Rosalind Chait Barnett receives HGSE’s Anne Roe Award

Rosalind Chait Barnett, director of the Community, Families & Work Program at Brandeis University, received the 2008 Anne Roe Award from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) on Nov. 17. The biennial award was established in 1979 to honor Anne Roe, the first woman tenured at Harvard in, 1963, and also a leading researcher on career development and women.

In presenting the award to Barnett, HGSE Dean Kathleen McCartney said, “Rosalind Barnett has played an extraordinary role in dispelling conventional ‘wisdoms’ about the capability and capacity of girls and women. Her rigorous research has challenged some of our culture’s most entrenched and harmful gender stereotypes.”

Barnett’s lecture, titled “Women’s Journey Toward Equality: Where We Are and the Path Ahead,” focused on how traditional gender roles are relaxing.

“Women’s lives today are dramatically different [from] those of their mothers and grandmothers,” Barnett said. “Women are making choices that will prepare them for longer lives, significant labor force participation with marriage and children, knowing that they are contributing to their own economic well-being, getting more education, and proving themselves in well-paying employment.”

Barnett has published numerous articles and seven books, including the “Same Difference: How Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs,” (Basic Books, 2005) co-authored with Caryl Rivers. Additionally, Barnett is currently collaborating with the Harvard School of Public Health, and Catalyst and Work/Family Directions on various research projects.