Committee on Women's Status Meets; More Than 50 Attend, Join Discussion

The Faculty Committee on the Status of Women held its first open hearing yesterday, with about 15 people testifying and almost all of the audience of more that 50 joining in animated discussions.

Although the two-hour hearing was scheduled to be on "promotion, appointment and recruitment" of women to the Faculty, discussion centered on the possibility of part-time Faculty positions and the influence more women in that body would have on the rest of the University.

Philip J. Stone III, professor of Social Relations, suggested that a system of "budgeting Faculty members' time" be instituted. Under this system-which he said has been in use for several years at the Business School-a faculty member's duties are divided into sixths, representing a certain amount of work.

An individual can bargain for certain courses or duties to count as a certain number of sixths, Stone said, with research time and work done on faculty committees also counting as sixths.

Stone suggested that such a system be started without the stipulation that a Faculty member must take on all six units of work. In this way, he said, part-time jobs could be created for both men and women who want them.

Presently, women who have small children are often prevented from taking full-time Faculty positions because they must spend some of their time at home.

Several of those who testified said that they felt women end up in jobs "off the main ladder" from teaching positions in the professorial hierarchy. "Most of the people on the teaching ladder in the Biology Department are men; most of those in research [which can be part-time] are women," Ruth Wald, a research associate in that department, said.

"I don't feel there's any real distinction being made because I'm a woman," she said. "Yet there's never been a thought at this University of moving me into a different ladder."

David Riesman, Ford Professor of Social Sciences, received considerable negative criticism from the predominantly, female audience when he said, "There are women who would bring to a department certain qualities of concern, responsiveness and responsibility that most men do not have."

"It's offensive to some women's lib-eration groups that want to out-male the males that they can contribute something from their own group," Riesman said.

Riesman assured those who questioned him-including some of the 11 members of the Committee-that he meant his remarks as an argument in favor of having more women on the Faculty.

Mary I. Bunting, President of Radcliffe, spoke briefly from the floor. "Having women in tenured positions would have a great effect on other Faculty members. Many of them never served with women in an equal position," she said.

Bunting said she felt that the sex of a professor is not important to students as long as the person is a good teacher. "But if the attitude toward a student is slightly patronizing or slightly flirtatious," then a female student's education is hurt, she said.

Several women undergraduates and graduate students said they felt women Faculty members have had a large influence on their ambitions to become professors or follow other careers.

Molly R. Schwenn '71 read statistics from a survey she took in her dormitory last year on Radcliffe students' ambitions.

She said that almost half of the young women she interviewed had changed from "traditionally masculine fields to traditionally feminine ones" because of attitudes of male professors and students. She said only 12 per cent of those she interviewed had raised their aspirations.

This Friday the Committee will discuss health services, maternity leave, day care and part-time study and work. Those who wish to testify should call the committee's office at 495-4289.