The Wash Rag Issue 4.1 February 1996 SHANNON FAULKNER’S ODYSSEY THE FAILURE AT THE CITADEL An event which took place shortly before the beginning of the NGO Forum was Shannon Faulkner’s failure to stay at the Citadel after winning the right to attend in a court battle. I see her failure as arising from two different discrepancies, and both are classic examples of why women often are kept out of certain professions. First, Shannon could not pass the physical exams to get into the school. This was not Shannon’s fault, and since I am over-weight myself, I can sympathize with her dilemma. When you have a weight problem, you have many doors closed to you. Although her problem was certainly much less than mine, it nonetheless contributed to her not being able to keep up the pace. I hurt for her. The other is one which no woman will ever be able to overcome, not now, not in ten years nor even in a hundred hears, unless women stop sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that biological and chemical warfare methods, in addition to psychological warfare methods, are not being used to keep qualified women from attaining positions for which they have all the other qualifications. I always felt that the goop in the coffee at various businesses for which I worked contributed to my weight problems, but this is something I can’t prove. One reason for believing it might is a study I read some years ago that more intelligent women tend to be overweight. Since more intelligent women would be more of a threat to stupid men (I don’t feel that intelligent men were as inclined to strike out against me), those men would try to find some way to keep them from succeeding, and introducing toxic substances into their bodies that would make it difficult if not impossible for them to succeed would be the easiest way of getting them out of the way. The accounts that I read related that Shannon “became sick after lunch.” I rest my case. I, too, have had that experience when I tried to penetrate a male dominated field. I spent six years in California never able to eat twice in the same restaurant, not daring to eat or drink anything at work — not the food, not the coffee, not the soft drinks — the only thing I was able to consume without getting sick was water from the water fountain. I dragged lunches with me and ate alone at my desk. Sadly, there is no way that would be possible for a cadet at the Citadel. She was in a lose-lose situation. She did the best she could, and I am proud of her for trying. I am going to make a prediction. Unless women get their heads out of the sand and face this reality, women will never attain real equality, but only a pseudo-equality in that those women who are too dumb to think for themselves, those willing to prostitute themselves or their minds in order to succeed, and those under male domination willing to accept male values will become mocking figureheads to lead the women’s movement. That means that in order to succeed, you’ll have to be dumb, a prostitute, a man with tits, a pseudo-women or an intellectual or actual whore. I suppose there may be debate as to whether that will be any change over the status quo, but to me it sometimes seems that the reality is that way already. Women like Shannon Faulkner are trying to change things. The pity is, chances of her success hinge on her willingness to fit into one of those categories. What the women’s movement should be doing is proving that she was drugged or poisoned in order to get rid of her. If another woman tries to follow in her footsteps, those women trying to break down that barrier should be ready to do immediate medical testing, perhaps have previous arrangements to make tests on her blood or urine at any time that woman complains of health problems, because the Citadel itself obviously cannot be depended on to protect her. I might remark that I am convinced that some chemicals are toxic to women but not to men. So the fact that the men ate the same food as she did without getting sick is no proof that this did not happen. Our vision: To bring together women and men to challenge, create, and transform global structures and processes at all levels through the empowerment and celebration of women. We are committed to equality, peace, justice, inclusiveness, and full participation of all. One of the benefits of going to a conference like the NGO Forum associated with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Huairou, China in 1995 was that one gets on all of the mailing lists and continues to get material on women’s issues, some of which doesn’t interest me, but much of it does. They also bring back a flood of memories of chatting with women from Australia on a bus, from China between workshops, from Ireland after a workshop; of watching a performing group in the street singing in some Asian language and another in a tent singing in an African language. Though I could not always understand the words they spoke, I could understand that these women were all committed to bettering life in their countries and in the world as a whole for not only women, but also for children and men. This was an exciting experience, and one that I will surely never forget. But I have been truly amazed by various accounts of the NGO Forum because virtually none of them addresses the incredible number of workshops scheduled which did not take place nor the hardship this caused for those of us who, for one reason or another, found it hard to cover the length of the Forum area several times a day. In a publication of the NGO Secretariat, in an article titled “How the Forum Was Organized in Two and a Half Months,” they do address the problems associated in getting an area in Huairou “large enough to accommodate the 5,000 NGO activity requests,” but not the problem of activities being scheduled and not taking place. I read also accounts from Ms. Magazine, AAUW’s Outlook, NOW and Minnesota NOW newsletters where there were similarly glowing accounts, devoid of any criticism. I feel like there was a parallel NGO Forum going on someplace where everything was done right, and while I was sent to this one, all of the people writing articles in national publications went to it. Something was done terribly wrong in putting together this event. A United Unitarian newsletter does remark that the platform was weak, and an Argus Leader item does mention the problems with hotel rooms not being ready, and some of the above accounts criticize the Chinese for moving the Forum from Beijing, but there is not one syllable in any account which addresses the 2/3 to 3/4 of the scheduled workshops which did not take place. I don’t feel that events like the Forum should not take place because there were problems in planning this one, but I know that if those problems are not addressed, they will be repeated, possibly at the next NGO Forum, and that would mean that we aren’t learning from experience. That seems to me to be counter-productive. It would also be a disservice to those women attending the next one, and that could be one of my daughters. REMARKS ON KARL MARX AND CHAIRMAN MAO WOMEN AND POLITICS In an earlier Wash Rag, I reproduced a quote that I saw in the NGO Forum Newspaper: “Women hold up half the sky.” I gave credit for it as a Chinese Proverb. I know that I wrote to Bonnie Erbe, anchor-woman of “To the Contrary,” including the copy of an article from a Chinese magazine that included the information that women in China have had equality under their constitution since 1949, the year that it was put into effect. I found this very distressing, not to mention embarrassing. I know that I enclosed newsletters with my letter, and it may have been that one. In an edition of that program afterwards, Bonnie invited a Chinese business woman to discuss the status of women in China, which was the topic of the article I sent her. This woman attributed the authorship of that quotation to Mao Tse Tung. I found that to be even more startling. A month or two ago, I was trying to find the author of another quotation, and was perusing books of quotations at the library, and came on another that startled me still more: Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without the feminine ferment. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex (the ugly ones included.) The author? Karl Marx. Just exactly what was so frightening to the American Government that it kept up a fifty year cold war to end Communism had never been really clear to me. Until now. Communism clearly places women as equals to men, and that was the source of the incredible paranoia exhibited by politicians like McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover (hardly the boy scout he was depicted as at the time), and American presidents from Truman to Bush. The Communists treated men as badly as women, and that was intolerable. Treating women badly was OK, but to expose men to the same bad treatment that women have experienced over the centuries frightened them, and the results are history. WHAT NGO ‘95 WAS ALL ABOUT! IN THE REST OF THE WORLD Since sending out the list of women around the world with an interest in sexual harassment, I’ve received many items from them. One was a copy of a newspaper clipping from the Monitor, Uganda, East Africa, that details the sexual exploitation of street children in Kampala, East Africa by on-duty police officers. The report was done by an NGO, the Uganda Youth Development Link. After the report came out, other cases of blatant sexual harassment of women by police officers on duty were reported. The Inspector General felt that the incidents were individual cases and that in general, the police were professional, and blamed the problem on a new statute that made it impossible for him to dismiss policemen without a hearing. A letter from Pramada Shah, of the SAATHI, a NGO in Kathmandu, Nepal, details frustrations with the NGO Forum, especially in leaving China after the Forum, and refers to a survey of sexual harassment in the Kathmandu Valley which she included but which either was taken from the envelope or fell out accidentally before I got it. I wrote and asked her to send another copy. A great deal of information was sent by the Sex Discrimination Unit of the Human Rights Equal Opportunity Commission in Sydney, Australia. These include a copy of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984, copies of a newsletter that they publish and informational flyers, a report on “Women and Law Conference Sexual Harassment Forum,” a report on “Sexual Harassment, Principles and Trends from Recent Cases,” an extract from “Sex Discrimination, A Guide for Unions,” and a comic book. This last particular group of materials should find their way to some collection of materials for women to use for source materials, but I know of nothing of the sort in the state. Anyone who knows of some place where they might be available to interested women should let me know so others might benefit from them. The WASH RAG is published by Women Against Sexual Harassment, P. O. Box 164, Canton, South Dakota 57013-0164. ISSN 1068-2449. Subscription price is $10.00 a year. Copyright 1996 Tesseract Publications. TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana The Life of Reason RECENT NEWS ITEMS NOT MUCH CHANGE SINCE NGO ‘95 An evening news story recently detailed the plight of a female Naval petty officer who was physically assaulted by a Chief Petty Officer on a commercial airline. The female fought back and at one point shoved him out of his seat. A Naval Chaplain finally changed seats with the Petty Officer and ordered the Chief Petty Officer to turn himself in to security. He did not do so. He is being court martialed. The Navy spent an entire day Navy-wide reviewing policy on sexual harassment afterwards. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Navy, Chief Petty Officers are always career personnel, and most have many years of service. Past Naval policies would most probably be found within their ranks. An event that took place in October of 1994 exposed Heather Wright, a Mason City, Iowa student to sexual harassment by fellow students. Although the school officials disciplined the students responsible, the harassment did not stop, so she filed a suit to claim that the district violated Title 9. School officials around the country were worried about their responsibility, saying that it is hard to change ingrained behavior. Since I have no further notes about sexual harassment in the schools, one might assume that perhaps when threatened with suits like this one, they can manage. Perhaps it also helps to set a good example. October 23, 1995 brought a NBC movie, Deceived By Trust: A Moment of Truth. This movie details the activities of a high school principal who was sexually harassing his female students. His name was Gordon Powell, and he was convicted on twenty-four counts after Sara Collins, a counselor who got complaints from female students, managed to get others to join her in documenting his manipulation of the young women. This was particularly difficult because of the principal’s community status, and the fact that the school board supported him against those who tried to get rid of him. They all jeopardized their jobs and credibility, but some former students who had been exploited by this person finally agreed to testify, and when the school board heard their stories, they no longer supported the principal. It was a moving story, and one to encourage every woman watching. A story on PBS Radio on 11/22/95 concerned a CIA operative, known by “Jane Doe Thompson” for purposes of protecting her position,who was named bureau chief in Jamaica. Since they had previously had personnel problems there, she expected no problems when she disciplined her subordinates, but she was reprimanded. James Wolsey signed off on the reprimand, which was a death knell for her career. But the charges against her were fabricated. The Inspector General of the CIA had not interviewed her witnesses nor had they interviewed the witnesses of those charging her, one of whom denied the statements attributed to him. Dateline NBC on 11/21/95 included a segment about five secretaries to a cosmetics company executive, Daniel Wassong of Del Labs. His behavior was outrageous and had been for many years. He made personal insults, used profanity, one was talking to him when he grabbed her breast. An Administrative Assistant to him in 1992, Jeannea Adrian, went to the EEOC. She had made notes about what had happened and copied things like appointments for days the events happened so he couldn’t claim he was out of town. Many other women came forward after her complaint with the exact same kinds of stories. Nine finally joined the action and charged him with sexually harassment, verbal abuse and creating a hostile work environment. He urinated in front of them and called them cunts. The abuses dated back thirty years, and during one thirty-six month period, he had thirty-six secretaries. Some said that they stayed because they needed the money so badly, one managed to hang on for nineteen months. As the case progressed, the number of women in the complaint increased to fifteen, and finally to thirty. Del settled out of court to avoid a costly legal battle, and paid 1.2 million dollars to the women complaining, the largest settlement in EEOC history. The board of Del left Wassong in place, as he was the largest stockholder in the company. A study cited on the segment regarding Wassong, showed that 85% of women experience harassment during their lives, but only 5% file charges. I was interested in an American Experience program which aired on 1/15/96. Titled “Freedom on my Mind,” it was about the Mississippi Voter Registration Project during the ‘60’s. Since I was living in Memphis when this took place, and I recall the search for the young workers who were murdered and eventually found buried under a stock dam, I suppose that it seemed especially vivid to me. Maybe I am imagining things, but it seemed that many of the methods used to control and manipulate Blacks then are now being used to manipulate women. For example, any Black who registered to vote was fired from his job. Now, women who refuse to provide sex to an employer if he requires that will be fired. Some even are experiencing the violence directed towards women who become successful or who file sexual harassment complaints. I can’t seem to forget Gwendi Nordseth, the Watertown woman whose car blew up as she drove to a job interview in Phoenix, Arizona. Argus Leader stories at the time indicated that she had been in the process of filing a sexual harassment complaint. An Unsolved Mysteries segment on February 9, 1996 concerned Su Faraskiewiez, a Northwest Airlines employee who worked on the ramp in Boston. She was a victim of sexual harassment and kept a written record of the phone calls, vandalism, and obscene graffiti to which she was exposed. She was the first woman to be promoted to supervisor on the ramp with Northwest Airlines. She was subsequently murdered, and until the record of the harassment she had experienced was found, it was thought to be a case of random violence, but when the matter was looked at again, there were many clues to lead the police to believe that she had been murdered because she had been promoted to a supervisory position in a previously male dominated area. The murder is still unsolved. Last, but definitely not least, I found a note from February 25, 1995, that former Republican candidate for president Phil Gramm had said he would gut affirmative action programs if he was elected. My note adds that if he is elected, he will be elected by women. If he is defeated, he will be defeated by women. His recent withdrawal after last place finishes in Louisiana and Iowa leave me one response: “Way to go,” to women in Louisiana and Iowa! An evening news story recently detailed the plight of a female Naval petty officer who was physically assaulted by a Chief Petty Officer on a commercial airline. The female fought back and at one point shoved him out of his seat. A Naval Chaplain finally changed seats with the Petty Officer and ordered the Chief Petty Officer to turn himself in to security. He did not do so. He is being court martialed. The Navy spent an entire day Navy-wide reviewing policy on sexual harassment afterwards. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Navy, Chief Petty Officers are always career personnel, and most have many years of service. Past Naval policies would most probably be found within their ranks. An event that took place in October of 1994 exposed Heather Wright, a Mason City, Iowa student to sexual harassment by fellow students. Although the school officials disciplined the students responsible, the harassment did not stop, so she filed a suit to claim that the district violated Title 9. School officials around the country were worried about their responsibility, saying that it is hard to change ingrained behavior. Since I have no further notes about sexual harassment in the schools, one might assume that perhaps when threatened with suits like this one, they can manage. Perhaps it also helps to set a good example. October 23, 1995 brought a NBC movie, Deceived By Trust: A Moment of Truth. This movie details the activities of a high school principal who was sexually harassing his female students. His name was Gordon Powell, and he was convicted on twenty-four counts after Sara Collins, a counselor who got complaints from female students, managed to get others to join her in documenting his manipulation of the young women. This was particularly difficult because of the principal’s community status, and the fact that the school board supported him against those who tried to get rid of him. They all jeopardized their jobs and credibility, but some former students who had been exploited by this person finally agreed to testify, and when the school board heard their stories, they no longer supported the principal. It was a moving story, and one to encourage every woman watching. A story on PBS Radio on 11/22/95 concerned a CIA operative, known by “Jane Doe Thompson” for purposes of protecting her position,who was named bureau chief in Jamaica. Since they had previously had personnel problems there, she expected no problems when she disciplined her subordinates, but she was reprimanded. James Wolsey signed off on the reprimand, which was a death knell for her career. But the charges against her were fabricated. The Inspector General of the CIA had not interviewed her witnesses nor had they interviewed the witnesses of those charging her, one of whom denied the statements attributed to him. Dateline NBC on 11/21/95 included a segment about five secretaries to a cosmetics company executive, Daniel Wassong of Del Labs. His behavior was outrageous and had been for many years. He made personal insults, used profanity, one was talking to him when he grabbed her breast. An Administrative Assistant to him in 1992, Jeannea Adrian, went to the EEOC. She had made notes about what had happened and copied things like appointments for days the events happened so he couldn’t claim he was out of town. Many other women came forward after her complaint with the exact same kinds of stories. Nine finally joined the action and charged him with sexually harassment, verbal abuse and creating a hostile work environment. He urinated in front of them and called them cunts. The abuses dated back thirty years, and during one thirty-six month period, he had thirty-six secretaries. Some said that they stayed because they needed the money so badly, one managed to hang on for nineteen months. As the case progressed, the number of women in the complaint increased to fifteen, and finally to thirty. Del settled out of court to avoid a costly legal battle, and paid 1.2 million dollars to the women complaining, the largest settlement in EEOC history. The board of Del left Wassong in place, as he was the largest stockholder in the company. A study cited on the segment regarding Wassong, showed that 85% of women experience harassment during their lives, but only 5% file charges. I was interested in an American Experience program which aired on 1/15/96. Titled “Freedom on my Mind,” it was about the Mississippi Voter Registration Project during the ‘60’s. Since I was living in Memphis when this took place, and I recall the search for the young workers who were murdered and eventually found buried under a stock dam, I suppose that it seemed especially vivid to me. Maybe I am imagining things, but it seemed that many of the methods used to control and manipulate Blacks then are now being used to manipulate women. For example, any Black who registered to vote was fired from his job. Now, women who refuse to provide sex to an employer if he requires that will be fired. Some even are experiencing the violence directed towards women who become successful or who file sexual harassment complaints. I can’t seem to forget Gwendi Nordseth, the Watertown woman whose car blew up as she drove to a job interview in Phoenix, Arizona. Argus Leader stories at the time indicated that she had been in the process of filing a sexual harassment complaint. An Unsolved Mysteries segment on February 9, 1996 concerned Su Faraskiewiez, a Northwest Airlines employee who worked on the ramp in Boston. She was a victim of sexual harassment and kept a written record of the phone calls, vandalism, and obscene graffiti to which she was exposed. She was the first woman to be promoted to supervisor on the ramp with Northwest Airlines. She was subsequently murdered, and until the record of the harassment she had experienced was found, it was thought to be a case of random violence, but when the matter was looked at again, there were many clues to lead the police to believe that she had been murdered because she had been promoted to a supervisory position in a previously male dominated area. The murder is still unsolved. Last, but definitely not least, I found a note from February 25, 1995, that former Republican candidate for president Phil Gramm had said he would gut affirmative action programs if he was elected. My note adds that if he is elected, he will be elected by women. If he is defeated, he will be defeated by women. His recent withdrawal after last place finishes in Louisiana and Iowa leave me one response: “Way to go,” to women in Louisiana and Iowa! JUST HOW FAR WILL THEY GO Theresa Huck, formerly of Clark, filed a survey form and documentation of her complaint against a Clark company several years ago. Since then, she failed to get any action taken and finally had to give up any hope of pursuing that complaint. Those of us who have had experience in this area feel no amazement that she was never able to get another job in Clark, but had to subsist on raising miniature horses and resources which she was fortunate enough to have from a deceased spouse. I recently received more information from her which documents the relationship which she went into with a Clark man who professed a great deal of passion and affection for her until he apparently thought that she was under his control, and then he turned on her and became abusive, and she believes that he may have sexually exploited her teenaged son. The culmination of this series of events was the revelation that he was friendly with the man against whom she had made the sexual harassment complaint. Since then, Theresa has decided to leave Clark and sell her property there and go to another town where she is able to get employment. Reading her record of events, I was impressed by the chaotic state of her life during the breakup of this affair. She talks of feeling confused and not being able to think, of him accusing her of causing the problems, of him using biblical references in accusing her of destroying souls, of him forcing unpleasant sex on her, of his keeping her at his home by taking the battery out of the truck. trying to take her ponies away from her, of moving back to her own house and having him break in while she was at home and leave messages on her mirror, of harassing small claims court actions, of her horses and other animals being tortured and killed, broken doors and windows, and flat tires. The protection orders she got were ignored.