Fiona's Blog: Q & A With Debora Spar, President of Barnard College
Recently, I sat down with Barnard College President Debora Spar to discuss her views on women today, her recent writing, and her thoughts on single sex education. Spar is the author of The Baby Business, Ruling the Waves, The Cooperative Edge, and Beyond Globalism, along with many news articles. She came to Barnard in 2008 after working as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at the Harvard Business School.Spar describes the transition to Barnard as striking because Harvard Business School is, as she puts it, “completely dominated by men” and Barnard is “completely dominated by women.” When I asked her about the main differences between the two institutions, Spar told me she has noticed that meetings at Barnard take a somewhat different tone than those at Harvard Business School. “Women are more concerned about conflict,” Spar relayed, “which leads to different processes.”
The female dominated campus affects more than just the administration, however. “Girls see [a] sisterhood here. It’s really empowering for women to be surrounded by women.”
Spar explained that while most of the administration is female, and all the students are women, she doesn’t think the majority of the women who apply to Barnard apply because it’s a women’s college. Spar explained, “Some of our students come to Barnard because they really want a college where they don’t want to be the minority. However, the majority of our students don’t come because it’s a women’s college. I think there’s a real sense of unity and compassion here.”In addition to her presidential duties, Spar is especially passionate about the Athena Center for Leadership Studies, a Barnard leadership center with a mission to investigate the ideas at the forefront of women's leadership (Rachel will offer a workshop on leadership at Athena in February 2011).In her inaugural speech, Spar touched on some of these issues as well as the progress that women have made. She said, “[women] can get married, or not; have children, or not; pursue a profession, or not. Rather than facing a life devoid of options, women coming of age at the turn of the 21st century have an almost infinite range of choices, a lifetime of wandering along the garden of the forked path and wondering which way to go.” When I questioned her further about how this range of choice affects women today, Spar explained that although it marks significant progress for women, “all of this choice can create a fair amount of anguish.”
She went on to elucidate, “Life for women is better now, but it’s often more complicated. Women in the ‘50s knew what they could or couldn’t do. We’re in a danger zone right now. Women have been fed this bill of goods that everything’s easy. Women have to understand that. I think young women do have the confidence. Girls are dominating boys in high school. The ambition is there. That ambition is not yet realized when they reach their 30’s and 40’s, though. Part of this may be due to the fact that we’ve revamped high schools for girls.”
One of the major challenges still relevant to women today is the choice between work and family, which Spar characterizes as probably being “an eternal plague.” She went on to say, “I think there are certain biological realities we can’t deny. It changes women’s lives to have a baby. The motherhood thing is a big deal.”In fact, Spar focused on this topic when challenged to write a sample admissions essay for Barnard. “[Balancing parenting and work] remains harder for women. I have come to peace with it in my own life. Women need to be more thoughtful. Girls need to realize you can have it all, but it won’t always work out perfectly.”
Spar also weighed in on the feminist debate. “Girls today tend to see feminism as something very old. Some girls are very excited by it. Some just don’t see it as being relevant to their lives. Feminism doesn’t seem like their struggle, it seems like their grandmothers’. If something dramatic happens politically, I would imagine it would ignite some sort of struggle.
I grew up thinking the fight was over," she continued. "[Now I see] there is a whole range of issues out there. The ones I think I can have a say on are women’s leadership and women getting a higher education.”Finally, Spar explained why she loves her job: “No two days are the same. I am never bored.”Fiona Lowenstein is a high school junior, Girls Leadership Institute alumna and weekly guest blogger. Learn more about her work here.