Is Your Case One for the Book?
Richard Brahm, who has a retaliation case against UCI, is
organizing a book which will consist of the stories of cases. It will
include race, age, gender and disability discrimination, sex harassment
and retaliation cases. He invites those interested in seeing their stories
in such a book to call him at 203-221-1705. He can also be reached by fax
at 203-454-2284 or by e-mail at
RichBrahm@aol.com.
Now, to update all we've done since the last newsletter:
Women Chemists' Conference
For our fall meeting we were co-sponsors of a forum titled
Overcoming Barriers to Success . Led to a great extent by new
Governing Council members Mary Singleton and Angela Stacy, it was held in
October at Mills College and featured Marge Cavenaugh of the National
Science Foundation as keynote speaker. I thought she understood the
problems of the glass ceiling very well and I was encouraged by her
anticipation of women achieving critical mass in areas where they are now
under-represented. I heard that after attending the WAGE-led workshop on
sex harassment and gender discrimination, she said that California women
are on the cutting edge of these problems with groups like WAGE providing
public exposure and advocacy.
The panel of speakers included WAGE women Marcy Wong, who
received a million-dollar settlement of her gender bias suit against UCB,
and Anne Weills, who has represented a number of WAGE women in harassment
and discrimination cases. They spoke very bluntly
about the problems of getting institutions to live up to the law. The
other panelists also had sage advice on how to handle the problems of
becoming a successful scientist. One of the best was to choose a
supportive mate, good advice for anyone anticipating a struggle.
Legal Action
The WAGE network was called into action this fall by Christina
Grudzinski. She has a sexual harassment and retaliation case against UC in
which the University supported its motion for summary judgment by
submitting declarations to the court from everyone named in the complaint,
each one stating that they don't discriminate or harass or retaliate and
hadn't done so in this case.
Christina asked us to solicit declarations from WAGE members who
had experienced discrimination, harassment or retaliation at the
University. When Catherine Shepard-Haier and I started listing names, we
realized we knew more than fifty WAGE women who had had such problems. I
sent a declaration stating this on behalf of WAGE and another thirteen
women sent personal declarations. The University's motion for summary
judgment was denied, not that I think the one such motion granted (Sue Carole DeVale's
story) had anything to do with the facts. Still, it felt very good to
see women using their experience to support another woman
successfully.
Donations Up=Effectiveness Up
The WAGE Governing Council met in October in Irvine. The
treasurer's report contained the good news that we had raised $5,320 to
date in donations for 1997, considerably more than we raised in all of
1996. Our expenses were up too, but since that was because we were doing
more, it was really good news too. Catherine S-H shared several pages of
calculations on what the Univer-sity acknowledges spending on
discrimination cases; her figures interested.
Web site, brochure and phone
We now have a WAGE web page! Rebecca Lundin has put us directly on the
internet at http://www.WAGE.org. E-mail comments or suggestions to her at:
rebawho@rebawho.com.
We also have a WAGE brochure thanks to Catherine S-H. One of our
fantasies for outreach is to mail a copy to every woman in the UC
system.
Starting in April we will have a separate WAGE telephone line (big
time, huh?).
Media!
Catherine S-H wrote a letter in response to the terrific
WorkingWoman article, The Tenure Trap, that
appeared in the June 1997 issue. Her letter, which was published in
October, invited readers with discrimination problems to contact WAGE; we
have heard from several people.
I was a guest on a radio show along with Yolanda
Broyles-Gonzalez. The program, which originated from a local station
in Santa Barbara, was hosted by attorney Kirk Ah-Tye, county bar
president, and Kathy Kellerman, UCSB Professor of Communication. I can
lend you a tape if you want to hear the discussion.
DOL and IRS
The Department of Labor's Office of Contract Compliance has still
not completed reviewing UCB and the office of the President. Thanks to all
of you who wrote and told your stories.
Congressman Dellums' office is still trying to get the IRS to
explain why so many people who have had cases against UC have been audited. Reading about the
Senate's IRS hearings last summer made me see that both UC and the IRS are
basically good institutions that do important work but have become
corrupted and abuse the power their important missions have conferred. The
hearings motivated the IRS to change and exposure may help correct UC's
discriminatory practices. As Marge Cavenaugh said, we're all like drops of
water dissolving limestone a molecule at a time; we may yet crumble the
institutions of discrimination.
1998 WAGE Governing Council
Francina Lozada-Nur, UCSF
Wayne Rogers, UCR
Mary Singleton, LLL emeritus
Angela Stacy, UCB
Elizabeth Manning, formerly of the Office of the President of UC
Their terms run from January 1998 through December 2000.
I am still acting as WAGE chair, but I want to find a replacement.
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