to very different circumstance than the
expectations I bought into.
Saw first-hand what single-sex education could do for some women in the 1980s, and how it differs
from coeducational settings. Watched women close to me gain their voices and become powerful.
As a male, I learned a lot about gender relations which carry over to interpersonal relations in
general.
I not so sure about women in the priesthood.
Since 1965 I have hired and worked for women. So I was an 'early adopter' and got the picture early
in life.
By the time I was looking for academic jobs, institutions — appropriately — needed women (and to a
much lesser extent, minorities). My longest of two relationships (25 years) was to a strong feminist.
Changes in gender relations were probably the most significant social development in our lifetime,
within the U.S.
Equality of women is still a goal, not a fact. When we graduated there were numerous careers
excluded or limited women. Things have gotten better, but still unsolved is the problem of how to have
both a career and a family. (I am a man.)
Feminism has been central to a broad rethinking of politics and of the nature of oppression.
Moved women into medicine, especially OB/GYN in a huge way.
My life not affected, but I'm glad of the results.
As a university professor I was aware of and affected by feminism of many kinds from the beginning.
It changed the way I saw the world, changed the way I teach, changed the content of my teaching, and
more. I also had a front-row seat in observing the development of feminist thought over several
generations.
I wonder why it is only women who claim to have to face a decision between career and family. I am
male and I had to face that decision. Not sure I made the proper balance.
Most of my best friends have been and are fully 'liberated' women—who are much more interesting
than pre-movement women were able to be.
Since I began to teach at Harvard almost 50 years ago at the graduate level, women in both the
student body and professoriate have multiplied exponentially, and their impact (and trials) have been
even greater.
Initially (in the 70's), women as business executives were somewhat unpredictable as to their
effectiveness. As the decades progressed, so did the skill level. At this point, competence is largely
gender neutral.
Examples of outstandingly successful women has changed my view of women as less capable than
men to more capable than men in all spheres that don't depend on physical strength.
Insofar as it went along with and reinforced the greater understanding of homosexuality, and
tolerance for it, it was important personally. And of course several women I know and love have
benefitted from it.
It seems that women's liberation also liberated men in many ways.
I think the effect on most men is that it has made more likely being part a two-income marriage in
which both spouses are professionals.
Both my girls got post grad degrees and delayed child bearing, but they both have children.
The women in my life have been strong, thoughtful, and independent. I've supported feminist goals
all my life.
In my Center there are 50 professionals, all MDs or PhDs, 15 men and 35 women. This represents a
complete bouleversement from the situation that obtained 40 years ago. This remarkable change reflects
a greater number of women being educated at a doctoral level over these 40 years and probably lots of
other things as well!
It fueled a major struggle as we tried to change our expectations of ourselves and each other. We
both learned a lot. Not easy, but overall it was a positive force and added to the quality of my life.
I believe that the increased competition from women and the militant views of many women have
interfered with my achievement.
Despite advances in opportunity, women continue to experience bias, both explicit and implicit. To
the degree that continues to exist, the larger society suffers because it is deprived of significant
intellectual contributions to addressing its problems
The 'movement' groups (women, blacks, immigrants, et al) have always been personally viewed
without rancor or degradation. thus I've always accepted and treated individuals falling within these
segments with whatever respect their actions earned.
I'm not an American
In Soc. Rel. 120 I raised a ruckus by arguing that cannot judge males and females differently on
sexual activity. Remained strong advocate for women's intellectual, occupational, and political equality
and ability to choose family or career. World came around to my point of view.
My professional field, fundraising, has become dominated by women.
American women are still oppressed
People should be treated as people, whether male or female. The best part of the feminist movement
is that my male peers can no longer get away with the horrendous acts they perpetrated in the past.
Having grown up in a Quaker family, women were always equals and I assumed they always were.
Grandma was a minister who shared the pulpit with Grandpa!
I have been impressed and pleased by the way women have become respected and accomplished
leaders, aided certainly by the opportunities that have been opened up to them over the years. I have
also been impressed by the way that Harvard and other institutions of higher education have shown
equality in that classes typically have 50-50 women-men or more, like 55-45 in favor of women.
Women are great. I enjoy working with them here in Vietnam and being with them in general. But, I
enjoy my guy buddies too. Fact is I like people!
am for it
I suppose I have delayed some of the impact on me by moving in Asia
I was always for 'liberation' in all forms, and so adding feminism to my socialist conscience was more
of a natural development or enlargement of the sphere than a change in direction
It has been a joy to treat women with respect, whether on the tennis court where I play with them as
equals to men, or in the corporate world where the same is true. And socially, and sensually, it has been
great to share on equal terms. We are fortunate to have received many of the benefits of this movement.
Working with many capable women
Everyone's better for it.
Among other things, I spent 25 years working to convince adolescent girls that interest in the
sciences, the study of the sciences, and the pursuit of the scientific professions were as appropriate and
as accessible to women as to men.
Women given preference in promotion
Favorite Comment
I found out a lot about women.