By Eileen McCluskey

In mid-January, 450 women attended the seventh annual conference of the Business School's Women's Student Association (WSA). The attendees -- students and others eager to seek out role models and to hear advice from established professionals in fields such as manufacturing, technology, and retailing -- gathered both to celebrate and to explore the routes taken by businesswomen who have shattered the glass ceiling.

This year's conference was cosponsored by the Committee of 200 (C200), a national organization of women business executives. A host of speakers, all prominent businesswomen and many of them Committee members, addressed subjects such as "Leaving Corporate America and Starting Your Own Business," "Going Global," and "Why Get an M.B.A.?" Throughout the day, students and accomplished businesswomen huddled. And by all accounts, it was time well spent.

"The businesswomen at the conference provided us with positive role models," notes Julia Clarkson, a WSA co-president.

Adds fellow co-president Sarah DiTroia, "It gave us

opportunities to build the old girl network."

The conference is the centerpiece event of the Women's Student Association, a 14-year-old organization whose mission is to help create a supportive environment for women at the Business School and to provide services that help them succeed here and beyond. The Association's 11 committees are co-chaired by women in the final two terms of the School's four-term M.B.A. program. These committees address such areas as academics, admissions, communications, external and internal affairs, and career development.

Ninety-eight percent of the School's female students (who number almost 500) are members of the WSA, as are 85 percent of the males. The Association enjoys such popularity among the men because its Academics Committee develops study notes and leads review sessions to help students prepare for mid-terms and finals.

Women students, however, are especially interested in opportunities offered by the annual conference and in other activities that allow them to rub elbows with and receive career guidance from women executives, and to glean on-campus support from female colleagues.

"The WSA puts women in roles of authority," says DiTroia, "through activities like leading the review sessions, organizing the conference, and acclimating new students to campus."

Admission, Classrooms, and Cases

Although 29 percent of the 883 members of the Business School's Class of '99 are women, the size of the female student population at business schools around the country is consistently smaller than at other professional schools. As such, it mirrors the corporate world, which is dominated by men and where women are still in the minority at the higher levels.

Both students and administrators at HBS would like to see those numbers rise.

To that end, the Business School, in partnership with the Women's Student Association, began an initiative last year to encourage more qualified women to apply.

"As a School that focuses on preparing the next generation of business leaders," says Dean Kim B. Clark, "we are committed to increasing the number of women students at HBS. With the help of our admissions office and organizations like the WSA, we are making every effort to attract to our program a larger applicant pool of outstanding female candidates."

Associate Director of M.B.A. Admissions Martha Achenbaum says one way to achieve this is to improve efforts to convince women about the value of the M.B.A. To address this concern, HBS has partnered with nine other business schools to conduct collaborative outreach panels consisting of presentations and discussions in key cities. "We talk about what an M.B.A. can do for a woman's career," she says.

Key among potential applicants' concerns are family matters. "Things aren't equal yet in terms of these obligations," notes Achenbaum. "It's hard for many women to devote two full-time years to an M.B.A. program without delaying marriage and children. For many, this makes for a difficult choice."

Also new is a referral program in which current students are asked to refer women colleagues who have outstanding leadership potential and managerial experience. These colleagues receive a card from HBS inviting them to apply. "But these applicants are given no special treatment," emphasizes Achenbaum. "This is just a way of reaching people who might not otherwise consider applying to Harvard."

Students Clarkson and DiTroia believe that having more women in the student body would in itself be an improvement. "As the number of women students at HBS increases," says DiTroia, "the dynamic will change."

A delegation from the Association began talking last year with the School's administration about some areas of concern, including a perceived lack of respect for women students shown by some of their male counterparts in the classroom.

In one of the steps being taken to improve the classroom environment, entering students are now exposed to the realities and subtleties of sexual harassment in business organizations and to the significantly strengthened community standards at HBS. This happens in an introductory portion of the required M.B.A. curriculum, called Foundations.

"As our graduates go out to lead organizations in the future, we hope this training will help them create positive work environments in their companies," says Professor Lynn Paine, who was instrumental in designing the Foundations sessions in her role as head of the course Leadership, Values, and Decision Making.

Also good news is the recent groundbreaking initiative between the School and the Committee of 200, which will generate cases and other teaching materials that highlight women business executives.

According to those involved, the new materials will help fill a need at Harvard (as well as the many other schools and organizations that use the products of its extensive course-development efforts) for more teaching tools that examine the role of female executives in the workplace.

"There is a dearth of case studies on women in business," says Marjorie Alfus, businesswoman, lawyer, and longtime member of the C200. (A generous grant from Alfus launched the case-writing initiative.) "It turned out that Harvard Business School was just as eager to get this under way as we were, and so it was the perfect marriage."

Glass Ceiling Conference

Jennifer Dowling Dougherty, an M.B.A. student and an organizer of last month's glass ceiling conference, says the speakers were "candid and personal. We got a lot of very specific career advice from them. The conference is probably the best thing I've gotten out of Harvard."

Committee of 200 members such as Judy Haberkorn, president of Public and Operator Services at Bell Atlantic; Diane Capstaff, executive vice president of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company; and Susan Willett Bird, president of the American Mediation Council, view the WSA conference as a forum for successful women to take students under their wing.

"The conference promotes frank and honest dialogue regarding the issues of our day -- whether they are technical or interpersonal," says Capstaff, who co-chaired the gathering.

Bird adds, "One thing that keeps women M.B.A. students highly motivated is having access to other women who can share their experiences from the real world. The conference was a great way to make that happen."

Haberkorn, the conference's other co-chair, agrees. "There was a sense of excitement among students at the conference," she says, "at being able to ask questions about the day-to-day stuff, like 'How did you raise three children and what role did your husband play?'"

Susan Adams, an HBS student who is keeping tabs on feedback from the event, reports that more than 92 percent of the attendees rated the conference as good to excellent.

"That's pretty compelling information," Adams says. "We're thrilled with this result."