Focus: Illuminating Science the Last 375 Years Women in Science at Harvard

nor immediate. Radcliffe College was not founded until 1879, 243 years into Harvard’s existence; it was was established as the “Harvard Annex” where women could be educated by Harvard faculty. Women were not allowed to attend Harvard classes with men until 1943. This separation of genders continued until 1977, when Harvard and Radcliffe signed a formal agreement to merge the two institutions, but the full execution of the agreement did not take effect until twelve years ago, in 1999 (1). Despite the slow process by which women were fully integrated into the Harvard community, once the merge was complete, women quickly made