BOOS, BRAVOS AND TIDBITS

BRAVO to Cleveland's own I.F. Stone, Roldo Bartimole, sole author, editor and publisher of the muckraking journal, Point of View. Roldo is celebrating 10 years of muckraking (he has buttons which celebrate the fact). He has kept a close watch on Cleveland's most powerful institutions. Some of his favorite targets are United Torch, CE1, The Plain Dealer, The Cleveland Police Department, City Council, The Press, George Forbes, the Board of Education, and Ralph Perk. The information that Roldo digs up and prints reminds us that the best things in life are not here and explains why. If you read Point of View you are enlightened about the profit and power motives of most of the people who control the quality of life in Cleveland. Rolao gives us examples of why it is not our Daisy Sale, or our Christmas Angel store, Reddi Kilowatt does not work for us, Ohio's largest newspaper is not necessarily its best, Uncle Bill's is not for the Deople, we may not want to have the eyewitness news team in for the news, and that McDonald's does not do it all for you.

BRAVO to Marguerite Beck-Rex who has been commuting between Washington, D.C., where she has a job with the Women's Equity Action League, and Cleveland Heights, where she has a family. She was told by a D.C. physician that she had uterine cancer. and would have to have radium implants and shortly thereafter, a hysterectomy. (She compares this approach to the defoliation of Viet Nam.) Very leery of the side effects of the painful procedure of radium implants, she demanded time to get at least one other opinion. She did not let herself be railroaded by one doc. tor's diagnosis or by the widely shared panic about cancer. In order to get information and time for other opinions, she had to be very assertive and insistent both at Kaiser and at St. Luke's Hospital. "This was not time to be nice," she said. "My life was at stake." It turned out that she did not in fact have cancer, but a condition in the lining of the uterus which, in a large percentage of cases, develops into cancer. Ms. Beck-Rex has had the hysterectomy, but has avoided the radium treatment, the benefits of which, even if she had had car.cer, would have been questionable. Bravo to MBR for her courage at a difficult time to demand that the doctor listen to the patient.

BOO: In contrast to the above, a Plaku Dealer article indicates that almost 9 out of 10 trustees at state higher education institutions are males, even though Ohio's adult population is only 47% male.

Herstory

People's History

June 1, 1905

Polish spool women in Chicopee, Massachusetts strike against speed-ups and resist Central Labor Union mediation by conducting their own negotiations through an interpreter,

and win!

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By the Bionic Bitches

BRAVO to Rep. Barbara Jordan, D.Tex., who has acepted an invitation to join the Board of Directors of the Mead Corporation. She agreed to join Mead because they are "on the cutting edge" of positive corporate citizen activities. She said, "They relate management policies to problems as they are defined by the community, soliciting from workers their ideas and their judgments about management actions." If more corporations followed suit and included the Barbara Jordans of the world on their boards, corporations might move toward being both humane and moral. Rep. Jordan will not be seeking re-election.

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BRAVO to Judith Resnik who will be one of the first women in space. Ms. Resnik was in Cleveland to participate in a CWRU workshop for women in engineering and science. She has a Ph.D. in biomedical electronic engineering and gave the following advice to women students: Persevere.

BOO to the editor of the Ohio Motorist, the official magazine of the Cleveland Automobile Club, who replied to a woman's complaint concerning a joke about wife-beating in their humor column as follows: "Our Humor Editor claims he is not antifeminine, insisting that in private life he places women on pedestals -although they keep falling off." This magazine is noted for its sexist humor and use of "bathing beauty" pictures to advertise resort trips. Its callous response to women members complaining about its sexism and perpetuation of violence against women makes it a likely candidate for this month's red paint brigade, as far as the Bitches are concerned.

BOO to Fanny Farmer Candies for the sign prominently displayed in the window of their store in Parmatown Mall: "It's National Secretaries Week, your secretary is worth her weight in chocolate."

BOO: To the Dream Whip commercial which equates womanhood with motherhood and perpetuates sexist roles. You've probably seen the commercial on TV -mother and daughter (of 6 or 7) are in the kitchen preparing a dessert using Dream Whip and the mother makes a statement repeated by the daughter: "Only the best for my family too."

(Thanks to Daria Hlebak)

People's History June 29, 1905 INDUSTRIAL WORKERS of the WORLD

born to "abolish the wage system: Mother Jones, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Lucy Parsons, Eugene v. Debs and Bill Haywood are founding members.

zoo story

Ellen Leach's story is one of patience and persistance. She recognized when she had encountered job discrimination, went to three different sources to legally fight for her rights, and did not stop fighting although she got the job she wanted. It was neces sary to continue the case to establish the right of any woman to hold the job, not just a particular, well-qualified woman.

The bare facts of my case are that when I applied for a zookeeper position at the Cleveland Zoo in 1973 there was not and never had been a woman keeper employed there. I filed complaints with EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission) and OCRC (Ohio Civil Rights Commission), both of which handle sex discrimination complaints. There was one woman hired following the OCRC investigation in 1975 and one woman (me) hired following the EEOC investigation in 1976. That was and is the extent of female keeper hirings.

This state of affairs along with the following reasons prompted me to pursue the issue of back pay in court: (1) my uncomfortableness with the Zoo's position toward women taken during the two investigations; (2) the Zoo's attitude toward me and other women after I was employed; (3) my financial loss between the time I had applied at the Zoo and when I was hired; and (4) money carries weight. Large organizations tend to ignore problems until they start costing them money. In this case, besides being liable for my pay loss, there was the possibility the employer could lose federal funding it `received.

Some of the obstacles that may be encountered when a woman has been denied a job because of sex and wishes to pursue the matter are:

Lack of confidence at time of job denial. Take a cold, hard look at the reasons given. The reasons may sound "legal," but today I think there are no legal reasons for not hiring women. Lack of aesthetics or danger are not valid rasons either. Traditionalists would say shoveling manure is not a "woman's job." What about changing diapers? Cleaning up after animals in a kennel or animal hospital, where the pay is usually low, is considered a woman's position. A dangerous job? So is driving a car or having babies. Delivering guard dogs trained to maim and/or kill is dangerous, but again, a lowpaying job -woman preferred. It is not the employer's job to protect "the girls" any more than the men, or to decide for women that they can't face danger.

The issue in animal work seems to be wage. A high percentage of women work in lower-paying animal jobs. In fact, women are often preferred in these jobs. But all the reasons given suddenly are, invalid when applied to higher-paying jobs.

If it is claimed that heavy work is involved, check the physical condition of the men on the job. Are there men who are small, overweight, aged or just plain flabby? Women haul groceries, laundry and little kids around. A woman in reasonable shape can usually do the work. Employers cannot decide that fact for a woman applicant, especially if they've never seen her. Many women don't even see the interviewer on "men's jobs." I'm still trying to figure out what a man does differently in "handling a large animal" -pick it up and carry it around?

Waiting. Not only do investigations and legal proceedings take time, but delay is often a conscious tactic. Women have more to lose by giving up than by waiting. I waited four years, but I have the job I wanted and a $10,000 settlement. Giving up reinforces the "if you ignore her, she'll go away' idea.

Losing confidence. After hearing the other side very politely deny statements ("There must be some misunderstanding" is a favorite), one wonders if she really does remember the facts correctly. Write events down as soon as possible after they happen If names, dates and times can be recorded, that's (continued on page 7) What She Wants/June: 1978/page 3