NEWSLETTER

The Center for the Study of Womenand Sex Roles

27 EEE, ey
THE GRADUATE CENTER 33 WEST 42 STREET, NYC 10036 790-4435
VOL.1, NO.5 FEBRUARY, 1980

WORK IN PROGRESS: FEMINIST CONFERENCES IN NEW YORK CITY

Feminist conferences scheduled for spring, 1980 cover a wide range of topics. Those
sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women and Sex Roles include:

Conference on Asian/Pacific American Women's Educational Equity March 14-16
Asian Women United, in conjunction with the Center for the Study of Women and Sex
Roles, will hold a conference on March 14-16. This three day conference will include
talks by Bella Abzug, Carol Bellamy and Elizabeth Holtzman. Workshops will cover
Bi-Lingual and Bi-Cultural Education for Asian Students; Electing Asian American
Women to Office; Developing Curriculum Free of Racial and Sexual Stereotypes, and
sessions devoted to Proposal Writing, Career Planning, and Community Organizing.

For information and registration, contact Angie Cruz at the Center for the Study of
Women and Sex Roles.

Public and Private Spaces: Conference on Women Composers May 2
On May 2, the Center for the Study of Women and Sex Roles will hold a conference on

women composers, which will include a noontime panel presentation and discussion,
from 12-2, and evening performances by Mary Lou Williams, on jazz piano, and Vivian
Fine, who will present a portion of her new opera, based on the work of Gertrude
Stein and Virginia Woolf. Meredith Monk is also scheduled to appear. The events are
free to the public, and tickets will be available in early spring. For more in-
formation, write to Adrienne Block at the Center.

Other centers and organizations are holding conferences this spring. Among them are:

The Scholar and the Feminist: VII April 12

The conference of the Barnard Women's Center will focus on "Class, Race and Sex:
Exploring Contradictions, Understanding Connections." The conference will work
toward an understanding of how economic, political and cultural institutions divide
women by class, race and sexual preference, and will attempt a theoretical and ex-
periential re-examination of the power of sisterhood as an idea and as a social force.
The keynote speakers will be Rosalind Petchesky, Betty Powell and Bonnie Thornton
Dill. The afternoon session will include 15 workshops and a final plenary session.
The conference takes place on Saturday, April 12 at Barnard College. For information,
call 280-2067.

Feminism and Therapy March 1

"Feminism and Therapy" is the subject of a conference of the Women's Counseling Pro-
ject and Earl Hall of Columbia University. An afternoon panel will feature Eleanor
Johnson, a black feminist therapist, Eleanor Schucker, a psychoanalyst, and Lynn
Stevens, a CSW feminist therapist. Workshops include: Race, Class and Mental Health;
Women's Issues in Pastoral Counseling; Feminist Approaches to Counseling Battered
Women; Feminism and Family Therapy; Sisterhood and Sex Therapy; Compulsive Eating:
An Anti-Diet Psychotherapeutic and Feminist Approach. The fee for registration is
$5.00 or $2.50 for limited income. Write the Women's Counseling Project at Barnard
College, New York 10027 or call 280-3063.


Poison Ivy: Climbing Off the Walls of Academe February 23
This is a conference for women who have pursued MA's or Ph.D.'s intending to become
university teachers or scholars, but who now find it impossible to do so because of
political, economic, personal or social reasons. The conference organizers hope to
provide intellectuals and activists with a discussion of the alternatives to academe.
To register, send your name, address, phone, age, work and academic experience, with
a description of the issues you want to discuss, together with $6.00 to: “Poison Ivy,"
Apt. 5H, 123 West 93rd Street, New York, NY 10025, or call 622-7074.

The conference will be held on February 23rd from 10-5 at the Center for Human Develop-
ment, 853 Broadway at 14th Street.

Motherhood: Viewing Motherhood as a Growth Experience March 22
The Mother Center of Central New Jersey is sponsoring a conference on motherhood on

March 22 from 9:30-4:00. The conference will include a keynote address by Nancy
Hawlet and Joan Ditzion of the Boston Women's Health Collective, and workshops on a
variety of topics. The conference will be held at Union County Technical Institute,
Scotch Plains, New Jersey, which is about one hour from New York City. For more
information, call Anne Saltzman at 201-889-5305 or write to P.O. Box 7, Scotch Plains,
New Jersey, 07076. Registration is $7.00-$15.00, depending on circumstances. Child
care will be available.

CUNY Women's Coalition Conference May 3
The conference is still in the planning stages. For information call Lelia Melani
at the Brooklyn College English Department, 780-5195.

Job Notices

The Center for the Study of Human Rights (Columbia University, 704 International
Affairs Building) has just received post doctoral fellowships for one year's study
(September 1980—-August 1981) from the Rockefeller Foundation. It requests a research
proposal from applicants interested in research on a) Women's Rights; b) Health Care
and Social Welfare Resources; and c) Political Rights Internationally. For more
information, and an application, contact Patricia Biggers or Deborah Martinsen at
280-2479. Stipends will be determined by need. Young scholars can expect up to
$15,000; established scholars, up to $22,000. Ph.D. or equivalent needed.

Professor Gaye Tuchman, Department of Sociology, needs a research assistant for data
collection from standard reference books. The job will pay $5.25 per hour and will
start as soon as possible. Call 790-4283 or 790-4320 for information.

Human Resources, Inc. seeks a Director of Information Services. The director advises
in the use of information sources appropriate to marketing, develops news, storylines,
and authors for publication, carries out preliminary screening projects for executive
search consulting assignments. Candidate would have experience that would provide a
broad exposure to different business and industrial sectors, with strong communica-
tions and interpersonal skills. Total compensation to equal $20,000 or more. Send
resume and letter to William Zinke, President, Human Resource Services, Inc., 230 Park
Avenue, New York, New York 10017.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Ruby Rohrlich is collecting material for an anthology on patriarchy as a crucial
factor in state formation. Contact her at 874-6884 if you have a paper.


Events for Spring Semester, 1980

Activities for the Spring semester at the Center for the Study of Women and Sex Roles
include:

LECTURE BY ROSALYN YALOW
Rosalyn Yalow, who was awarded the Noble Prize in 1977, will speak on the use of
radioactivity in the service of humanity, on March 19 at 7:30 pm in the Auditorium.

CONVERSATION HOURS

This event provides an opportunity for informal presentation of recent thinking

and research. Scheduled to speak are:

-~--Gerald Speal, on February 14, will talk on "Child Custody: The Needs of Children,
The Rights of Fathers". He will review the assumptions behind legal
decistons on child custody.

---Ellen Ross, on “Marriage in the Me Generation: A Marxist~Feminist Review of
Modern Advice Manuals", in March.

---Ronna Kabatznick and Christina Taylor on "Sexual Harassment of Joggers in City and
Suburbs: Results of a Recent Study", in April.

TUESDAY NOON LUNCH

Each Tuesday members of the Center meet informally for discussion and conversation

over lunch. If you have questions about the Center, if you want to meet Center members,
or if you want to talk about your ideas and work with others, you are welcome to join
this group any Tuesday. Either stop by the Center or meet on the 18th floor.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES PROGRAM

The Center will continue to accept applications from those who want a more formal
association and would benefit from an institutional base at the Center. We provide
non-salary support for Research Associates in all stages of the proposal writing process.
If you are interested in becoming an Associate, please contact the Center.

NEWSLETTER

We welcome contributions to the Newsletter. We are happy to publish notices of jobs,
conferences and meetings; in addition, the Newsletter serves as an exchange for
information on new research topics and projects; publications, reviews; and. issues
of general interest to the feminist community.

SEMINARS AND STUDY GROUPS

Women and Health Research Group

The Women and Health Research Group meets montly to discuss women-centered, health-
related topics. The group is currently composed of approximately equal numbers of
faculty, graduate students and women working in medical and other non-academic settings
who are concerned with health-related issues. Discussions typically begin with short
presentations by a panel of two or three people working on that month's topic; topics
and panel members are chosen by the group a month or more in advance. Discussions so
far have been both informal and highly informative. Topics have included pregnancy,
economics and politics of health care delivery, breast~feeding, and sterilization;
suggestions for further meetings include "mental health" issues as they affect women

of di ferent ethnic backgrounds (planned for March) and stress. All interested are
invited to attend. Contact Mary Parlee at the Center if you want to be put on the mailing
list for this group.

Feminist Methods of Inquiry
The next meeting of this seminar on Friday, March 14 at 3:00 will feature Doris Meyer

(Brooklyn College) as guest speaker. She will discuss her recently published biography
Victoria Ocampo (Brazillier) which brings to our attention a signficant woman writer
from Argentina. Ocampo, (1890-1979) touched the national life of Argentina under the
Peron regime, and influenced European literary figures of four decades. Current interest
in Hispanic women writers in an ongoing part of the Brooklyn College Institute in



Women's Studies for Secondary School Faculty, a project sponsored by FIPSE. During
the year the Seminar on Feminist Methods of Inquiry has focused on the ways in which
writers such as Monique Wittig, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison and Ruth Rosen
(as editor) have utilized unique literary methods to develop women's histories and
mythologies. New members are welcome at the March 14 meeting, even if they have not
read the Ocampo biography. For more information, call Trudy Berger at 780-5476.

Committee on Multi-Natiortals: and Women's Health

This seminar studies the role of multi-national corporations as they affect and

control women's health both in the United States and in other countries. This includes
examination of issues of sterilization, birth control and pornography. For further
information on the group, call Ruby Rohrlich at 864-6884. New Members are welcome at
the next meeting on February 8th.

SPRING LECTURE SERIES
SS

Thursday, Feb. 28, 4pm Third Floor Studio
NAOMI WEISSTEIN

"Fair Science, Feminism and the Reigning Truth -- 'How Can a Little Girl Like You Teach
A Great Big Class of Men?' The Chairman Asked--Adventures and Further Adventures of
A Woman in Science"

Naomi Weisstein, Professor at SUNY, Buffalo, is well known for her research and theory
on the neural basis of vision. Her pioneering activities in the feminist movement
include the early feminist analysis "Kinder, Kuche and Kirche as Scientific Law:
Psychology Constructs The Female" and her participation in the New Haven Women's
Liberation Rock Band. She is noted for her use of humor to advance feminism in science.

Thursday, March 20, 4 pm Room 207
HEIDI HARTMANN

"Housework as an Example of Gender, Class
and Political Struggle"

Heidi Hartmann is a Research Associate at the National Academy of Science, working

on women and employment discrimination. Formerly of the New School for Social Research,
Political Economy Program, she has been active in the Union of Radical Political
Economists and in the Women's Movement for many years. She is the author of "The
Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism" and other articles in Marxist-Feminist theory.

Thursday, April 24, 4 pm

RAYNA RAPP

"A Feminist Anthropological Approach
to the History of Sexuality"

Rayna Rapp is an Associate Professor on the Graduate Faculty at the New School for
Social Research. She is the editor of Toward an Anthropology of Women and the author
of numerous articles on feminism and family history. Rayna Rapp is also active in
the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse.



NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Students, staff and faculty of the Graduate Center are invited to loan their recently
published books to a display of work on women, which the Center will sponsor in March.
Books, which will be featured in the 18th floor book display case, should be sent to
Martha Nelson, The Center for the Study of Women and Sex Roles, Room 1400, The Graduate
Center, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, 10036.

Sociologists for Women in Society will meet jointly with the Association for Women in
Psychology on February 9 at 10:30 am at Marymount Manhattan College, 221 East 71st
Street. The topic for panel discussion is "Single Motherhood". For more information
call 924-6914.

Women who are college graduates, approximately 50-60 years of age, and have at least
one child, are invited to take part in a study of multiple roles in middle-aged women.
Participants will fil1 out a mailed questionnafre and come to the Graduate Center for
an interview (lasting about one hour). Participation is voluntary, but a token payment
of $5.00 will be made to cover carfare to the Graduate Center. If you are interested,
please send name, address, and phone number to Joan Gerver, Department of Social-
Personality Psychology, 6th floor, Graduate Center, 33 West 42 Street, New York.

The Aviva Players, a group which plays chamber music written by women composers, will
perform on February 17 at 4 o'clock at the Madison Avenue Presbysterian Church at
Madison and 73rd Street. Sponsored by Meet the Composer, the program will include works
by Judith Zaimont, (who will be present), Germaine Tailleferre, Louise Talma and H.H.A.
Beach. Admission is $3.00.

In June and July of 1980 the White House will sponsor a National Conference on Families.
New York State delegates will be chosen from 5 regional conferences being held in

January and February. Brooklyn NOW is organizing to insure the participation of feminists
as representatives in the regional conferences and as delegates tothe national convention.
If you are interested in becoming a delegate, or if you would like to obtain more
information on the project, call Evelyn Roth, 488-4444 (days) or 473-7946.

Live performances by artists and video tapes will be featured in a series of "Feminist
Performances: New York/Europe/California," on February 7, 12, 14 and 19 at the Franklin
Furnace, 112 Franklin Street. Admission is $2.00. For information, call 925-4671.

NEW PROJECTS

Susan Saegert will be conducting a consulting project with HAUS International on the
development of a housing plan for the city of Denver. Her role will be to project the
changing needs of women for housing, transportation and public services. The plan will
include strategies for both public and private housing.

Joan M. Gerver, a doctoral student in the Department of Social-Personality Psychology,
was awarded a Grant in Aid of Research by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society,
for her proposed dissertation, "Multiple Role Behavior and Perception of Ambiguity in
Middle-Aged Women: Satisfaction, Flexibility and Control. She was chosen from a field
that encompassed research proposals from all the sciences.


FEBRUARY 1980

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN AND SEX ROLES

Tuesday, February 5 11:15-1:15: Tuesday Noon Lunch. Informal Meeting and
Conversation, open to all. 18th Floor Dining Room.

Tuesday, February 5 1:30-3:00: Steering Committee Meeting; check in
Room 1400 for location.

Friday, February 8 2:00: Committee on Multinationals and Women's Health.
New Members welcome. Call Ruby Rohrlich, 874-6884 or
CSWSR for room number.

Thursday, February 14 4:00: Conversation Hour. Gerald Speal will speak on
the question of fathering and child custody. Room 1401.

Tuesday, February 19 11:15-1:15: Tuesday Noon Lunch. 18th Floor.

Thursday, February 21 6:00: Meeting of the Feminist Students Organization,
8th Floor Lounge.

Friday, February 22 4:00-6:00: Women and Health Seminar will meet to dis-
cuss sterilization. Special speakers include Rosalind
Petchesky, Judy Lilleston and Jody Carlson.

Tuesday, February 26 11:45-1:15: Tuesday Noon Lunch.
Thursday, February 28 1:00: Associates Meeting, Room 1401.
Thursday, February 28 4:00: Naomi Weisstein, first speaker in CSWSR's Spring

Lecture Series, will talk on "Fair Science, Feminism
and the Reigning Truth--'How Can a Little Girl Like

You Teach a Great Big Class of Men! the Chairman Said--
Adventures and Further Adventures of a Woman in Science.
Third Floor Studio. Reception follows.

Note: The Seminar on Feminist Methods of Inquiry will not meet in February. See
note in Newsletter for details and next date.