Harvard Tackles Gender Discrimination by Targeting Single-Gender Clubs

The university is discouraging new students from joining single-gender clubs.

ByABC News
May 6, 2016, 7:03 PM
A group sits on the steps of Widener Library at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., June 30, 2015.
A group sits on the steps of Widener Library at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., June 30, 2015.
Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

— -- Harvard University is tackling gender discrimination among its undergraduates by putting restrictions on those who join unrecognized single-gender organizations on campus, including finals clubs and Greek organizations.

Fraternities, sororities and finals clubs -- which get their name as the so-called last of the social organizations an undergraduate student joins before graduation -- are unrecognized on campus, but still exist unofficially. However, starting in the fall of 2017, new students who join single-gender social clubs won't be permitted to hold leadership positions in recognized student organizations and athletic teams, the university said today. Current students are not affected.

Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust say the finals clubs "play an unmistakable and growing role in student life, in many cases enacting forms of privilege and exclusion at odds with our deepest values."

A report in March by the school's Task Force on Sexual Assault Prevention criticized finals clubs for "deeply misogynistic attitudes" and “a strong sense of sexual entitlement.”

Faust also pointed out the concerns that "unsupervised social spaces can present for sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse."

PHOTO: Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust attends the Harvard University 2015 Commencement on May 28, 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust attends the Harvard University 2015 Commencement on May 28, 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1984, Harvard stopped recognizing all-male finals clubs for discriminating against women.

Now there are six unofficial all-male clubs, five all-female clubs, and two that used to be restricted to men but opened their doors to women last fall, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some of the club members are "gatekeepers to parties at well-appointed mansions," the Journal reported.

While Faust said the groups encourage "self-segregation," leaders of some all-female clubs are criticizing the announcement.

“The support systems, safe spaces, and alumnae networks the women’s clubs have been striving to build will disappear. That strikes us as a tremendous waste, and an ironic one, given Harvard’s stated goals," female student leaders wrote in an op-ed for The Harvard Crimson student newspaper.