Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change

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CROSSING THE BRIDGE

Reflections on Women and Leadership

Nannerl O. Keohane

At the reunion of the class of 1961 at Wellesley last June, I took advantage of the presence of dozens of talented women who had experienced the world before Betty Friedan's book, reached maturity during second-wave feminism in the 1970s, and lived through several decades of women's liberation and post-feminism. These women have been engaged in life as writers and artists, scientists and heads of foundations, volunteers in their communities, mothers and grandmothers, citizens and observers of the world around them.

Around the breakfast table in the dormitory, standing in the line for the clambake and the annual parade, I asked my classmates a simple question: “Do women ...