Welcome to our 15th issuel.
What She Wants, has open meetings, and any woman'
jinterested in feminist newspaper work is welcome to attend. The response to our paper has been exciting and we really need to have more women working on fit. All of us in the WSW collective have other jobs for yo to school, and we put the paper out on our own time Not only do we need writers and people to [help layout the paper, we need people to sell the peper. We usually meet on Saturday afternoons. Call usat 321 1677 or write P.O. Box 18072 Clove. Hts. 44118.
STAFF
Laurel Brúmmet, S. J. Caldwell, Laurie Campbelt, dania Darrah, Marian Dorn, Pat Flanagan, Linda Freeman Barbara Geiser, Kathy Groenberg, Nancy Handley, Sandy Handley, Hita Hawkins, Meredith Holmes, Gail Hopkins, Shure Pawski, Barb Reusch, Valgrio Hobinson, Linda Rothacker, Karal Stern, Mary Waxman, „Jackie Wessel, Helen Williams, Melanie Youngs.
This publication is on file at the International Women's [History Archive, 2325 Oak St., Berkeley, Ca. 95708
THE
wha
RISE
Per rein trid sübena,
Women and the "BOOB TUBE"
This is a major conclusion from the monthlong study of television news programs and (commercials, conducted by Sacramentó Branch, American Association of University Women.
Results of this study made these other .points:
Television news programs generally project two stereotyped images of women: helpless victims of kidnaps, rapes, murders and natu ral disasters...or as opinionless, supportive wives and others.
Even more serious than stereotyping is the virtual ormission of women from television news. Out of 5,353 straight news stories monitored on 221%1⁄2 hours of programing, less than 10% (523) were about women. Amony 1,668 news features, only 273 dealt with womeri.
One monitor commented, "After watching televison news for a while, you get the feel ing that women just don't exist."
Television commercials exhibit far more offensive sexist bias than news programs. With few exceptions, women were stereotyped as half-witted consumers, interested
and
DEMISE
of the SECRETARY
only in cooking, cleaning, washing and serving men and children...or as self-centered sex objects eager to please men by using sprays, bath oils, hair tints, hosiery, cosmetics, creams and powders,
The survey, called The Image of Women in Television, was conducted during April. It involved 51 monitors, all Sacramento AAUW members, who were assigned to every news program, every day, on the three Sacramento stations with network affiliations: Channels 3 (KCRA TV) NBC; 10 (KXTV) CBS; and 13 (KOVR TV) ABC. At least one monitor was at work by 5:55 am, watching Channel 13's "Morning Headlines." Others were assigned programs throughout the day and evening, until the night-owl watch on 11 p.m. and midnight
news summaries,
The monitors recorded their findings on standardized forms, using committee defined criteria for what constituted sexist bias. They made notes on their conclusions, filled out sheets for every program monitored, and then sent their results to a committed which compiled totals and wrote a final report.
"We had three goals in mind," says Betty Wisham, Chairwoman for the AAUW Media Study Topic which guided the project.
The following article is a condensation of the chapter "The Rise of the Secretary" in The Secretarial Ghetto by Mary Kathleen Barat whose book was reviewed in the August issue of WSW
The first offices were few and limited to a small staff of male clerks who, unless they were sons of the owners, did the one ledger bookkeeping, letter-writing and other step and fetching with one company all their lives. In a systern where unchaperoned work for ladies was unheard of, there was no room for the Victorian "clinging vine" attempting to charm her way into marriage. Because there was no consolidated child care effort, their lower class married sisters depended on taking in lodgers, sewing, laundry or eventually factory piecework, whatever they could do in their homes. Spinsters were doomed to be domestic ser vants or governesses, whichever was consis tent with their class and education, to res pectably warn their keep. Commensurate with the rise of eastern retail trade, indus trialization and standards of equal education, opportunities as shop girls, factory workers and teachers became available to single women who increased in numbers as the men migrated westward,
Office positions proliferated with the paperwork created by imperial expansion, opening wide the labor market. Women of the literate classes were particulary welcomed page 8/What She Wants/September 1974
cpf
because of their dexterity, patience and doc ility. However, in order not to alarm the office men, "the whole structure of office work was adjusted to give them [the women] only the routine and subservient functions... freeing them (the men] for higher things." Technology of the late 1800's created the telegraph, telephone and typewriter (soon the percolator), which are still practically female monopolies, ensuring clerical jobs for women.
By 1900, one-third of all office workers were women, and the "independent working girl" had become "a recognized female type."
(cont, on pg. 10)
"First, we wanted to make our members more aware of television's impact on the image of women. Second, we plan to present any findings of bias to the local stations, their networks and to the Federal CommuniIcations Commission which licenses all stations.
"And finally, we hope to lay the groundwork for similar studies in other cities by publishing the study. We believe that the image of women as projected in television bears little relationship to the realities of women in today's world. We feel this can and must be changed."
Copies of The Image of Women in Television study are available through Carolyn Flatt, 27 Greenway Circle, Sacramento, CA 95831 (428-7907), for $1.00 or $1.50 for mailing.
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