Women, men, and ­leadership: Views from ­the committee

NANNERL KEOHANE Visiting professor of ­public affairs; ­chairwoman of the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership

I want to be sure that young women who are thinking about coming to Princeton don’t see this as “Uh-oh, something’s wrong for women at Princeton,” but instead ... “There seems to be this great creative energy to try to draw on the strengths of women, both in more low-key ways and more high-profile ways.” The women who come to Princeton as undergraduates in the next few years are going to be part of something perhaps not quite as exhilarating and scary and pioneering as the initial admittees in the 1970s, but something that will feel like we are making Princeton an even better place for women, and also for men.  

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ELIZABETH ARMSTRONG *93

Jon Roemer/courtesy Princeton University Press

ELIZABETH ARMSTRONG *93 Associate professor of ­sociology and public affairs

My own hunch is that this is really about American society still working through the sexual revolution that began in the ’60s and ’70s — that we are still working through that massive social transformation of gender roles and gender norms ... I don’t think that the work of feminism or the work of the women’s movement is over by a long shot. So to the extent that Princeton is a microcosm of American society, we are experiencing the same struggles ...  

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JANE YANG ’11

Habin Chung ’12

JANE YANG ’11

I thought back about how I got involved in PEEK [Princeton Engineering Education for Kids]: The leader pulled me aside and said, “I think you’d be great” for a co-leader ­position. That one impetus led me to be confident enough in my own abilities that later on I was willing to step up to other leadership positions ... It is true that I needed a push in the beginning. You can’t always generalize, but it’s certainly a trend we noticed.

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THOMAS ESPENSHADE *72

Denise Applewhite/Office of Communications

THOMAS ESPENSHADE *72 Professor of ­sociology

I’m less concerned about equality of outcome, and more concerned about equality of opportunity. I don’t think that we should be unnerved about inequality of outcome, as long as there is equality of opportunity. ... But anecdotal information ­suggests pretty clearly that we have not yet arrived at a point on the Princeton campus where there is equality of opportunity.

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CATHERINE ETTMAN ’13

Habin Chung ’12

CATHERINE ETTMAN ’13

Any time you run for student government, you have to balance a lot of conflicting characteristics: You have to be outgoing, and you have to show competency and experience, but at the same time you can’t be aggressive, or over-zealous or over-ambitious, or the word that Princeton students love to use: You can’t be a “tool.” ... It applies to both men and women, but there are places where it’s more difficult for women to balance these conflicting characteristics.