No Fear at Radcliffe

A year ago there were 400 candidates (all women) to succeed Mary I. Bunting as president of Radcliffe; last week the search narrowed down to one, Matina Souretis Homer, 32, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Harvard. Her speciality is particularly germane to the presidential job. She is an authority on feminine achievement --or the lack thereof--and she has long speculated that women in American society have a "fear of success."

Not Mrs. Horner, however. Daughter of a Greek professor stranded in the U.S. by the outbreak of World War II, she was born in Roxbury, Mass., and neighbors recall that even when she was a kindergartner, she used to drill local youngsters in spelling and arithmetic. She won an A.B. in psychology from Bryn Mawr, where she met her husband, Dr. Joseph L. Horner, who was studying for an M.S. and is now a research physicist in Cambridge for the U.S. Department of Transportation. They have three children, born while both Homers were getting doctorates at the University of Michigan, and absolutely no problems about job conflicts. "Our careers just happened to mesh," says Horner. "I love woodworking and she loves cooking, so there's never any hassle about things around the house."

In 1969, Mrs. Horner ran representative groups of Radcliffe students through a Thematic Apperception Test; she discovered that more than 75% "showed evidence of high fear of success." Dr. Horner noted a particular significance in this: Radcliffe students "are chosen primarily because of their high ability, achievement, motivation and previous success." She found that many students arrived at Radcliffe with hopes for a career but then "changed their plans toward a less ambitious, more traditionally feminine direction."

Although Mrs. Horner has not yet worked out a program for her presidency, which begins July 1, Cliffies who take that "traditionally feminine" route will face some searching questions. But not pressures. "The college is my concern," Mrs. Horner said after her appointment, "not my laboratory."

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