Non Humi/is Mu/i'er Triumpho

Gaudete, vos feminae antiquae! O vos fortissimae invictaeque--Susania Antony, Elizabetha Cady Stanton, Elizabetha Blackwell, nostra Elizabetha Agassiz--quae pro suffragio, pro dignitate muliebri, pro educatione puellarum et doctrina quae pueris foret aequa fortissime contendistis. In universitate Harvardiana, in patria, in orbeterrarum, status feminarum plerumque inferior dudum habetur. Mulieres se contemnere didicerunt. Copiae et honores et titulihominibus dati tamen feminis sunt negati . . . Arma nondum licet deponere, meae sorores, nee proeliurn tarn Ion-gum tamque difficile nobis est relin-quendum. Ubique flagrat iniqua virorum dominatio.

Woman Suffragist Susan B. Anthony might have put it differently, but she would certainly have endorsed the message:

"Rejoice, O women of old! O brave and unconquered--Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elizabeth Blackwell, our Elizabeth Agassiz--who struggled courageously for suffrage, for womanly dignity, for an education and training for girls which would be equal to that of boys. At Harvard University, in America, in the world, woman's position is widely recognized to be inferior. Women have learned to despise themselves. Resources, opportunities and honors available to men are denied to women . . . Not yet can we lay down our weapons, my sisters, nor must we abandon so long and difficult a battle. Everywhere an iniquitous male supremacy is rampant."

Miss Anthony would also have appreciated the occasion. For the first time in Harvard's history, the graduates of its distaff campus, Radcliffe, received their diplomas along with the men. And also for the first time, the traditional commencement address in Latin was delivered by a classical scholar in a skirt. Radcliffe's Kirsten Mishkin, 21, a magna cum laude graduate, borrowed a quote from Horace to take this signal honor in stride: "non humilis mulier triumpho" (a woman not humble in triumph).

After her salute to Miss Anthony and the other precursors of Women's Lib, Graduate Mishkin staked out some ground of her very own. It was a very feminine declaration, all in impeccable Latin, that today's woman does not necessarily want to be man's superior, but simply his peer: "Together, let us establish a new society, the foundations of which will be ... not fear, but good will; not war between the sexes, but loyal brotherhood and sisterly love." Whether or not Harvard's graduating males got the message, they gave Classicist Mishkin an enthusiastic hand.

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