Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration

Initiated by Barbara Rimbach and sponsored by Radcliffe College Archives, the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration Oral History Project includes interviews with sixty-five women who graduated from the program between 1942 and 1963. The program offered a one-year course in business management at Radcliffe College, taught by faculty from the Harvard Business School. Women were admitted in 1959 to the second year of the MBA program at Harvard Business School. The HRPBA was discontinued in 1963 when women were admitted to the full program at Harvard Business School.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Program was jointly sponsored by the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration and Radcliffe College and offered a one year program in business administration.

The Training Course in Personnel Administration, created in 1937, was one of several programs designed by Edith Stedman, of the Appointment Bureau, to prepare students for their careers. In 1944, the course was renamed the Management Training Program and expanded to provide management and business training. In 1955 it became the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration and offered a one-year course to women graduates taught and administered by the faculty of the Harvard Business School. This program was discontinued in 1963 when women were admitted to the Business School.

In its twenty-five year history the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration evolved from a small-scale course designed primarily to train college personnel administrators to a full-scale graduate business administration program. The program began as an eleven-month "Training Course in Personnel Administration," established in March 1937 under the auspices of the Appointment Bureau and the Radcliffe Graduate School. The Training Course was one of several programs, including the Publishing Procedures Course, which Edith Stedman, Director of the Appointment Bureau, devised during the Depression to prepare Radcliffe students for careers after graduation. The program began small- the first class had only five students- and grew slowly, although in the fall of 1939 the program acquired its own building, the house owned by the College at 69 Brattle Street, renamed the Elizabeth Cabot Putnam House after the first director of the Appointment Bureau. In the beginning the curriculum of the Training Course concentrated on preparation for work in education although it also included two periods of "field work," during which students worked even in factories. Field work remained an important feature of the program throughout its existence.

Edith Stedman was the first director as well as the founder of the program. She was replaced in 1941 by Anne Hood Harken, who presided over the program during a great change in both its scale and purpose. There was already a feeling that the program was not providing a "sufficiently broad training in the wider aspects of administration and organization." Such feelings were reinforced by the demands of war, which created "an unprecedented number of opportunities for women personnel officers in industry" and government. The war "dictated a major shift of emphasis in the program of the course," and a committee, on which the Harvard Business School was represented, was appointed in 1942 to evaluate the program in the light of these conditions. The Committee recommended that enrollment be enlarged and that the curriculum be revised to "emphasize preparation for work in industrial or governmental organizations, for the duration of the War." Both recommendations were accepted. The size of the class was doubled to thirty students, and the new curriculum included courses "concerned with the administrative problems of industry" taught by members of the faculty of the Harvard Business School which had previously been given only to men. These changes were reflected in the new name adopted by the program in 1944-45. The title "Management Training Program" was meant to "impress both the students and prospective employers with the value of our training for administrative positions outside of personnel or similar departments." At the same time the President and Council of the College authorized further expansion to a class of forty students.

In 1944 Harken was succeeded as Director by T. North Whitehead, who had played an important role in the founding of the program. Ragnhild Roberts became Associate Director, a position which she held until the demise of the program. The revision of the program enforced by the war was permanent, but in the post-war period the program experienced difficulties. By 1951 enrollment had seriously declined, and the finances of the program were threatened by mounting deficits, prompting President Jordan to appoint a committee to decide on the continued feasibility of the program. The committee, chaired by Margaret Earhart Smith, a trustee of the College, reported favorably, but the President and Council of the College voted to discontinue it. At this point the Harvard Business School intervened to save the program. An arrangement was worked out by which the Management Training Program became jointly administered by Radcliffe College and the Harvard Business School. The faculty of the Business School assumed direction of educational policy, and the Business School agreed to take over part of the financial burden of the program. The agreement formalized the already extensive role of the Business School in the program- the faculty of the Business School had always provided most of the instructors in the Management Training Program- and gave it a "guarantee of continuance." Despite the new relationship, because of "the ways of life open to women, their natural interests, together with cultural pressures and expectations," the program offered to women in the Management Training Program remained distinct from the two-year course offered to men in the Business School itself. A second change in the name of the program- it became the "Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration" in 1955-56- reflected the new status of the program and accompanied further changes under the administration of Dudley Meek, who replaced Whitehead in 1955 and continued as Director until his death in 1958. Meek established an Administrative Board and an Advisory Committee of educators and businessmen to oversee the program. Under his direction a faculty committee undertook a significant revision of the curriculum, which went into effect in 1956. The new curriculum was designed to be "broad in scope, stressing the over-all problems of business and administration." It retained the two periods of field work although two years later the fall field work was suspended experimentally. The differences between the Harvard Business School MBA program and the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration continued. The latter remained a one-year program and despite increasing demand did not result in the awarding of a degree.

Although there was some thought of further expansion in the late 1950's the prosperity of the program was only apparent. Enrollment was kept up only with difficulty, and the faculty of the Business School was becoming skeptical about the value of the program. This coincided with growing support for admission of women to the Business School itself, support shared by many members of the Business School faculty. In 1959 the faculty voted to admit to the second year of the MBA program qualified graduates of the HRPBA. Pressure for full admission increased, from among others, Mary I. Bunting, the new President of the College. In 1962 George P. Baker, Dean of the Business School, appointed a committee to report on the viability of the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration. The committee was directed only to consider the value of the program in itself and not in the light of the prospect of full admission of women to the Business School, but its decision could not help being influenced by this possibility. In the end the committee recommended that the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration be discontinued, a recommendation that met with little opposition. The faculty of the business School accepted the committee's recommendation in December 1962. At the same time it voted to accept women to the full MBA program. The Radcliffe College Council also voted to discontinue the program, "not relishing spending time and money to attract reluctant students to study under professors who had little further interest in a program especially tailored to women's needs and who were prepared to open all regular courses to them."

The Harvard-Radcliffe Program of Business Administration, founded in 1937 as the Training Course in Personnel Administration, continued to offer a one year program in management at Radcliffe taught by Harvard Business School professors until 1963. Alumnae of the program hold frequent reunions and publish a newsletter based on detailed class questionnaires. For more detailed history of the program, see RG XIXA.

The Harvard Radcliffe Program in Business Administration was a graduate management program offered at Radcliffe College, 1937-1963, taught by Harvard Business School professors.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration was instituted in 1954 and jointly sponsored by the Harvard Business School and Radcliffe College. A one-year program for women, focussing on personnel administration in its early days, it was an outgrowth of the Radcliffe Management Training Program established in 1937. The program was discontinued in 1963 when women were admitted to the full program at Harvard Business School.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration was instituted in 1954 and jointly sponsored by the Harvard Business School and Radcliffe College. A one-year program for women, focussing on personnel administration in its early days, it was an outgrowth of the Radcliffe Management Training Program established in 1937. The program was discontinued in 1963 when women were admitted to the full program at Harvard Business School.