Women Leaders Confer 3 Days

Since women naturally manage a staff from the "center of a web" instead of "the top of a pyramid," they are effective leaders in today's increasingly democratic business world, a United Nations executive said yesterday at the Harvard-Radcliffe Women's Leadership Project Conference.

Sharon Capeling-Alakija, who directs the United Nations Development Fund for Women, said that female managers are more comfortable than their male counterparts in allowing staff members to make many of their own decisions.

Yesterday was the conference's third day, which was devoted to the topic of women's leadership across cultures. Conference members will convene today at Agassiz House to discuss women in the public sector, and will talk about women's health, women in science and campus issues during the last two days of the event.

Participating as panelists at yesterday's forum, Capeling-Alakija and three other women compared the status of females in different parts of the world and discussed their roles and styles as leaders. More than 50 people attended the discussion, held at Agassiz House.

Marjorie Agosin, an associate professor at Wellesley College, said that fewer professional women in Latin America than in the United States must complete a "double day"--a full day at the office followed by an evening of household responsibilities. That is because Latin American women have more help from extended family members and because domestic help is less expensive in Latin American countries, Agosin said.

The two other panelists yesterday were Joan French, who coordinates the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, and Aye Aye Thant, chair of Friends of Burma at Harvard.

Thant said Burmese women suffer at the hands of the repressive government there. Although the country's government imposes restrictions on both men and women, Thant said women bear the brunt of this repression.

French, comparing American women to Carribean women, cited a "psychological" advantage to living in the United States: a welfare "net". In Carribean countries, she said, welfare is not available, leaving many lowincome women as the sole providers for themselves and their children.

Also featured during yesterday's session were a stress-management workshop and a workshop on the impact of race and gender on leadership.