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Sexual Harassment Cases
UCD bacteriologist Ida Yu endured a six year unwanted relationship with her
supervisor, Dr. Roy Doy, in order to protect her employment and her patent
rights to her discoveries. Ultimately, she lost both anyway, prompting her
courageous lawsuit. UCSF psychologists Christine McGill and Burnet Sumner
met on assignment in the hospitalÕs psychiatric emergency ward where both
were exiled after having been sexually harassed by the same supervisor,
Dr. Robert Surber. Dr. McGill demotion to the ward followed years of
retaliation for terminating a brief sexual relationship with Surber. In
Dr. Sumner case, retaliation for refusing a sexual relationship took the
form of six years of lost promotions followed by seven years of exile in
the psychiatric emergency ward, where she was often endangered by the
patients, while also isolated from her peers and disrupted from continuing
her research. In her court complaint, Dr. Julia Moore, UCSB Lecturer in
Musicology, describes how she lost a tenure track position when she turned
down a quid pro quo sexual offer from musicology search committee member
Pieter van den Toorn. After harassing Moore with a year of unwanted touching
and dinner invitations, van den Toorn maneuvered her into a dark, isolated
location, where he subjected her to a sexual embrace against her will.
Medical School Cases
Gender discrimination is rampant in UC medical schools.
Ophthalmologist Marjorie Mosier was denied tenure twice at UCI,
a medical college in which only 7 of 110 tenured full professors
are women. Figures from the UCLA School of Medicine are equally
disturbing: in September 1992, only 10 of the 195 ladder rank
professors were women. Among the cases in the UCLA School of
Medicine is that of the first woman hired as an assistant
professor (1983) in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
From the beginning, she experienced an alternating pattern of
indifference and professional harassment from her department
chairman.
She was ultimately denied tenure twice, despite her national and international
standing in a new field. UCSF Medical School is notorious for its multiple
cases alleging sexual harassment and gender discrimination, including
psychiatrist Dr. Lynn Ponton, psychologists Dr. Christine McGill and
Dr. Burnet Sumner, and health sciences historian Dr. Rickey Hendricks.
At UCD, Dr. Ida Yu is appealing the denial of her reinstatement, having
already won $20,000 for wrongful termination, while Dr. Leigh Segel gender
discrimination case against the Regents and Dr. John Longhurst and Dr. Joseph
Silva Jr. is nearing settlement.
Anti Lesbian/Gay Cases
Julia Moore and Nancy Stoller both found their lesbianism at issue in regard
to their continuing employment. During her interview for promotion to tenure
track, Dr. Moore was relentlessly questioned about her sexual orientation by
van den Toorn. Professor Stoller research on AIDS organizations won praise at
every level of her tenure review, yet it was dismissed as political rather
than scholarly by her Chancellor, who repeatedly denied her tenure, even after
the EEOC ruled in her favor. Besides Stoller at UCSC, three heterosexual
women whose work focuses on AIDS also have cases against UC. UCSF psychiatrist
Lynn Ponton has won acclaim for her pioneering work with HIV positive
teenagers. UCSF psychologist Burnet Sumner specializes in treating emotionally
stressed AIDS patients.
Other Womens Cases
After an unsuccessful internal grievance procedure that dragged on for seven
years, Marcy Wang, UCB architect, recently filed suit for both gender and
racial discrimination.
Note On Cases
WAGE wishes to provide support, networking, mentoring, and other advice for
all academic women who have cases against any campus in the UC system,
whether or not explicit discrimination is involved. We understand that gender
discrimination is pervasive and often very subtle or carefully masked. We know
that the overwhelming majority of grievance cases on all UC campuses are filed
by women. In addition, hiring and promotion statistics throughout the UC system
confirm the failure of women to thrive in this inhibiting atmosphere.
Clusters of cases, with or without explicit gender bias, often occur at the
same time in the same school, such as the four at the UCSF Medical School.
In three womenÕs tenure cases at the UCLA School of the Arts, prima facie
findings of egregious procedural errors during tenure reviews were reported
and settled during this past year with the help of UCLAÕs effective Committee
on Privilege and Tenure. The three professors receiving new or reopened tenure
reviews are Judith Alter in the Department of Dance;
Sue Carole DeVale, Ethnomusicology and Systematic Musicology; and
Patricia Wickman, Art.
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