Career and Kids Compatible, Says Researcher - Wife

Motherhood enriches rather than handicaps the educated woman who wants to contribute to society, Dr. Catherine Bateson '60, instructor in Middle Eastern Studies, told Radcliffe girls in a discussion of the role of the educated woman last night in Cabot Hall.

Dr. Bateson, who has combined for herself the roles of daughter of Margaret Mead, wife, researcher, and teacher, led the first of five discussions sponsored by the Episcopal Chaplaincy.

Unlike some other commentators on modern woman, Dr. Bateson defines and accepts gratefully a distinct and creative role for women. A woman's latitude of freedom is wider than a man's, she feels, because a woman can have a career or not, while society forces all men to work.

"Our bodies give us a standard of creativity, an alternative and basis for rejecting trivial work," Dr. Bateson said. That the fact that a woman must choose the herself from several meaningful alternatives forces her to the painful rejection of desirable identities which cannot all be fulfilled.

Freedom of decision gives women a different viewpoint on questions of the obligation versus the privilege of work.

Bateson feels that these considerations could lead women to make major contributions toward solving current social problems.

Dr. Bateson emphasized that each woman must define her own role. "It is not what the man-world will let us do, but what we can meaningfully do best that's important, she said.