Faculty Women for Equity: A Class-Action Suit against the State of Oregon

Leonard, Elizabeth

doi:10.1177/088610998600100202

Affilia

1986

DOI: 10.1177/088610998600100202

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Faculty Women for Equity: A Class-Action Suit against the State of Oregon

Elizabeth Leonard

Abstract: This article describes a class-action suit, representing 2,200 faculty women on Oregon's eight college and university campuses. The suit, which sought $33.1 million in back pay, alleged that, between 1972 and 1980, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education had paid the women an average of 9-10 percent less per year than it had paid men who had comparable duties and qualifications. It also sought to resolve inequities in promotion, tenure, and professional responsibilities for all faculty members.

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1993

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Women's Achievement of Empowerment through Activism in the Workplace

Almeleh¹,

Soifer²,

Gottlieb³

et al. 1993

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In social work, workplace activism has been overlooked as a source of empowerment for women clients. This article reports on the results of a case study of a predominantly female union engaged in grass-roots organizing and legislative activity to promote comparable worth. An unanticipated finding of the study was the high degree to which personal, interpersonal, and political empowerment took place among the women who were deeply involved in the campaign for comparable worth. Social workers need to be more aware of the potential that workplace organizing and political action offer for the empowerment of their women clients.Social workers have traditionally been concerned with women's roles as wives and mothers. With the recognition that most women also work outside the home, more attention has been paid to the role of work in women's lives, but the emphasis has remained on issues of stress and conflicts between the demands of work and family. Feminist social workers have gone beyond this focus to recognize the workplace as an arena for women to develop their abilities and gain some economic power. They Downloaded from 27 have also acknowledged the societally imposed problems that working women face, such as sex discrimination, job segregation, and pay inequity (Gottlieb, 1987). Some social workers have taken to heart the feminist adage that the personal is political and understand that the economic woes of an individual female client are intimately connected to the position of women in society, as mediated by race, class, and sexual orientation. However, the equation must not stop with an analysis of what is wrong. Social workers also need to be aware that when women clients take action against the injustices in their workplace, this action can result in their personal and political empowerment.This article describes how in one clerical union, organizing for comparable worth resulted in personal, interpersonal, and political empowerment for the women involved in the campaign. As this case study shows, workplace organizing is not only a way to achieve collective power for women workers, but provides an opportunity for developing the political talents of working women.

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Women's Achievement of Empowerment through Activism in the Workplace

Almeleh¹,

Soifer²,

Gottlieb³

et al. 1993

Affilia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

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Faculty Women for Equity: A Class-Action Suit against the State of Oregon

Cited by 1 publication

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Women's Achievement of Empowerment through Activism in the Workplace

Women's Achievement of Empowerment through Activism in the Workplace

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