Jane Fonda Donates Millions to Harvard
March 4 -- Jane Fonda isn't hurting after her split from her moneybags husband Ted Turner. On Friday, the Oscar-winning actress donated $12.5 million to Harvard University's School of Education — the largest donation in the school's history, a spokeswoman said.
The bulk of her donation is earmarked for a new Center on Gender and Education that will concentrate on how children's development and learning are influenced by gender.
Fonda, who retired from acting after the 1989 film Old Gringo, has become an advocate for women's issues in recent years.
Asked whether her battle with the eating disorder bulimia had sparked her interest in gender issues, Fonda replied, "It's in my DNA." All the ways girls internalize and express the difficulty of growing up, "they all happened to me," said Fonda, the daughter of acting legend Henry Fonda.
Some $2.5 million of her donation will be used to endow a faculty chair to be named for Harvard psychologist Carol Gilligan.
"We still have a culture that teaches girls and boys a distorted view of what it takes to be women and men," Fonda said in a statement.
Reuters contributed to this story.
