What She Wants is...

a monthly news journal produced for all women. There is no subject unsuitable for our readers and therefore you will find articles on every topic from poetry to politics in each issue. .. equal rights and civil rights

the right to decent health care and health information

the right to control our bodies

the right to support ourselves and our families

the right to oppose war

the right to organize in unions and coalitions to advance our cause

the right to excellence in education and freedom from prejudice in learning materials

... the right to accept or to reject motherhood

We are...

Laurel Brummet, S. J. Caldwell, Laurie Campbell, Jane Darrah, Marian Dorn, Pat Flanagan, Linda Freeman, Kathy Greenberg, Nancy Handley, Sandy Handley, Rita Hawkins, Barbara Holden, Meredith Holmes, Gail Hopkins, Gaila Klimas, Sheri Pawski, Barb Reusch, Valerie Robinson, Linda Rothacker, Karal Stern, Mary Waxman, Jackie Wessel, Helen Williams

What She Wants has open meetings, and any women interested in feminist newspaper work are welcome to attend. The response to our paper has been exciting and we really need to have more people working on it. All of us in the WSW collective have other jobs or go to school, and we put the paper out on our own time. Not only do we need writers and people to sell the paper, we need people to write us letters and give us feedback. We usually meet on Saturday afternoons. Write to us at

P.O. Box 18072

Cleveland Heights, OH 44118

"Mother, what is a Feminist?” "A Feminist, my daughter,

Is any woman now who cares

To think about her own affairs

As men don't think she oughter."

-

Alice "Deer Miller, 1015

n.o.w. protests sex discrimination at sears

On Saturday, December 14,1974, Sears, Roebuck & Co., the largest retail corporation in America was nationally protested by members of the National Organization for Women. The basis of this move by NOW was due to discrimination on the part of many Sears stores

DONT

toward the hiring of women, promotions granted to men but systematically denied to women, and the fact that women are kept in low paying jobs. These practices violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VII, and are punishable by law when proven.

Companies that do business with the federal government like Sears are required to write affirmative action plans. These plans that include breakdowns of the kinds of jobs women currently hold, are public information filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, Sears refuses to make their affirmative action plan public.

Sears argues that 'the disclosure and publication of sensitive minority and female statistics.. could.. precipitate unwarrented civil rights litigation,... and subject Sears the unjustified opprobrium of the public and its employees upon whom its success as a business enterprise is fundamentally dependent.'

Of the 395,000 persons hired by Sears, the majority are low paid women and minorities. These people are paid by the hour, rather than salaried as are most of the men. The high commission merchandise is sold mainly by men while low commission items are sold mainly by women. As to the hiring of women, the personnel department has refused to tell some women their job classifications, so that they have no clear understanding of what other job classifications are open. Almost every woman job applicant is required to take a typing test, while almost all male applicants are tested for managerial abilities. Some female secretaries and some male executive assistants do the same work and do not get equal pay.

While leafletting the Great Lakes Mall divison of Sears in Mentor, Ohio, our LakeGeauga County Chapter of NOW had a chance to get the people's reaction to our campaign against Sears' sexist practices. One man came up and embraced me and expressed his appreciation of our work in this area. He claimed that he had completed his education at Cleveland State University with the idea of working in an executive capacity at Sears. Once at this job, however, he became so disillusioned with the company's refusal to hire women in key positions, that he quit his job. He

I'm just terribly sorry, Miss, but we just don't have a policy of hiring women in those positions. They're just always getting pregnant, or married or their husband has to move out of town or their kids get sick or they find a better job or they can't Lift heay thing and besides, we only have one shower room... but of course we always have openings in filing.

[PERSONNELII

said that he saw examples of women who were systematically turned down with no apparent reason for doing so other than the obvious one of sex. Of course, we got our share of bad responses, too, but examples such as this outweighed the bad by far and tended to reinforce our purpose in part icipating in the protest.

My nine year old daughter, Erika, helped to pass out the 'SEARS DISCRIMINATES AGAINST WOMEN' balloons and got a first-hand look at what employment practices may be like for her some day unless people care enough to protest and take part in changing these offenses against women.

page 2/What She Wants/February, 1975