Letters
Letters Wrone Whimine Girl Charles Peters says he’s disappointed in the women’s movement for failing to stamp “feminine values” on the work world [“Tilting at Windmills,” January] . Peters...
...They may not consider themselves feminists nor may they be in any position to effect change, even were they so inclined...
...I could not, of course, face my accusers...
...they were anonymous...
...Additionally, efforts at change made by women are frequently viewed with more suspicion or anxiety than those made by male employees...
...And part of that proof often involves acceding to the values of employers, leaving the employee’s desire or ability to change the system somewhat muted...
...As a journalism teacher and advisor to the university newspaper, I had gotten crossways with the administration by teaching and advising my students to put out a newspaper rather than a glorified public relations organ for the president and his henchmen...
...The chairman then reassigned me-taking the newspaper from me on the grounds that some of my students complained that I demanded too much of them, “acted like a city editor...
...So I left, too, and am editor of a weekly newspaper...
...as I was chagrined to discover some months ago in a newspaper job interview...
...Tenured members of the department faculty, who by and large were no boat-rockers, went along with a weak chairman who feared his superiors, denying me tenure...
...At the feet of these employers lies the real blame for the inadequacy of “the system...
...And even as it was done to me when I came up for tenure...
...As an assistant professor in a small state university, I saw this done to some remarkably bright and dedicated teachers-even to a winning football coach who demanded academic as well as muscular prowess from his team...
...And that is something the women’s movement has recognized all along...
...values hardly unique to women) has certainly far more to do with “the system” than with the women’s movement...
...And he wasn’t interested in hearing from those students (and faculty) who approved my approach and who have since gone on to newspaper jobs, performing with credit both to themselves and me...
...Academic freedom, as he pointed out, is nil for those without tenure, and the best and brightest of those are driven out of academic life by the inequities and falsities of the system...
...LAURIE QUINN Philadelphia, Pennsylvania “le Trouble With Tenure Mark Nadel knows whereof he speaks (“The Trouble With Tenure,” January) and speaks for many of us...
...The resistance to beneficial change is fostered by unimaginative and narrowminded employers who are content to employ “yes men” and “yes women...
...Nadel, it would seem, is one good example...
...Those women who do attain positions where they might be able to influence change have often traveled a road that required them to outdo their male colleagues in order to prove themselves equally capable...
...Many women work for the simple reason that they need the money...
...Letters Wrone Whimine Girl Charles Peters says he’s disappointed in the women’s movement for failing to stamp “feminine values” on the work world [“Tilting at Windmills,” January] . Peters has chosen the wrong, though popular, whipping girl...
...The work world’s lack of values he characterizes as feminine (laughter, love, peace...
...Women are still asked such fearfully phrased questions as “DO you believe in any particular causes, like, let’s just say for instance, feminism...
...MURIEL M. ALCOTT Hot Springs Village, Arkansas...
Vol. 10 • March 1978 • No. 1
