Panel held of U.'s female leaders

Although the University of Pennsylvania has been in existence since 1740, the six women present last night in the rooftop lounge of Harnwell College House are young enough to be part of the many "firsts" in the University's two and a half century history. Last night, the Women In Leadership Series -- which provides a forum for women in high-ranking, typically male-dominated fields to share their experiences with younger generations -- brought together six women with varied accomplishments for "The Penn Firsts Dinner and Discussion." Participants on the panel of Penn stalwarts were Lila Gleitman, Farah Griffin, Ruzena Bajcsy, Renata Holod, Phoebe Leboy and Rosemary Stevens. The six women are all "firsts" in their achievements in Penn academics, whether as the first female dean of the School of Arts and Sciences -- as Stevens was -- or as the first department chair in the School of Engineering, like Bajcsy. "One of the downfalls of being the first is that for a very long time, you are the only," Leboy said of her experience as the first female professor in Penn's Dental School. "Eventually the women and I became activists and developed a women's network across campus," Leboy said. Griffin, the first African-American woman to receive tenure in the English Department, pointed out to the audience of about 90 students -- almost all of whom were female -- that there remains much work to be done in gender equality. "It is hard to believe that in the 21st century, there is still a first women anything -- that's not something I really celebrate too much," said Griffin, who is currently the undergraduate chairwoman of the department. The question-and-answer period that followed the individual lectures allowed the audience to seek advice from the six women. College senior Mollie Gordon , who said she changed her major to English because of Griffin, shared an experience in which an interviewer for a medical school asked her sexist questions that did not relate to the interview. Later in the discussion, Leboy related a personal experience from her youth in which two graduate schools used her gender against her -- one by rejecting her because of her gender and another by refusing to even give her an application. "It is important to remember that downplaying feminism to make it in a male-dominated world is not being true to ourselves no matter what," Leboy said. Following the formal discourse, the audience and panelists engaged in an interactive dinner and discussed the issues raised by the panelists. "Some terrific questions were raised and need to be followed up," Stevens said. "There is a continued need to keep bringing faculty together with female, male students." The WILS, founded in 1997, has previously brought New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman and Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America, to campus.