The Case for Gender Diversity

We commend the efforts of both Harvard Kennedy School students and The Crimson to highlight gender diversity and the critical need to expand the representation of women at the School, elsewhere in education, in government, and in all sectors. The Crimson properly points out the role HKS can play in both inspiring more women to participate in government and serving as a model of diverse leadership. As Dean and Academic Dean respectively, and in the case of Iris, as Director of our Women and Public Policy Program, we embrace these goals. The case for gender equity certainly includes the reasons described in the Crimson. Government does indeed deal with a great many gender-related issues from family planning to abortion, sexual harassment to equal pay, child care to family structure, and domestic violence to rape. And many more policies have a disproportionate impact on women. Women and children far outnumber adult men among the poor in the United States. At the same time, more women than men graduate from college in the United States and many other countries today. Women represent a large percentage of the nation’s teachers, and they are expanding their roles in the military.