In my last post, I introduced you to Christine Franklin, whose Title IX lawsuit expanded  the gender equality law to cover sexual  harassment. Although hers was the first successful such lawsuit,  it wasn’t the first.

            Five classmates at Yale University have that honor. In 1977, Ronni Alexander, Margery Reifler, Pamela Price, Lisa Stone and Ann Olivarius sued the university claiming sexual harassment.

            The women didn’t want money — their suit didn’t ask for damages. They merely wanted the university to implement an effective way of addressing sexual harassment and assault. Yale had admitted women eleven years earlier, in 1968, yet their well-being wasn’t being protected.

            The women’s complaints are familiar to almost every female on the planet. Ronni and Margery said they’d been physically harassed by a music teacher and a hockey coach. Pamela said she’d been the victim of what today is called quid pro quo harassment — a political science teacher offered good grades in exchange for sex. Lisa said an English professor had propositioned her and Ann Olivarius said she’d been threatened for helping fellow students pursue complaints.

Five women, five stories

            The details of the complaints were ugly. Ronni was studying music and taking private flute lessons from Keith Brion. He began locking the door of the lesson room, eventually touching and fondling her. One day, after she had bumped her head on a door frame and suffered a concussion, he offered her a ride home, but instead he took her to his apartment and raped her. He forced her into sex a second time on another day.

            Ronni told no one, believing it was her fault somehow. But when she quit music in her sophomore year, she began hearing from other women who quit their music studies. “Oh, me too,” the women would say, with a knowing glance.*

            Margery was manager of Yale’s hockey team. One day, Coach Richard Kentwell grabbed her and began fondling and kissing her. She fled. After this happened a few more times, she quit the team.

            Pamela Price said that her international relations professor, Raymond Duvall, demanded sex in return for a good grade on a paper. “Do I really, really want the A?” she says he began. When she refused, she got a C on the paper and in the course.**

            Lisa also took lessons from Brion, and she arrived one day to find him undressing in the lesson room. She also gave up the flute. Two years later, she was talking with poetry professor Michael Cooke in his office. He put a hand on her knee and suggested making love to her. She fled the room.

            Ann didn’t have her own complaint, but she’d heard plenty of women’s stories. She was incensed that they had no way of seeking justice.

Their point is made

            The women filed suit as Alexander v. Yale University. For daring to speak out, they faced hostility, even from women.

            “There was some sense that the women in the lawsuit were whining about issues they should have expected to face,” said student Betsy Scarf. “We all faced them: before Yale, at Yale, after Yale.”***

            In the end, all but Pamela’s case was thrown out. In a pre-trial hearing, magistrates said Ronni’s and Margery’s cases were moot, because they’d graduated. They said Lisa and Ann had not directly suffered harassment — there was no concept then of a hostile workplace — so they could not sue.

            In Pamela’s case, the courts ruled that she had not proved the quid pro quo deal. “I knew what that was about,” she said. “As an African American woman, I could not say that this white man had done this to me and be believed.”****

            The women all went on to have successful lives and careers. Despite the defeat, they’d made their point. They’d stood up to a powerful university.

            “We attend college to study, not to be playthings or sex objects for male faculty members,” said Phyllis Crocker, then of the grievance committee of the Yale Undergraduate Women’s Caucus.*****

            Sadly, sexual harassment and violence still occurs on college campuses, but thanks to these five women, it is now recognized — and can be addressed — as discrimination under Title IX.  

                                                __________________________

* Nicole Allen, “To Break the Silence,” senior thesis on Alexander  v. Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale, 2009).

** “To Break,” p. 4.

*** “To Break,” p. 6.

**** “To Break,” p. 6.

***** Excerpts, Alexander v. Yale: Collected Documents from the Yale Undergraduate Women’s Caucus and Grievance Committee (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University, 1978), p. 19.

Photo: Ronnie Alexander, Ann Olivarius, Pamela Price

Today’s the day! Fifty years ago today, President Nixon signed Title IX into law. Let’s step back in time and see what reaction to the proposed law was like in its early days.

The good

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” — Title IX

“My mail tells me it is the most important subject in the United States today.” — Caspar Weinberger, director of the Office of Management and Budget (1972-73).

The bad

“A girl just can’t do those things and still be a lady.” — a sportswriter of the day, referring to vigorous sports like basketball and baseball.

“Athletic competition builds character in our boys. We do not need that kind of character in our girls, the women of tomorrow.” — John Clark Fitzgerald, a Connecticut judge ruling against allowing a high school girl to be on a cross-country team.

“Impending doom is around  the corner if these regulations are implemented.” — NCAA director Walter Byers.

“If this passes, you are going to have male stewards.” — a male House member, speaking of airline flight attendants.

“I would have had much more fun playing college football if it had been integrated.” — Sen. Peter Dominick (R-CO), joking about Title IX’s impact on sports.

“I’m all for women’s athletics, but if we had to split our budget it would bankrupt us.” —University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant.

“The Federal Government’s ever‐expanding role in the affairs of American higher education has struck home. And I am not happy about it.” — Fred C. Davison, a New York Times writer who supported exempting revenue-producing sports like football from Title IX compliance.

The truth

“We are all familiar with the stereotype of women as pretty things who go to college to find a husband, go on the graduate school because they want a more interesting husband, and finally marry, have children, and never work again. The desire of many schools not to waste a ‘man’s place’ on a woman stems from such stereotyped notions. But the facts absolutely contradict these myths about the ‘weaker sex’ and it is time to change our operating assumptions.” — Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), Senate sponsor of Title IX.

“The truth is that all our problems stem from the same sex-based myths. We may appear before you as white radicals or the middle-aged middle class or black soul sisters, but we are all sisters in fighting against these outdated myths.” — activist and feminist Gloria Steinem.

“Women have not been encouraged to participate in athletics at least partly because the traits associated with athletic excellence — achievement, self-confidence, aggressiveness, leadership, strength, swiftness — are often seen as being in contradiction with the role of women.” — Margaret Dunkle, whose research helped set the groundwork for Title IX.

“My research was much better than my badminton volley!” — Bernice “Bunny” Sandler, the “Godmother of Title IX,” on her efforts to collect data and anecdotes illustrating the need for gender equality laws.

“All I want and all I ask is that if two individuals, a man and a woman, come to a college or university and they have equal credentials and apply for admissions, that they shall be treated as equals.” — Rep. Edith Green (D-OR), who co-wrote Title IX.

“Millions of women pay taxes into the Federal treasury and we collectively resent that these funds should be used for the support of institutions to which we are denied equal access.” — Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI), Title IX co-sponsor.

“There were only 27 of us but we were a talky bunch.” — a female lobbyist, about efforts to gain approval for Title IX in the House.

“To create trench warfare between men and women is terrible. If it happens, women will be blamed, and they don’t have to be. The idea is to comply without being retaliatory.” — Olympic swimmer, sports broadcaster and sports activist Donna de Varona, on how collegiate athletic budgets could be fairly apportioned under Title IX rules.

The future

“Unfortunately, certain restrictions placed in the law by the Congress mean that we will not be able to realize fully our principles of equity. But as confidence develops in the new programs, we look forward in the near future to having a set of Federal student assistance programs devoted to the goal of equalizing opportunities for all.” — President Nixon on signing the Education Amendments of 1972 into law (but making no mention of Title IX).