HOW

THE MAT 1971

BROADSIPEHOUSTON CHAPTER

VOL. 2 AL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN NO.5

2

BROADSIDE — .o.simultaneous discharge of all the guns on one side of a warshipoooany strong or comprehensive attack, as by crit- x lclsme..a song, chiefly in 16th- and 17th-century England, written on a topical subject, printed on broadsides, and sung in public,oco, by a professional balladeer.oo

The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition

®>. Bong 3Bow to ffioE

Feminist Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?With radical stands and sharp demands And weeds in every row.

Actually, i^s only two flowers amid a hell of a lot of weeds. The . late bloomers are the Equal Legal Rights Amendment and the Lorena case.

Southern Bell finally capitulated to NOW’s demands on behalf of .Lorena Weeks in her sex discrimination suit, Weeks v. Southern Bell. Ms. Weeks was awarded nearly $31,000 April 19 in back pay and expenses.

In November, 1972, the voters of Texas will be able for the first time to extend equal legal rignts to women. The ELI1A was finally passed by the Texas legislature last month.

Two victories, important as they are, are rot enough. Not when millions of women are still suffering from job discrimination and college quota systems. Not when tens of thousands: of working women have no decent child care facilities for their children, and not when women cannot get safe, legal abortions in most states.

Work in the women1s struggle is never done. Or the same day of the Weeks victory, the Denver Chapter of NOW joined Ms. Esther Goodyear in a class action suit filed in the U.S. District Court in Denver against the Gates Rubber Company. The suit alleges sex discrimination in vio­lation of a federal executive order. It demands that federal contracts with Gates be withdrawn because of the violation.

Pulling weeds one by one, even metaphorically, has never seemed enticing. Nonetheless, i^s spring 1971 and the womens rights move­ment has a long row to hoe. Dig in and let the compost fall where it may.

NEWSLETTER CO-EDITORS

Helen CassidyLaura Douglas

Galendar of EventsMAY 12---HOUSTON NOW MEETING—7:30 p.m. Sixth Floor Auditorium, Houston

Citizens1 Bank & Trust Bld^., 1801 Main. PREGNANT WOMEN HAVE RIGHTS TOO: Mary Ellen Schattman will discuss her case against the Texas Employment Commission.

MAY 16---THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN—11 a.m0, Jewish Commun­ity Center, 5601 S. Braeswood. Brunch and panel discussion. Margo Bishop of Houston NOW will be on the panel.

MAY 1?---MULTI-ETHNIC TASTEFEST—7:30 p.m., Rio Posada Restaurant, AlleysLanding. Sponsored by the Coalition for Better Government. $2.50 per person.

MAY 20—TEXAS ABORTION COALITION MEETS—8:00 p.m., 6602 Jackwood. Strategy session.

SUPREME COURT TO HEARTEXAS ABORTION LAW

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the Texas abortion statute in its next term, lawyers will be allowed to present arguments to con­vince the high court of its juris­diction. The Court has not promised to render a decision.

The Texas abortion statute, which allows pregnancies to be terminated only to save the life of the mother, was declared invalid last June by a three-judge federal panel. The Dallas'nanel ruled that one has the right to choose whether to have chil­dren.

The law is still being enforced, however. The court refused to grant an injunction to halt enforcement while'the law is being appealed.

Reform abortion bills have been introduced in the Texas legislature. The House bill, drafted, by Ren. Sam Coats of Dallas, would allow abor­tions to be performed by a licensed

physician with the consent of the woman only if she is over 18. Paren­tal consent would be necessary for women 16 to 18 years old and un­married o All women under 16 would need parental consent for abortions. The House bill has been referred to a subcommittee of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee after pub­lic hearings April 19.

A similar bill in the Senate was approved by a 5-^ vote of the Senate Public Health Committee April 13. The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom Creighton of Mineral Wells and Sen. Don Kennard of Ft. Worth, would allow Texas doctors to perform abor­tions on consenting women over age 16, without legal restrictions.

Sens. Chet Brooks and Jim Wall­ace of Harris County voted for the bill in committee and Sen. Hank Gro­ver of Houston voted against it.

I-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I IF YOU HAVE QUESTION ABOUT THE HOUSTON

AREA NOW CHAPTER OR ANY ASPECT OF

WOMEN S RIGHTS CALL ONE OF THE* FOLLOWING NUMBERS:

• A.M. 464-8030 P.M. 529 -6400623-4380 748-5369

J-------------------------------------------------—----------- —

I

w

IUU

1

*

by Laura Douglas

ZELDA SAYRE FITZGERALD

July 24, 1900—March 10, 1948

Most essays on women in her- story are concerned with early fem­inists and some, very few, with suc­cessful women writers. But what a- bout women who were "failures?" One of these recently "discovered" women is Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.

For years Zelda was known only in fragmentary form. She was the clever but spoiled Southern Belle from Montgomery, Alabama, whom F. Scott Fitzgerald married. She was, along with Fitzgerald, the epitome of the Jazz Age—dashing, wealthy, forever young. She was the crazy woman who died in an insane asylum fire. But Zelda was, above all else, Nicole Diver, a. character created by her husband in his novel, Tender Is The Night.

With the publication of Nancy Milford.1 s biography of her(Zelda, Harper and Row: New York, 1970), we can finally get a complete view of this complex and fascinating woman.

Zelda was never satisfied with her stereotyped role. She wanted to be "someone" with something to say. However, she never developed the creative discipline necessary to turn her intelligent insights into finished works of art. The life she and Scott led, ScottJs position as an established writer with whom she was in competition, her need for constant reassurance and Scott1s inability to provide it, all worked against her.

Torn between the desire for autonomy and her devotion to Scott, Zelda suffered the first in a series of mental breakdowns that ended in schizonhrenia.

From the beginning of their marriage, Zelda had written short stories and reviews, some of which were published under Scotti name. Her first novel, Save Me The Waltz, was completed in the sanitarium. When. Scott saw the manuscript he be­came enraged. He jealously resented her stepping on his territory even though he unmercifully drew upon her letters to him from the sanitarium for Tender Is The Night. He also used her diary and letters for Thi s Side of "r aradise, her ideas for The Beautiful And The Damned, and her personality and their experiences for The Great Gatsby.

Zelda was pleased with her work but still uncertain of her ability. She wrote Scott from the sanitarium, "•l am proud of my novel, but I can hardly restrain myself enough to get it written. You will like it—It is distinctly Ecole Fitzgerald, though more ecstatic than yours— Perhaps too much so. Being unable to invent a device to avoid, the re- iterant "said" I have emphasized it a la Ernest(Hemingway)to my sorrow. He is a very determined writer, but I shall also die with my boots on.," (P-215)

From inside the nightmare, Zelda could still look out with un­derstanding and compassion. From another letter to Scott,"’Dearest— I suppose I will spend the rest of my life torn between the desire to master life and a. feeling that it is, au fond, a contemptuous enemy. ...There’s a woman here who wanders tentatively about the halls like a ghost in a poor detective story. It is impossible to feel sorry for crazy people since their realities do not coincide with our normal con­ceptions of tragedy etc. And yet, a woman’s brother came to pay a vi­sit. I thought how awful and poig­nant—that boney casket full of no­thing that the man had ever loved and he was saying that he wanted her to come home again. It made me feel very sorry. I presume he was ad­dressing his past...•"(p.215)

(continued p. 5 )

Different Strokes for Different Folks 5

by Nancy Callen

We have all come to this feminist movement out of different kinds and varying degrees of frus­tration as women. We are all going to see different roles for ourselves then in bringing about our liberation. For most of us the critical first steps have been getting together with other women to talk about the common pattern of our oppression as women. This is not merely group therapy. (The word therapy has the unfortunate connotation that unhappy women are sick and need to be nursed back to some ideal feminine role.) We are not "sick”; we are healthy. We are refusing to adjust to sick roles. On the contrary, we begin the steps to our liberation as we overcome the old prejudices against "hen parties," "just women^s talk," etc. Out of the concrete experiences of our individual lives, we recognize a pattern and begin to identify those assumptions, myths, and in­stitutions of our society which must be changed.

We are the ones who must do the major work to initiate these changes in our society. For many of us this will involve the give and take of group organizing and politics. This need not be the style for all, however. There are many projects that are des- parately needed which can be done by one or two people. These pro­jects require neither votes of approval nor fund raising nor ex­tensive committee meetings. Some of them might be:

1. Write ar article, poem, car­toon, etc. for The Broadside.

2. Obtain salary and advancement information from your place of employment (be sneaky).

3. File an Equal Employment Op­portunity Commission or Equal Pay Act complaint. It in­volves one phone call to the Department of Labor and your name is kept in confidence.

h-. Investigate a day care center in your area. Call 464-8030 for a questionnaire which will help you in knowing what to look for.

5. Survey a school reader, text­book, TV program)or commer­cial for sexism.

6. Ask your local library to display books on Women’s History or hold a book review series on a feminist book.

7. Invent a new sexual language, e.g. "If you had any balls" can be changed to ’If you had any ovaries."

8. Note all the he’s and man­kind’s in a philosophy book and change he to ghe land man­kind to peoplekind? human­kind?

9. Add to this list!Join with us in the style of your choosing!

Vote To End Sex BiasThe Texas Senate voted approval

April 20 of a bill requiring a clause banning discrimination by contractors on the basis of sex, race, religion, or national origin in all state and local government contracts.

Sen. Barbara Jordan of Houston, who sponsored the bill said, "The State of Texas needs to make this statement of its commitment."

HER STORY (continued)Zelda struggled, in madness

and desperation, to escape her con­dition but never succeeded because it was not solely of her creation. Once, years after Zelda’s death, an old lady whose house she had visited on sunny afternoons to paint in the garden asked Nancy Milford, "'Where was she that she could not come back? Where did she go? Where?"(p.xiv)

In her prologue, Ms. Milford’s comment on Zelda perhaps supplies the answer, "She was the American girl living the American dream and she went mad within it." (p. xiv)

TWO VICTORIES6 FINALLYMA BELL PAYS HER BILL

LEGISLATURE PASSES

ELRA

zui S

amendment to exempt property rights Texas

A DEBT SNIT LISTTo who

who

I I

CONGRATULATIONS!

ItJs a sister!

To Rex BraunHarris County representative,

District 23, who was House sponsor of the Equal Legal Rights AmendmentTo Don* Kennard

State Senator from Ft. Worth who sponrored the Equal Legal Rights Amendment in the Senate.

from coverage under the sex discrim­ination ban. The amendment was defeated 79-^6o

Seven Harris County House mem­bers voted for the Price proposal. (See Unit List this page.) Fifteen Harris County House members voted for the final passage. Will Lee, Sid Bowers, and. Jack Ogg opposed it. Curtis Graves of Houston was absent.

Although a number of discrimi­natory laws were reuealed in the 196? session of the legislature, many re­main on the books. The ELRA, if passed by the voters of Texas, would not only remove these laws, it would ensure no discriminatory laws could be re-enacted.

The passage of the ELRA in November, 1972, must be of top prior­ity to those concerned that all shall be equal under the law in

Hermine Tobolowskylegislative chairman and past

president of the Texas Federation of Business & Professional Women's Clubs, who has lobbied tirelessly for the women of Texas for 13 years.

Lorena Weeks of Wadley, Georgia, was awarded $30,761 April 19 by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals because of sex discrimination in the employment practices of Southern Bell Telephone Company.

Ms. Weeks is the plaintiff in Weeks v. Southern Bell, the first sex discrimination case under Title VII to reach the level of Circuit Court. The sum awarded to her in­cluded back pay, all claims for over­time, premiun pay, evening and night differentials, travel pay and expen­ses, and interest.

According to Sylvia Roberts, NOW Regional Director-South and attorney for Ms. Weeks, ”Lorena is the first woman to receive appro­priate relief after a court ruled a company violated Title VII."

The Weeks case began in March, 1966, when Ms. Weeks bid for the job of switchman which paid $51.50 more per week than she was earning. Denied the job solely on the basis of sex, she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They investigated the case and ruled in her favor but were unable to secure a voluntary agreement with Southern Bell.

Ms. Weeks then sued in federal court. Southern Bell claimed that the job involved "strenuous activity" including lifting a 31-pound relay time-testing set. Further, a Georgia labor regulation forbade women and minors lifting weights in excess of 30 pounds. The district court agreed.

Since her attorney was unwilling to appeal. Ms. Weeks contacted NOW. Sylvia Roberts took her case. After the briefs were filed in Circuit Court, the Georgia weight-lifting regulation was rescinded.

The Fifth United States Circuit Court ruled that sex was not a bona fide occupational qualification for the job of switchman and that Southern Bell's refusal to consider Ms. Weeks for the job violated Title VII. On March U-, 1971, five years after her initial bid, Lorena Weeks was given

Now chapters demonstrated na­tionally March 29 against Bell system affiliates to protest Southern Bell's failure to give relief to Lorena Weeks.

According to Dr. Jo-Ann Evans Gardner, NOW Board member from Pittsburgh who coordinated the nation­wide action, "The Weeks case was truly a landmark decision. This is a triumph for women across the coun­try who organized actions in more than a score of cities. Southern Bell would not obey the Federal Court order until NOW showed its determination to publicly embarrass the company nationally. We intend to keep up the pressure in each of the cities where the demonstrations were held, to oppose rate increases, and press the unions to protest until AT&T changes its hiring policies to truly equal employment opport uni ties for women and minorities."

After more than a decade, the legislature has approved the Legal Rights Amendment. The House approved the resolution 27, 119 to 25. The Senate had

Texas Equal Texas Apri 1passed the resolution unanimously February 16.

The legislative approval will allow the voters of Texas to decide on the proposed constitutional amend­ment to outlaw sex discrimination in the state. The proposed amej-.-imerit reads: "Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, creed, color or national origin." It will be placed on the November, 1972, general election ballot.

The ELRA faced a serious threat on the House floor« Representative Rayford Price of Palestine offered an

Harris County Legislators voted against the ELRA:

Will Lee Sid Bowers Jack Ogg

Harris County Legislators voted for amendment to exempt property rights from coverage under the sex discrimination ban:

Bill BlytheSid BowersWalter MengdenWill LeeSonny JonesJack OggBill T. Swanson

8

D

the job of switchman.

8 ft 0 J 0 kPl 0 Pi •d 0

Ever wonder why little girls want to be nurses and not doctors, secretaries and not executives, why they start dreaming of marriage when they’re barely out of the cradle, why they regard with awe the little boy down the street? Some feminists believe the books they read is the answer.

There are several concerted ef­forts to change the image of women and girls in school textbooks and children’s literature. Central New Jersey NOW is conducting a survey of grade 1-6 readers. They have found that women are usually portrayed only as mothers or sometimes as teachers and that girls are portrayed as younger and sillier than boys. A majority of the stories are "boys’ stories.11

The New Jersey NOW chapter is asking NOW members to put pressure on publishers, teachers, and school

boards and administrators. The chap­ter is coordinating all efforts and asks interested chapters or individ­uals to write to Sigrid Hammond, 116 Linden Lane, Princeton, N.J. 085^0.

Women from Lollipop Power, a newly organized group that is produ­cing non-sexist children’s litera­ture, wants women who are interested in writing or illustrating books for pre-school children and early readers to write to: Lollipop Power, P.O. Box 1171, Chapel Hill, N.C. 2?51^o

Women who want to write books for older children should contact Feminist Press, 550^ Greenspring Ave., Baltimore, Nd. 21209* Feminist Press is interested primar­ily in biographical pamphlets (50- 100 pages) on individual women or groups of women, past and present, for high school students and adults. Any woman who is interested is asked to name her subject when she corre­sponds with Feminist Press.

probablyVis\o“be on earth long enough to ble for herself and conceive children who

"If a 1..V___ c-not. Let her only die from bearing.

KNOW YOUR ENEMYwoman Krows weary and at last matterSLet her only die from bearing. She is here, to^do^.

The fact of the matter is that the prime responsibility^^^oman

will improve the species.- Norman Nailer

"Bv herself woman is all mixed up but superb as an auxiliary. Woman is inanimate or on the defensive until you create a feeling sucn^as praise, then she goes all out. women when they need only to be

is all mixed up but superb as an auxiliary

Women act only on orders. Why ask told?" - tips from G.C. Payette, a

marriage counselor and author of How to Get and Hold aWoman

"The only position for women in SNCC is Prone.^^ Carm.chael

WANT ADS-whatthey really mean9

by Barbara Lane Farley

Here’s how thencome-on" ads of the employment agencies read..o and what their jargon really means,.

THE AD

Mini-skirted cutie - Be a sweet receptionist. $325.00

Be your own Boss!

Experienced (anything)

An Equal Employment Employer

Public Relations Position

Mature Woman wanted.

Management Trainee-no experience required. Opportunity to advance rapidly. Open salary.

Beginner typist - no shorthand required. Just smile and answer phone, iP+OO

THE TRANSLATION

EVERY MAN in this office is a lecher. If that’s your bag, sister, you’re hired. The low salary can be supple­mented - depending on your availability

Franchise deal or cosmetic eales d^or- to-door . Investment required. The credit check is a real bummer - live

clean! If you have the dough, we’ll let you work an 80-hour week... AT YOUR RISK!

One year as a flunky is acceptable. If you are too experienced and have held an executive position with pood pay, you are automatically ’’over- qualified” and won’t be hired. You might frighten your young, male boss, who is under-qualified.

If you are as inexpensive to hire as the next young, white male.

Sales job. Straight commission and no expense account. You ftiirnlsh your own sales leads and late model car.Ages 25 to 30. If over h-0, go back home and die!Salesman! Preferably young. If a woman without specific sales experience in steel-plated donut cutters, you’d better have at least a BA decree and friends who can be seduced into buying steel donut cutters. Forget the rapid advancement; that was obviously intended for males only. That open salary means commissions.Tot on in to our flesh-peddling parlor, Little Miss Sucker. You will get a starvation wage; will pay us h-0% of that pittance immediately; will get to operate a switchboard without any previous training; will file all pavers for five lazy men; and be critized daily for your inability to take shorthand. Typing speed for a beginner? 50-60 wpm minimum!

10

zs-nsiasAN OPEN LETTER TO THE SISTERS OF TEXAS:

At our Austin conference Sep­tember 27, 1970, we did not empha­size that the Womans Liberation Movement was apolitical. There­fore, this letter is written to state categorically that the whole Movement is neither interested in the political philosophies of any of the sisters, nor is the Move­ment a vehicle to further the cause of any political movement, whether socialistic, communistic, fascistic, or capitalistic.

At two of the abortion con­ferences m Austin, there have been attempts by some of the sis­ters to argue the relative merits of socialism in reference to the Womans Liberation Movement. Other sisters have disagreed with this political philosophy and have preferred to be more involved with womens problems as a whole, as opposed to political problems.

We feel that there is nothing sisterly about forcing one’s political beliefs on a sister who may not know or care about a polit­ical faction, but is aware of and sincerely concerned with women’s problems. We also feel that al­though capitalism has exploited, women, it does not necessarily follow that socialism, communism, or fascism will not also exploit women. Robin Morgan in her arti­cle, "Goodbye To All That," reminds us that "Racism and. sexism predate social!sm."

This letter is not meant to alienate any of our sisters of any political persuasion, but to remind them that we are all con­cerned with Woman’s Liberation, not political movements.

Will you sisters in women’s groups in other parts of the state let us know your feelings of this? Write to either of the following:Ellen Johnson3717 Lafayette Pl.Dallas, Texas 75204

Annette Kinnard 8829 Hackney Lane Dallas, Texas 75233

Love to all sisters, DALLAS AREA WOMEN'S LIBERATION

TO THE EDITORS:There are inaccuracies in L.D.'s

account of the bake sale. She only hallucinated the small room with the light. More important, she did not bake those brownies herself. Credit should be given where credit is due- L.D.’s mother—Thanks to her for a ;.-riDular sales item!

B.B.

I I

Deliberate self-poisoning is more common among married women than any other group according to an article in Texas Medicine, publiched by the Texas Medical Associ at5 on.

Anyone who would like to write an article or es­say for The BROADSIDE on an issue involving wo­men's rights should contact Laura Douglas at 529-6400 or Helen Cassidy at 748-5369- Letters to the editor and your suggestions and comments are invited.

READING LISTHgJTIg-L Tubman, Sarah Bradford., Corinth Books, Inc., 1961.TTie Dialectic of Sex, Shulamith Firestone, Bantam Books, 1971.

Th.e Strategy of Sexual Struggle, Caroline Hennessey, Lancer Books, J 971.

The,.Organizer1 s Manual, 0. M. Collective, Bantam Books, 1971.

Men in Groups, Lionel Tiger, Vantage Books, 1970. Know the enemy*

"Aid Employed. Mothers," The Houston Post, editorial, April 19, 1971.

"A Long Endured Inequity," The Houston Post, editorial, April 20, 1971.

"Germaine Greer," Life, May 7, 1971.

"Coco Chanel, the late grande dame of fashion, was on the side of women— a personal memoir," Joseph Barry, Smithsonian, May, 1971.

"It is tragic that the reproductive abilities women share with all other mammals have been more highly valued and developed than the productive intelligence we do not share with any other animal."

Wilma Scott Heide, Chairone of NOW National Board, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the ERA

JOIN N.O.W....subscribe to the BROADSIDE(members receive issues free)

I would like to become a member of N.O.W.(National dues $10,00 Local dues $2.50)I am not a N.O.W. member but would like to receive the newsletter ($3®00) I would like to make a contribution of $ to N.O.W.

NAM E ADDRE S S

CITY ZIP

Mall to: National Organization for Women, Houston Area Chapter, P.O. Box 384, Bellaire, Texas 77401One must pay national dues to be a member of -.O.1.!,

Houston chapter

? National Organization for Women Houston Area ChapterP.O.

Box 38^Bellaire,

Texas 77^01

need

s

national organization for women