Company Profile
Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Company Overview
The Harvard Radcliffe Institute is dedicated to creating and sharing transformative ideas across the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The Fellowship Program annually supports the work of 50 leading artists and scholars. The Schlesinger Library documents the lives of American women of the past and present for the future, furthering the Institute’s commitment to women, gender, and society. Our strategic plan, Radcliffe Engaged, articulates our goals through 2024.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with applicable federal and state laws and local ordinances, we do not discriminate in the terms and conditions of employment of employee or applicants based on race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious creed, age, national origin, ancestry, veteran status, disability unrelated to job requirements, genetic information, or any other legally prohibited basis.
Learn more about our people and programs at www.radcliffe.harvard.edu.
Company History
Radcliffe: From College to Institute
Responding to calls for equal educational opportunities for women, Harvard President Charles Eliot warned in his 1869 inaugural address that the world “knew next to nothing about the natural mental capacities of the female sex.” In keeping with this belief, he rebuffed attempts to allow women to access a Harvard education. Undeterred, in 1879 a group of reformers founded the Harvard Annex, where women could receive instruction from Harvard faculty. The Annex was soon incorporated as the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women under the leadership of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (1822-1907).
A decade later, the Harvard Annex had grown to include more than 200 students and, in 1894, it was chartered as Radcliffe College, with Agassiz as its first president. From the beginning, degrees were countersigned by the Harvard president to attest that they were, in Eliot’s words and despite his reservations, “equivalent in all respects to the degrees given to the graduates of Harvard College.”
Some 60 years later, women still faced barriers to educational opportunity. Radcliffe’s fifth president, Mary Ingraham Bunting, a noted microbiologist and educator, gained national prominence soon after joining Radcliffe, when she was featured on the front of Time Magazine. The cover article reported an intellectual crisis underway: “The proportion of girls in college has slipped from 47% in 1920 (a vintage feminist year) to 37% now. Only a little more than half of all college girls get a bachelor's degree. For every 300 women capable of earning a doctorate degree, only one does.” Bunting was among those leaders concerned by what they were witnessing. She memorably remarked, “Adults ask little boys what they want to do when they grow up. They ask little girls where they got that pretty dress.” (Time, Nov 3, 1961).
“Adults ask little boys what they want to do when they grow up. They ask little girls where they got that pretty dress.”
In order to combat the pervasive “climate of unexpectation” that was undermining the intellectual and creative lives of women, Bunting founded the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study in 1960. So the seed of today’s Harvard Radcliffe Institute was planted. She designed a fellowship program to provide time, financial support, community, access to the University’s resources, and “a room of one's own” to woman scholars and artists.
The Institute for Independent Study and Radcliffe College coexisted until 1999, when Radcliffe College and Harvard officially merged, and today's Radcliffe Institute was formally established. The founding dean of the Institute was Drew Gilpin Faust, who led Radcliffe from 2001 until 2007, when she was selected as the first woman to serve as president of Harvard University.
The Institute’s work continues to be shaped by this history. Radcliffe’s defining commitment to women and the study of gender endures in the Institute’s programs and the world-class collections of its Schlesinger Library. But the legacy of Radcliffe College is not simply coeducation at Harvard; it is the recognition that universities will always be greater when they draw wisdom and talent from the widest possible pool. This principle has guided Radcliffe’s work for nearly a century and a half.
Benefits
Harvard University provides comprehensive benefits that support the health of you and your family, protect your income in the case of illness or unforeseen circumstances, and help you build long-term financial security for retirement. With our many options, you can find the coverage and support that meet your needs at all stages of your working life and beyond.
Eligibility and Enrollment
Health & Welfare Benefits
To be eligible for Harvard's health & welfare benefits, you must be employed on a regular University payroll, and working at least 17.5 hours per week or paid at a base annual rate of at least $15,000.
The following dependents are eligible for Harvard’s medical, dental and vision care plans under family coverage (the employee must be enrolled in the same plan):
spouse or domestic partner;
eligible children up to age 26, including children by birth, adoption, foster placement, marriage/domestic partnership, or legal guardianship;
children of any age who are incapable of self-support due to disability (must have become disabled before age 26 and have been continuously covered).
Retirement Benefits
If you are eligible, you will be automatically enrolled in a 100% Harvard-paid retirement plan after a waiting period of six months to one year (depending on plan).
You can also enroll in a voluntary tax-deferred retirement savings account (TDA) at any time to supplement your retirement savings and build your retirement security. New faculty and non-union staff members are automatically enrolled in a TDA after 60 days of employment (with the option to cancel or change enrollment).