Letter from Annette Flower and Jane Sheets to all women faculty

March 13, 1972 TO: All Wome·n of the Faculty FROM: Annette Flower an ane Sheets, co-chairpersons, Faculty A~sociat· n Committee on the Status of Women When the Faculty Association Committee on the Status of Women was formed, one of its primary tasks was to discover, investigate and recommend amelioration of any areas in which women faculty are discriminated against at Towson State College. In pursuance of that goal, we circulated a form to all department chairpersons, asking for basic data on faculty, without names. Only half the departments supplied all the information we had requested., making it impossible to draw any conclusions, so we asked the administration to provide the same infonnation. In February, 1972, we were given the following data on faculty (llTLRC and Library not included): a code number (no names), year hired, beginning and current rank, department (also coded), age, sex, salary, tenure status., years at TSC, highest degree (and year obtained). No interpretation of the infonnation was included, and all tables and conclusions below are ours. The last page is a copy of the action plan which we have presented to the administration; it consists ;of proposals which the administration will implement if it is indeed c~"11.Il1itted to the correction of existing inequities, as the providing of the data seems to indicate~ We strongly urge each woman on the faculty to study the data and to consider it in relation to her own qualifications and situation. Although the report is being relu d relaU. ly late ir. the contract season, we have been assured by Dean Sh~~ ~at corr~ction of irJquit;c~ revealed by this report is possible for coi-- i :'acts for the 1972 73 academic year. If you feel you have been discriminated against in ran. and' salary on the basis of sex., you should take vHt. of the follmdng steps as soon as possible: contact us to discuss any aspect of the report and/or further action; ask us to refer your case to the CSvl three-woman grievance committee for evaluation; consult Dean Shaw directly. The tables below represent faculty averages. As significant and disturbing as they are, there are many individual cases of discrimination JJIUch more extreme than such averages would indicate. We hope that you will take advantage of the general data to strengthen personal cases discussed with the Dean. We would also appreciate your rer,orting the success of your case, so that a CSW file can be compiled. Certainly one of our main concerns ov~r the last three months (the data was requested before Christmas vacation) has been to obtain and to transmit the infomation to you in time to negotiate equitable contracts for the coming academic year; D3an Shaw has, we repeat, assured us that there is still time to do so, and that he will be receptive to such appeals.