Report on Female Staff Discrimination at Columbia University, February 1971, page 6

             
  

 

 

and women; most are dwminuted by one sex. Those areas which are‘
predominantly female arc 1ower—stnLns‘arvas9 and, one can safely‘

‘assume, disproportionately lower-salaried areas.

ask what kind oF commitment Columbia feels to its female staff. A‘
snceinot evaluation was made by Minda nikmnn in a newspaper article
entitled "women at Colombia: A Supporting Role." ‘"...The University.
hews to the line.‘ women are administrative assistants for example,
Awhile men are assistant directors of admissions. The work is the

same ~~ only the titles, salaries, and fringe benefits are different:
...women with B.A.'s are systematically channeled into secretarial
jobs, althoueh only a high school education is officially renuired

by the personnel office.

is to.eome in this report and a follow-up report, women at Columbia hereby
serve notice to the University that we will no longer tolerate this

hineqnity:

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Very Few ion categories contain a near equal number of men.

/

In reviewing the data in this report, one nmst inevitably

s10

On the basis of the information already presented and the data

9

;poliey-making fioh when one reaches the higher echelons of the manage-

'10

En reading the statistics which follow (based on Columbia's 1969
report to the Office of Civil Rights, Contract Compliance Division,
Department of Health, Education and welfare) one may observe that
there is an uncanny affinity between the term "assistant" and the

designation "female". Of course, the term "assistant" defines a
ment pyramid at Columbia; in those cases, the designation is "male."

The Village Voice, June U, 1970, p. 22.i This article was written
following hearings by-the Columbia Senate on the Status of Women.
Additional comments are as follows: "Barbara Wheeler, an administra-
tive_assistant, made a survey wnirh disclosrd that the two men em-
ployed as administrative assistants were in the Department of
Physical Education. The only hign—pnying independent positions open
to women are in such traditionally ‘female’ areas as artistic
properties, public ccremonizs, placement, interior decorating, nursing...
...And when a young man applied for a job as a typist, the personnel
office offered to train him in computer programming." .t§

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