Trial Set for Abortion Clinic Arson

(Her Say)-The District Attorney's office in Minneola, New York, reports that charges will not be filed against a suspect in the burning of a Hempstead, Long Island, abortion clinic'until a psychiatric evaluation of the man has been submitted. 25-yearold Peter Burkin, charged with arson and possibly attempted murder, will be the first man to stand trial in the United States for the burnings and invasions of more than 18 clinics across the country over the last 18 months.

Burkin was arrested February 15 after the Bill Baird Clinic in Hempstead was burned to the ground. Burkin sustained minor burn injuries after he reportedly menaced 50 patients and staff me.nbers by throwing gasoline throughout the clinic and then torching it.

Bill Baird, the clinic's founder, charged that the arsonist had planned to hold them hostage, to call a press conference and then during the conference to burn the building down with 50 people inside. If Baird's charges are proven valid, Burkin could be WHITE HOUSE FOR ERA?

(Her Say)-The Carter Administration has created a special high-level task force at the White House to seek ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The task force was created at the recommendation of the National Advisory Committee for Women in order to increase the level of White House involvement in the ratification campaign.

Oddly enough, the task force has only one woman, Esther Peterson, a consumer adviser. The other members of the special ERA group are Tim Kraft, a political aide, Phil Wise, an appointments secretary, Landon Butler, a deputy to top aid Hamilton Jordan, and Nelson Cruikshank, an adviser on issues affecting the elderly.

charged with attempted murder, as well as arson.

Burkin was allegedly recognized by staff members at the clinic as a regular anti-abortion demonstrator. However, anti-abortion groups in Hempstead have denied they have ever seen or worked with him before.

BELLA ABZUG JOINS MS

(Her Say)-Feminist leader and former New York Congressperson Bella Abzug has signed on as Ms. Magazine's first regular columnist. In the May issue, Abzug says she plans to write about the response generated by the "Friday Afternoon Massacre"-her dismissal by Jimmy Carter as co-chair of the President's National Advisory Committee for Women.

SEXISM AND COMPUTERS

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(HerSay) The trade publication Computerworld says that male data processing employees can expect to be promoted to a management position almost three years earlier than their female co-workers.

Computerworld says that a survey it conducted found that men who started in the same position at the same time as women worked an average of 5.5 years before becoming managers, while women worked 8.4 years before attaining an administrative position.

The survey examined hiring and promotion practices, equality in pay, attitudinal discrimination and career pathing differences between women and men.

The publication said that most of the women believe sexual discrimination is a problem for women in data processing. A directory which listed several thousand computer executives seemed to bear that out. It contained the names of fewer than 10 women managers.

NESTLE'S LOOKS ON AS BABY DIES

(Her Say)—Mother Jones magazine reports that in 1975 two Nestle Company representatives actually witnessed the death of an infant who had been fed almost exclusively on lactogen, a Nestle milk preparation.

The magazine states that Dr. Elizabeth Hillman of the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi was ap-

EATON WINS A ROUND.

(Her Say)-The Iowa Civil Rights Commission says that Iowa City officials should not have refused firefighter Linda Eaton the right to nurse her infant son during on-duty hours. The Iowa City fire chief had suspended Eaton, saying there could be no "regularly scheduled family visits." After a court voided her suspension, her son continued to visit her at the station twice a day. The case could go back to the courts if the city and the Civil Rights Commission can't work out a settlement.

YES ON ERA BOYCOTT

(Her Say)-A federal judge recently upheld the right of the National Organization for Women to use a convention boycott as a tool against states that have not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. U.S. District Judge Elmo Hunter said the case was a legitimate political venture involving "political opponents, not commercial competitors." His ruling came 51 weeks after Missouri Attorney General John Ashcroft filed a suit charging that NOW's convention boycott tactics, which have reportedly cost states millions of dollars in convention losses, violated the Sherman Antitrust Act.

UPDATE

proached by the two Nestle officials and asked to support the contention that lactogen does not harm babies. Hillman told the men that there was a child in the hospital emergency ward who was very near death because the mother was bottle-feeding with lactogen. She asked the men if they would like to see the child, and as soon as they entered the emergency ward with Dr. Hillman, the baby collapsed and died, despite repeated efforts at resuscitation by doctors.

The magazine says that the two Nestle's officials were visibly shaken after witnessing the death. Before they left the ward, Mother Jones says, they saw the dead child's mother turn away from her lifeless infant and put a can of Nestle's milk, which she had been feeding the baby, back in her bag to take home with her.

CHICAGO IN SAN FRAN

(Her Say)-Judy Chicago's exhibition, "The Dinner Party," premieres this month at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before traveling on to Seattle and Rochester, New York. Described as a "multi-media project of herculean proportions" which required five years' work, The Dinner Party merges elaborate needlework,.china painting and innovative ceramic techniques, telling the story of women's herstory throughout Western civilization.

Chicago says the exhibition specifically recognizes women who were lost, hidden and deliberately left out of history texts. She says she chose the metaphor of a dinner party because it is a symbol to which women can relate: "Women have spent a lot of time providing nourishment."

Chicago hopes the exhibit will find a permanent resting place at the Smithsonian.

BITS& PIECES

BURCIAGA SPEAKS OUT

(Her Say)-Minority women must continue to make their presence felt in the women's movement or they will get left behind as white feminists move into the power structure, according to Cecelia Burciaga. one of the women who resigned from the National Advisory Committee on Women after President Carter abruptly dismissed co-chair Bella Abzug.

Burciaga feels that many "majority women" have reaped the benefits of the movement, and are in danger of forgetting its philosophy. She says Chicana feminists notice the distance between minority women and the mainstream women's movement: "We really don't understand each other. What we really have to do is get rid of sterotypes.

Burciaga is calling for Chicana women to get involved in the women's movement on their own terms.

"OBJECTIVE" SURVEYS?

(Her Say)-Three university sociologists are charging that so-called “objective" large-scale surveys are "tainted" because the poll-takers are often sexually biased. Researchers Sharlene Hesse, Ina Burstein and Geri Atkins analyzed over 300 national survey questions used from 1936 to 1973 by Gallup, one of the major national public opinion poll-takers in the U.S.

Their results show: men were the subjects of questions far more often than women; most of the questions describing people in professional roles, positions of job advancement, political roles, military roles or career politics referred to men; and women are portrayed in dependent roles, mostly married, with or without children and with husbands to support them.

ERROR FREES RAPIST

(Her Say)-A Pennsylvania man who raped a retarded woman has been released from custody. His case will not come to trial because of a clerical error.

Robert Freeze was arrested last July after he allegedly forced a retarded woman into his car and raped her. Shortly after the incident, the woman realized she was pregnant.

Pennsylvania law requires that a case be brought to trial within 180 days of the arraignment. In Freeze's case that period expired in January. Judge Thomas Mannix, meanwhile, dismissed charges against Freeze and rejected a motion to extend the time for prosecution. The local magistrate says the reason Freeze was not brought to trial is that "the complaint against him somehow got mislaid in the office" during a period of employee turnover.

LIVING LONGER ON LESS

(Her Say)-The House Select Committee on Aging has come out with a sweeping indictment charging that social institutions in the United States have not been responsive to the needs of middle-aged women, and has called for educational, job training and pension programs to address the problems faced by women in their middle and older years.

The report stresses the need for retirement guidance because women tend to be employed in jobs that lack retirement planning programs, private pension and insurance. The study also noted that although women live longer than men, those who entered the work force after raising children have less time to accrue retirement benefits.

The report, which includes the findings of 29 scholars, concludes that most of the research which has been conducted on the problems of middle age has dealt almost exclusively with the problems of men. Further, the report notes that the number of women aged 45 to 64 will skyrocket to 36 million between the years 1990 and 2010.

April, 1979/What She Wants/Page 5