Under Administrative Pressure, Faculty Committee Ends Women’s Research Symposium (Harvard)

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Harvard administrators pushed a faculty committee to cancel a long-running, biannual symposium featuring tenure-track women’s research, citing legal concerns about hosting a single-gender event, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Standing Committee on Women, which had hosted the symposium for roughly 15 years, ultimately decided to stop running the event after Faculty of Arts and Sciences leadership advised against selecting speakers based on gender.

The FAS will now host a new gender-neutral version of the program, Dean of Faculty Affairs and Planning Nina Zipser wrote in a Wednesday email to faculty obtained by The Crimson.

The symposium, held twice yearly, traditionally featured tenure-track women faculty, though it was always open to the full FAS community. Past invitations explicitly listed women speakers selected by the committee.

At an Oct. 3 meeting of the Standing Committee, Zipser advised the committee against holding a single-gender event, suggesting that it host the symposium without gender-based selection or have the FAS take over the event.


Yet again, gentlemen rejoice! Surely scientific achievements are to be highlighted regardless of who accomplished them.

Now, what can we do about those 'Girls can Code' stupid classes that exclude boys?