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The City University Graduate Center

33 West 42 Street, New York City 10036 212 790-4435

. II, No. 1 Sept.-Oct., 1980
von WORK IN PROGRESS
This section of "Work in Progress" will serve as an introduction to the work
and research of the Center members for 1980-81. In future issues we will
present more detailed descriptions of the work of individual members.

Elaine Baruch (York College)
Elaine Baruch has been working on a study titled "Women in Utopia: Implications
for Ethics and Values." Her study focuses on literary works, but also touches
on a range of actual utopian experiments. She is also beginning to organize
a conference on women and utopia.

Adrienne Block (The Graduate School and University Center)
In May she chaired a meeting on women composers, part of the series, American
Women in the Arts. Currently she is working on a history of American women
composers and is editing the correspondence of an American woman musician.

Elizabeth Brusco Steering Committee (The Graduate School and University Center)
Elizabeth Brusco, a doctoral student in Anthropology, is a founding member
of the Feminist Students Organization at the Graduate School. She is inter-
ested in the study of how religious movements reveal women as agents of social/
ideological change, particularly in the Pentecostal movement in Latin America.

Paula Carien Steering Committee (The Graduate School and University Center)
As Director of Sponsored Research and Program Funding, Paula Carien works with
researchers to develop proposals for funding research and demonstration projects.
She maintains information on grants and files of proposals that have been
funded at the Graduate Center.

Florence Denmark Steering Committee (Hunter College and the Graduate Center)
Florence Denmark's research is on the psychology of women with a focus on the
effects of gender in interpersonal interactions. She is particularly interested
in research concerning leadership, status, and power and their relation to
sex role stereotypes. Her most recent work is on the conditions under which
identical behaviors in women and men are given different descriptions and ex-
Pplanations. This year she is President of the American Psychological Associa-
tion.

Laura Gordon Visiting Scholar (Montclair State College)
Laura Gordon is investigating programs for the integration of women in non-
traditional jobs. She will focus on the characteristics of programs which
are most successful in terms of the adjustment of workers and workplace to
sex-desegregation in various industrial settings.

Vivian Gornick
Vivian Gornick, journalist and author, will be writing on the careers and lives
of women in science today, exploring and describing the emotional, intellectual
and professional experiences of scientists who are women.

Judith Greenwald (Psychotherapist, private practice)
Judith Greenwald's research interests are focused on domestic violence, and
with Julie Doron, she has developed a proposal on marital rape. She is also
working with feminist therapists to organize a conference on “Feminism and
Psychotherapy: The Gap Between Ideology and Practice."


Rita Guttman (Professor Emerita, Brooklyn College)
Rita Guttman is acting as the co-ordinator of a project to involve retired CUNY
faculty and staff in the work of the Center.

Barbara Katz Rothman (Baruch College)
Barbara Katz Rothman is a medical sociologist who has done research on maternity
care, and the conceptualizations surrounding pregnancy. She is currently
studying the differences between medical and woman-centered health care.

Joan Kelly Steering Committee (City College and The Graduate Center)
Joan Kelly's work in women's history has dealt with women in the Renaissance
and with the implications of this study for historical methodology and theo-
retical development. She has written on Marxism and feminism, on housework
and feminist theory, and on feminist social theory.

Judith Lorber (Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center)
Judith Lorber is working on a study of the career development of female and
male physicians. She has also been elected President of Sociologists for Wo-
men in Society.

Charlotte Muller Steering Committee (Graduate School and University Center)
Charlotte Muller has contributed to the research literature on women and health
through her economic studies, including: insurance coverage of fertility control
and maternity services, data needs relating to women's health, and economic
issues in retirement. She is a member of the editorial board of Women and
Health.

Mary Brown Parlee Director (The Graduate School and University Center)
Mary Brown Parlee's primary research interests are in the psychology of female
reproductive processes over the life cycle; nonverbal communication of beliefs
and attitudes concerning women's bodies and the functional significance of
these beliefs; biological and social rhythms in behavior.

Sarah Pomeroy Steering Committee (Hunter College and the Graduate Center)
Sarah Pomeroy's work is on women in classical antiquity, Greek literature and
social history. She is co-ordinator of the Women's Studies program at
Hunter College. With a grant from NEH she is working with other Hunter faculty
members to develop a new textbook for introduction to Women's Studies.

Claire Riley Steering Committee (The Graduate School and University Center)
Claire Riley is interested in developing feminist theory within anthropology,
particularly in the areas of kinship and socio-political organization. A
founding member of the Feminist Students Organization, and a student in the
Ph.D. program in Anthropology, she will do her field work in New Guinea.

Ruby Rohrlich (Borough of Manhattan Community College)
Ruby Rohrlich is developing an analysis of the linkages between gender roles
and race relations. With Diane Lewis of University of California at Santa
Cruz, she directed an NEH Summer Seminar on the historical and contemporary
linkages between gender roles and race relations. She was recently appointed
to the Academy of Arts and Sciences of the City University of New York.

Susan Saegert Steering Committee (The Graduate School and University Center)
Susan Saegert's research focuses on women's experiences and needs in their
communities, dual roles and role strains, identification and elimination of
barriers to economic equity and the housing needs of women and working parents.
She works with the Women and Urban Environments Group sponsored by the CSWSR.


Ethel Tobach (American Museum of Natural History and the Graduate Center)
Ethel Tobach is investigating social systems and socialization processes which
bring about institutionalized sexism, the use of science to justify sexism,
and the organization and dissemination of human knowledge to institutionalize
sexism.

Margaret Strosser
Margaret Strosser is working with Lisa Wilde on a film entitled "Breasts:

From a Woman's Point of View." The film will examine the ways women see then-
selves and their cultural image in specific relation to breasts.

Gaye Tuchman Steering Committee (Queens College and the Graduate Center)
With grants from the Ford Foundation and NEH, Gaye Tuchman is researching the
structure of opportunity for women (particularly women writers) to create
culture. Tuchman and Cynthia Epstein have also been awarded a training grant
on the sociology and economics of women and work.

Rhoda Unger (Montclair State College)
Rhoda Unger is attempting to delineate a theoretical framework for a feminist
psychology of women and analyzing the development of the field in terms of a
sociology of knowledge approach.

Paula Webster (The Graduate School and University Center)
Paula Webster, an anthropologist, is engaged in two projects: 1) research on
the development of etiological models of rape in early postwar America, exam-
ining social construction of scientific thought about the nature of rape and
the rapist; 2) with Lucy Gilbert, she is writing a book titled "Sexual An-
tagonism," which examines the link between women's socialization as daughters
to femininity, and their victimization within and outside the nuclear family.

Dennis Werner (The Graduate School and University Center)
Dennis Werner is an anthropologist who is working on a proposal to evaluate
three major theories about why people hold negative or stereotyped ideas about
homosexuality.

Lisa Wilde
Lisa Wilde, with Margaret Strosser, will direct the film "Breasts: From a
Woman's Point of View."

Elizabeth Wood
Elizabeth Wood is working on an oral history project on contemporary American
women composers and on chapters for a forthcoming book "American Women Com-
posers: 1870-1950," in collaboration with Adrienne Block and Ruth Julius.
She has recently completed a review essay in musicology for SIGNS 6, 2.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Ruby Rohrlich is compiling material for an anthology on the emergence of

patriarchy as a critical factor in the formation of early state societies, and
is interested in hearing from people working in the area. Contact her through
the Center, or write to her at 303 West 66th Street, New York, New York 10023.


NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

An international network of women in psychology was established at the 22nd
International Congress of Psychology, held in July, 1980. The network will
organize sessions at the next Congress to be held in Mexico in 1984.

Judith Lorber was elected President of the Sociologists for Women in Society. She
will serve a two year ‘term as head of the 1000 member organization. SWS runs a
program and social activities at the national and regional sociology meetings.
Barbara Katz Rothman will serve as one of the coordinators of this years national
SWS program. For information on SWS meetings this fall, call Judy Lorber, 689-2155.

The New York Chapter of the Association for Women in Psychology will be meeting on
the third Friday of each month beginning in October. For notices of meetings, contact
Ethel Tobach, Room 609, The Graduate Center, 33 West 42nd, NYC.

Submissions are being accepted until December 15 for the Research on Women in
Education Award. A published or unpublished research report on women in education
that was conducted or written in 1979-80 is eligible. Send 5 copies of abstract
and paper to Carole Shakeshaft, School of Ed, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY,
11550. A cash prize accompanies the award.

Women’s Studies Courses

For Fall, 1980, Women's Studies courses at the Graduate Center include:

--Seminar in Sex Roles and the Environment (Psych. U801.57), a three credit
course taught by Susan Saegert on Wednesdays, 9:30-11:30.
Examines the development and maintenance of sex differences through the
environmental experience and demands on the designed environment with.
emphasis on childhood environments, housing and community planning.

--Political Economy of Class, Race and Sex, a three credit course, taught by
Professor Franklin on Tuesday, from 6:30-8:30 pm, in Room 1223. (Soc. U845.12)

The course is concerned with theories and historically based explanations which
relate technologies, culture and stratification to race and sex. Specifically,
it is concerned with explaining the position of the black population vis-a-vis
the white population, black/white males vis-a-vis black/white females, and
females versus males.

--Women and the Power Structure (Soc. U854.10), a three credit course, taught
by Cynthia Epstein on Wednesdays, 2-4 in room 1525.
The changing roles of women in elite occupations and professions will be explored.
Units of inquiry will include the spheres of law, medicine, business and
government. Theorfes of leadership, prestige and actess to power will be
explored to explain women's participation in high demand, high prestige domains.

~-Proseminar on the Sociology and Economics of Women and Work, taught by Gaye
Tuchman on Wednesdays from 4-6. 3 credits for 2 semesters. Room to be announced.

A full description of the course will he posted outside room 1400 in September.

Classes begin on September 15. For information, contact the Registrar, the Center,
or Professor Meyersohn, Committee on Interdisciplinary Study and Research, Room 901.


Study Groups /Seminars

WOMEN AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTS GROUP

Feminists from planning, design, community organizing, environmental
psychology, political science and a range of women's organizations met this
summer to discuss the problems women face in finding necessary services, housing,
transportation, jobs, etc. in urban areas. Four foci emerged: 1) the desire to
develop a technical assistance program in conjunction with women in low-income
neighbhorhoods; 2) a plan to have a series of speakers on the environmental needs
of women; 3) a need to develop a network of feminists concerned with the needs of
women in urban environments, policy-making, and community development; 4) a plan
to maintain a list of relevant newsletters, organizations, and projects. Anyone
interested in this group may’ eontact Susan Saegert at 790-4551. A meeting is
planning for September 16, in room 1629. Call to check time and place.

WOMEN AND HEALTH RESEARCH GROUP

The Women and Health Research Group, which has been meeting regularly at the
Graduate Center for a year and a half, consists of a group of faculty, students
and others concerned with feminist issues in health. Each meeting focuses on a
single topic, with two or three people presenting their work or work in progress.
Topics in the past have included menstruation, sterilization, economics of health.
care delivery, breastfeeding, occupational health and safety issues. in pregnancy.
Planning for this year is underway, and ideas for topics/speakers are welcome:
Contact Judy Lorber (689-2155), Mary Brown Parlee (790-4435), or Barbara Katz
Rothman (434-2688). All interested are invited to come and bring interested
colleagues. The first meeting takes place on September 26 in room 1401, 3 o'clock.

FEMINIST METHODS OF INQUIRY

Last year the Feminist Methods of Inquiry Seminar met to examine the ways in
which women writers have utilized literary methods to develop women's histories
and mythologies. Plans for the seminar's focus. and speakers for the next year
are now being made. The first meeting will be on October 14, at 3 pm, on "Reports
from the International Congresses". For more information, call Gertrude Berger,
at 780-5476.

Women & Work Project

NIMH has funded Gaye Tuchman and Cynthia Epstein to direct a training grant on

the sociology and economics of women and work. The grant includes four post-
doctoral fellowships and four pre-doctoral fellowships. Fellows are being drawn
from the fields of sociology, economics and business. Two postdoctoral fellowships
may still be available for January. In addition to coursework, some fellows will
do research in corporations and possibly in unions. They will also have the
opportunity to work on their own research topics. The research on women and work
will include aspects of work and family and aspects of health. More information
on the program is available from the Center or from Gaye Tuchman or Cynthia Epstein.


Monday, September 15
Tuesday, September 16
Friday, September 19

Thursday, September 24

Friday, September 26

Wednesday, October 8

Friday, October 10

Friday, October 24

Friday, November 14

3-5 pm

2 pm

SEPT.-OCT. 1980

First Day of Classes at The Graduate Center

Women and Urban Environment Group, Room 1629

Associates Meeting, Room 1401

Proseminar on the Sociology and Economics of
Women and Work will present a prominent guest
lecturer on new areas of investigation on women
and work. Call the Center or the Sociology
Department for room number and details.

Women and Health Group meets in Room 1401.
Panalists: Dorothy Jessop of the Albert Einstein
Medical Center will speak on "Effects of
Children's Chronic Illness on Mothers".

Corinne Karchner of the American Foundation for
the Blind will speak on "Marital Status of
Disabled Women".

Discussant to be announced.

First speaker in the Fall Lecture Series:
Catharine R. Stimpson, Professor of English

at Rutgers University, and the founding Editor

of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society,
will speak on "THE NEW SCHOLARSHIP ABOUT WOMEN:
THE STATE OF THE ART" Room 207.

Feminist Methods of Inquiry Seminar meets to

hear "Reports from the International Congresses".
Invited speakers include Amy Swerdlow on the

United Nations Copenhagen Conference and Libby
Frank and Trudy Berger on the Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom Conference. For

room number and more information, call Trudy Berger,
780-7456 or call the Center.

Women and Health Research Group meets. Topic and
room number to be announced. Call for detafis.

Second Speaker in the Fall Lecture Series:

Judy Walkowitz, Associate Professor of History at
Rutgers University, will present "'MURDER, MURDER,
MUTILATION WHITECHAPEL’: JACK THE RIPPER AND OUTCAST
LONDON", an examination of the effect of public
discourse on class and sexuality on a working class
neighbhorhood. 3rd Floor Studio.