“I had to put in a lot of effort to make it happen,” Bouchat says.

Many students also say that because they have mostly male professors, they are not exposed to as many diverse perspectives as they could be otherwise.

“Men and women see things differently,” says Tammy L. Wisco, a Kennedy School mid-career student pursuing a master’s degree in public administration.

MOVING FORWARD

When Ellwood was appointed dean in 2004, he said one of his top priorities was to work on the issue of gender equity at the Kennedy School. In spite of the school’s lower numbers compared to peer institutions over the last academic year, the gender balance has improved during Ellwood’s tenure.

“One of the ways I’d like to be judged is on the progress that happens,” Ellwood says.

Since he took office, Ellwood has more than doubled the number of tenured female faculty and appointed Bane as academic dean.

Ellwood says that he intends to keep working on improving the situation of women faculty, but that he has “no immediate plans.”

Yet many faculty members remain positive.

“Progress is happening, but we started from a very low level,” says Iris Bohnet, director of the Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program. She adds that when she first came to the Kennedy School in 1988, the percentage of female faculty was probably below 10 percent.

Toft says she thinks Ellwood has shown some good will, but that the causes of the problem are difficult to address because some of them are out of the school’s control.

“I do think he’s trying,” she says.

—Staff writer Ariane Litalien can be reached at alitalien@college.harvard.edu.