Read Slowly: First Woman President of Harvard

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Harvard University is arguably one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636, it is among the oldest in the United States.

In 2007, Harvard named historian and scholar Drew Gilpin Faust its 28th president. She is the first woman to hold that position.

Role model

Other American universities have had women presidents. But when Harvard named Drew Gilpin Faust as its first woman president, the world took note. 

 Faust soon realized that being the first woman to hold that position did matter to a lot of people.

“The response to my appointment from young girls and women all over the world, from the parents of young girls, was so moving,” she says. “They found in my appointment an indication of hope and aspiration that they or their children could embrace."

That, she says, made her recognize "that being the first woman president of Harvard has a lot of significance and that it is meaningful, and I ought not to forget that.”

Breaking barriers

While Faust serves as a role model for young girls today, she had no one to look to as she was growing up. She never dreamed of a life in academia, let alone becoming president of an Ivy League university.

“I grew up at a time where very little was expected of women,” she says. “It was anticipated that probably I would marry and be a wife and mother. There was little discussion what I’d be when I grew up beyond that.”

 

Her mother, who never worked outside of the home, was not one to encourage Faust to higher ambitions. “My mother was very much a part of traditional views of women,” Faust says, adding that her mother seemed quite angry to have limited options for herself.

“Something she said to me quite often when I was being rebellious or imagining something was possible for myself that she didn’t think was possible, she would say, ‘It’s a man’s world, sweetie, and the sooner you figure it out the happier you will be.’”

But Faust was able to take advantage of the growing wave of new opportunities for women in the 1960s. Sadly, Faust's mother didn't live to witness her daughter’s success. She died when Faust was 19.

 

 

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• 读得好！怎么刚几天没来就忘了怎么post audio了？ -beautifulwind- ♀ (91 bytes) () 06/19/2011 postreply 21:26:04