Women’s Clubs at Harvard

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/opinion/womens-clubs-at-harvard.html

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To the Editor:

“Rules May Force Elite Harvard Clubs to Abandon Longtime All-Male Status” (news article, May 7), about Harvard University’s decision to sanction members of single-gender organizations, focused primarily on the male final clubs, while the female clubs were mentioned sparsely.

Drew Gilpin Faust, the president of Harvard, and Dean Rakesh Khurana take these actions in the name of gender equality, but in destroying all-female spaces, they destroy the work that women have done to fight for their own equality.

As female students, we will make our voices heard: We will take to social media and rally in Harvard Yard to tell administrators how vehemently we disagree with this eradication of our spaces.

The all-female final clubs, sororities and groups are not centuries-old “bastions of money, power and privilege.” Many of these groups were created with the express purpose to fight gender discrimination.

I urge Harvard administrators in their campaign for gender equality not to ignore their female students. In covering this issue, I urge The New York Times not to ignore the voices of the Harvard women who are speaking up for their rights.

JULIET LEWIS

Cambridge, Mass.

The writer is a sophomore at Harvard.