Tilghman noted concerns that USG and eating club officers, as well as winners of Rhodes and Marshall scholarships, have been predominantly male in recent years.
“All of these are trends that could potentially be a matter of small numbers, but it could also be that women and men are experiencing Princeton differently or making different choices that are somehow affected by whether they are male or female,” she said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.
Discussions about the committee began a few weeks ago at an informal dinner hosted by Tilghman. Attendees reflected on campus debates about gender inequality that were sparked in part by a Nov. 10 article in the ‘Prince,' said Wilson School professor Nannerl Keohane, who was named the new committee's chair.
The seven candidates in the race for Class of 2013 president this fall were all male, and that fact added urgency to the conversation, said Keohane, who was also president of Duke University from 1993 to 2004 and president of Wellesley College from 1981 to 1993.
“People were wondering, ‘How did this happen from the beginning?’ ” she said. “Most of the female students at Princeton probably had major leadership positions in high school. They came presumably with comparable records, so what exactly is going on here? How do we find out if it’s benign or if there is a problem? Speaking for myself, I have a feeling that it might be a problem.”
In a Nov. 18 editorial, the ‘Prince’ Editorial Board also called for the creation of a task force — to be chaired by Keohane — to examine the issues of women in leadership roles more thoroughly and determine ways those issues can be addressed.
Aran Clair ’10, president of both Cloister Inn and the Interclub Council, said he supports the creation of the committee. He added, though, that he thinks it is “incidental” that all 10 of the eating club presidents this year are male for the first time in more than a decade.
“When it comes down to it, it really is a two-pronged problem: a) women deciding whether they want to run for president and b) getting elected,” he said.
Clair also said he has encouraged some female members of Cloister to run for club president this year.
“In my experience, I would say that the most important qualities in being a leader on campus, not just within the eating clubs, [are] confidence and confidence,” he said. “Knowing you have to do something and knowing that you can do it is basically what you need. That’s pretty universal, and I think any guy or girl can do that. I hope that this committee created by President Tilghman will give Princeton women additional confidence and let them know that they can stand up and lead the student body.”
Tilghman said the committee’s goal is primarily to gather and analyze information.
“This is really described as a study, so the most important thing to accomplish is to collect a lot of information both about Princeton as well as peer institutions about the experience of female undergraduates and their male colleagues in the extracurricular aspect of the University,” she explained.
She cited senior surveys, the Institutional Research Office, workshops and focus groups as possible sources of data about the University.
Tilghman added that she does not know whether the recent appointment of several women to visible University positions — including Christina Paxson as dean of the Wilson School and Janet Rapelye as dean of admission — has had a “positive effect on women undergraduates.” But, she noted, it is a question that may be answered by the findings of the committee.
Tilghman said the committee members were chosen over the past two or three weeks, in discussions with Keohane, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne, Women’s Center Director Amada Sandoval and Whitman College Dean Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu because they are “involved on a day-to-day basis with students.”
The new committee consists of four undergraduates and 15 faculty and staff members, and three of the committee members are male.
“Frankly, I think this is an issue that is going to require a significant perspective of women,” Tilghman said.
Keohane, Dunne, Sandoval and Graves-Bayazitoglu were named to the committee, as well as Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel. The other members are sociology professor Elizabeth Armstrong, East Asian studies professor Amy Borovoy, history professor Angela Creager, English professor Jill Dolan, Lizzy Drumm ’11, sociology professor Thomas Espenshade GS ’72, Catherine Ettman ’13, Kahina Haynes ’12, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Naomi Leonard, Osahon Okundaye ’12, psychology professor Stacey Sinclair, Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux ’11, theater professor Stacy Wolf and Jane Yang ’11.
Regarding the timing of the committee’s creation, Keohane said, “In light of the continuing discussion and reminding ourselves that it is the 40th anniversary of coeducation, it just seemed like a very timely moment to get together a group.”
In the professional world, many women have to deal with the “second shift” or “double burden” of expectations regarding their disproportionate role in taking care of families, Keohane said. She added that the number of women with major leadership positions should not be blindly compared to those of men until those obstacles are removed.
But since that is not the case for most undergraduates at the University, Keohane said, the problem is particularly striking.
“I believe the committee’s main objective is to determine whether or not female students leave this University more empowered than when they first enter as freshmen,” Drumm said in an e-mail. “It is the committee’s goal to find a way to answer this question and look into the reasons why women may play less vocal roles in the University’s academic and extracurricular activities.”
Dolan, who is also director of the Program in the Study of Women and Gender, said, “Clearly I’m concerned, and many others as well, of underrepresentation of women in leadership positions on campus.”
“It’s important that [Tilghman] has been proactive in bringing attention to an issue that is important to address,” she added. “I think the task force will go a long way in addressing in how we can improve those numbers.”
“As far as I am concerned," she said, "with this issue, more talk is only better.”
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