In addition, many ethnic organizations have also had women as presidents including Raza, the Black Students Association and the Asian American Association.
Haewon Hwang '95 co-president of AAA, says she does not believe being female has an impact on achieving a position of leadership in any of the Asian campus organizations. "Just by looking around at the sister organizations [of AAA], the majority of executive positions are filled by women," she says.
In athletics, women's lacrosse Captain Elizabeth K. Berkery '93 says she feels that women athletes receive the same amount of respect as male athletes. Nevertheless, an Athletic Department report has revealed this year that women's athletics receive almost half the funding of men's sports.
Berkery also says athletes are probably among the most prominent women on campus.
"Women captains probably are more highly visible as leaders on campus than women leaders of other organizations, only because athletes get more publicity. We're in the newspaper almost every day," she says.
In other organizations, where women are still struggling with the obstacles they face as women in traditionally male-dominated fields, few expect conditions to change instantaneously.
"It's been 20 years. It was a male-dominated university for a long time," Choubey says. "In terms of opportunity [things] are pretty equal. The Lyman Common Room was an important step towards that. Services like a SafetyWalk seems to be something we had a need for. In general it's a pretty open atmosphere. A lot of these things take time."
Bovet says that equality between the sexes may be a bigger issue for students after college.
"A student was saying she felt equality in this community and wondered if she was going to find that when she graduated," Bovet says. "I think that being here, that this campus, while not perfect, is a more equitable environment than may exist when you graduate."
Recent attention on gender stereotypes has focused not only on the struggles of women in the council, but also on recent remarks made by Thomson Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. '53, who said that women won't be as successful as men in occupations that require aggressiveness.
Many women say Mansfield's views reflect the institutional bias that hinders their success in some campus organizations. And while the all-male Harvard of Mansfield's undergraduate days may be gone forever complete gender equality still remains an elusive goal.
Jessica C. Schell and Emily J. Tsai contributed to the reporting of this story.
'I did campaign extra hard, but I'll never know if I had to do that.' KAREN E. BOYLE '94 REPUBLICAN CLUB PRESIDENT.