This past Sunday, February 11, 2007, Harvard University appointed its first female president, Dr. Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust. The New York Times published a good article about Dr. Faust and her appointment.
In her remarks, Faust stated, “I hope that my own appointment can be one symbol of an opening of opportunities that would have been inconceivable even a generation ago.”
The appointment is a particularly redemptive action on Harvard’s part after its previous president, Lawrence Summers, suggested the lack of advancement of women in science and engineering is because women have less innate ability than men in some fields.
I found two of Faust’s comments interesting. She shared advice received from her mother: “This is a man’s world, sweetie, and the sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be.” Faust explained the advice was perhaps “a bitter comment from a woman of a generation who didn’t have the kind of choices my generation of women had.”
However, I would argue that in spite of the choices available to women today, it’s still a man’s world … and the sooner we women learn that, the better off we are. It’s been precisely that recognition of the true state of affairs that has allowed us to have such choices.
Her other comment I found interesting was, ”I’ve always been surprised by how my life turned out. I’ve always done more than I ever thought I would. Becoming a professor — I never would have imagined that. Writing books — I never would have imagined that. Getting a Ph.D. — I’m not sure I would even have imagined that.”
She’s not THAT old. Okay, she’s 59, which might seem old to 20- and 30-somethings. But I’m only half a generation younger than Faust, and I always imagined I could do anything if I wanted it.
I remember my father telling me I was lucky to be female, because I had the choice of either a career or staying at home (presuming I married a man who didn’t). Implied was that males didn’t have that choice. That fatherly advice hasn’t turned out to be true; housing prices necessitate two incomes, and I know several women whose husbands have decided to be stay-at-home dads.
The irony, though, is that Faust never imagined she had so many choices and has reached the pinnacle of her profession. Whereas I imagined my choices were limitless, and have been quite content to remain in the middle of the pack.
