THE CENTER FOR

vounattioe se Newsletter

The City University Graduate Center

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

Volume III, No. 1 September, 1981

The Center for the Study of Women and Sex Roles begins the fall semester tn new
offices -- room 03 and room 05, tn the Lower mezzanine of the Graduate Center, one
floor above the library. Adjotning the Center, in room O01, ts the office of

Mary Parlee, the Director. The offices of the postdoctoral fellows in the Women
and Work program are located nearby.

Listed here below are the members of the Center for the 1981-82 year and their
fields of research. The Center also benefits by the research and activittes of
the steering committee members and other feminist scholars at the Graduate Center.
Reports on thetr work will be featured in other Newsletters throughout the year.

Joan Acker, Visiting Scholar (University of Oregon)
Joan Acker has been working since 1976 on a project on "Women in Transition:

A Study of Middle Aged Women." She is presently (until Jan. 1982) in Sweden
doing research on women and work.

Adrienne Fried Block, Research Associate (The Graduate School and Univ. Center)
Adrienne Block is the Director of the Project for the Study of Women in Music
at the Graduate Center. She is planning to compile a Biographical Dictionary
of Women in American Music. A second research project focuses on the images
of women in 16th century popular poetry, which should cast light on popular
images of French women in the early 16th century.

Pamela S. Cain, Faculty Associate (Hunter College)
Pamela Cain is a sociologist doing work on the nature and extent of sex sepre-

gation of jobs within firms. She is attempting to estimate the depree of segre-
gation and to develop empirical measures of occupational segregation per se.

Her research should help to explain both the degree of segregation and its par-
ticular patterns.

Joyce Gelb, Faculty Associate (City College)
A- political scientist, Joyce Gelb is examining the politics of feminism in two
nations, the United States and United Kingdom. Her study focuses on: 1) the
problems addressed by feminists in each nation; 2) their organization and strat-
egies; 3) the relationship of each movement to a mass constituency and, 4) the
impact of each movement on the political process and public attitudes. Her
study looks at two feminist movements which share a common desire to alter the
second class position of women in society, but which differ greatly in terms of
political activism.

Rosalie G. Genovese, Research Associate (The Graduate School and Univ. Center)
Rosalie Genovese has initiated a study of women with doctorates in Physics, a
non-traditional career choice for females. The research will investigate and
analyze how their educational and career histories mesh with their life cycle
stages. The goal is to determine whether recurring patterns are found in the
timing of various life and career events such as receipt of the doctorate,
Marriage, childbearing, and periods out of the labor force.


Joan Goldstein, Affiliate (Rutgers University)
Joan Goldstein's work in sociology combines the questions of environmental plann-
ing with the impact that these decisions have upon the life style of women. She
is looking at the social and economic impact that a public transportation system
can create on the work and non-work life of women living in the communities along

the system. Her book Environmental Decision Making in Rural Locales is forth-
coming this year.

Leonore N. Hh ffman, Research Associate (The Graduate School ahd Univ. Center)
Leonore Hoffman is creating for dramatic production a script for The Maimie
Papers, (the correspondence of an ex-prostitute written between 1910 and 1922).
She is also developing a 3-week Institute for college teachers of writing

to provide theories and models, using primarily women's letters, diaries and
oral testimonies.

Barbara Joans, Faculty Associate (John Jay College)
Transitions into adulthood is the subject of research by anthropologist Barbara
Joans. She proposes to study the typical criteria for adulthood and the differ-
ential effects of those criteria upon both men and women.

Judith Kuppersmith, Faculty Associate (The College of Staten Island)
The focus of Judith Kuppersmith's work over the past six years has been the
examination of ethnic, race and class variables and their influence on the
mother/daughter relationship. Over the past 4 years, she has collected
complete questionnaires from a population of multi-ethnic, working class
mothers and daughters. Her project at the Center will be to analyze the

questionnaire data, to begin formulating and writing articles for publica-
tion,

Rosette C. Lamont, Faculty Associate (The Graduate School and University Center)
Rosette Lamont, with Susan Saegert and Flora Kaplan, recently co-edited a special
women's issue of the GC-CUNY journal CENTERPOINT. "The Dialectic of Public and
Private Spaces," emerges from the 5-part symposium on American Women in the Arts.

Her recent work in French literature has focused on Portrait of Dora, a play by
Helene Cixous.

James Levine, Research Associate (Bank Street College of Education)
In September, James Levine, with Joseph Pleck and Michael Lamb, will begin work
on a national and international project on fatherhood. He is the director of
the new Bank Street Program Development Institute and has a broad range of exper-
lence as a practioner and researcher in the field of child care.

Linda Ching Sledge, Visiting Scholar (Westchester Community College)
Linda Ching Sledge is writing a history of Chinese-American women, documenting
their transformation from poor villagers laboring in South China without male
Support to contemporary American career women embedded deeply in family systems.
She will show how women's roles within the family have altered substantially as
a result of historical forces beyond their control - separation of hus ands and
wives, a lengthy period of peonage in the American west and the erosion of eth-

nic enclaves. This project is part of a larger study of the Chinese-American
family being funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.


G. Sparks Lunney, Affiliate (Hostos Community College)
G. Sparks Lunney is working on a proposal with Dr. Florence Denmark to undertake

a large scale systematic replication of Condry and Condry's 1976 study on sex
differences. He has recently completed a study entitled, "Young Children's
Attributions: Pink and Blue is for Adults Only."

Ethel Tobach, Affiliate (Hunter College and The American Museum of Natural History)
Ethel Tobach has begun to analyze the writings of feminists for explicit and
implicit expressions of genetic determinism. The results of this analysis will be
used to assay the effects, if any, of the ideology of genetic determinism on
the development of a scientific, philosophical foundation for the organization of
political activities by women to destroy the instruments of their oppression.

Women’s Studies

In the fall of 1981, Women's Studies courses at the Graduate Center include:

FEMINIST SOCIAL THEORIES, taught by Joan Kelly, Wednesday, 4:15-6:15
Major schools of feminist theory will be considered and an effort will be made to
understand them within their social and theoretical context -- from their inception
in the French Revolution to the present. These schools will be related to
traditions of social philosophy they have both drawn upon and opposed.

LABOR ECONOMICS, taught by Linda Edwards, Monday, 2:00-4:00
Labor Economics is concerned with the determination of wages and hours of work
in labor markets by supply and demand. Topics include: derived demand analysis;
labor supply; labor market structure; mobility in the labor market; and population.

Since women comprise about 40% of the labor force, their role in the economy will
be considered.

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, taught by Gertrude Fzorsky, Tuesday, 6:30-8:30
An examination of significant moral problems which confront social theorists will
be undertaken in the context of analyzing theories of social justice. Special
attention on the concept of distributive justice as equality and its libertarian
critics. Problems of discrimination by race and sex and their-relation to an
equalitarian theory of justice will be analyzed.

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS, taught by Marilyn Gittell,
Thursday, 4:15-6:15
A review of the major historical theories related to the role of citizen partici-
pation in political systems. The practical analysis will look at the recent
emphasis on citizen participation in different societies. The course will stress
participation by marginal populations, including women and minority groups.

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During the 1981-82 year, the Center will sponsor a series of Brown Bag Luncheon
Seminars, to hear and discuss informal presentations of work in progress. The
meeting dates are: October 12, October 26, November 9, November 23, December 7,
and December 21. The meetings will take place at 12:30, every other Monday, in
the conference room in the lower mezzanine, one floor above the library. Contact
the Center for more information and to learn the topics for each presentation.


Book Reviews

ACCESS TO POWER: CROSS NATIONAL STUDIES OF WOMEN AND ELITES by Cynthia Fuchs Epstein
and Rose Laub Coser
(Boston: Allen and Unwin, 1981) 280 pp. 3 $28.50

Access to Power is an anthology drawn from a conference held at Cambridge
University in 1976, which examined the access of women to business, professional
and political careers in Western and Eastern Europe, the United States and inter-
national organization. The collection's underlying premise is that "few women hold
or have held positions of authority in most societies" and the essays all deal with
the degree to which mobility into elite structures has been accelerated in the past
decade. The countries included, among them Austria, France, the United Kingdom,
West Germany, Norway, Finland, Yugoslavia, and Poland, reflect a variety of ideo-
logical, political and economic perspectives, making comparative analysis most
relevant.

The articles vary in scope and significance. Among those of greatest importance
is Cynthia Epstein's overview of socialization, recruitment, voting and other measures
of political participation among women in the United States. This article serves
to synthesize the most current material in political science literature relating
to political behavior of women and is most useful for students and practitioners
of politics alike. Elina Haavio-Manila's article on women in Finland is important
because it explores the reasons for the relatively high number of women in that
nation's educational, labor and political institutions, in comparison with other
Scandinavian countries. Among Haavio-Manila's interesting findings are the large
number of professional women in Findland who are single (1/3 of the total), suggesting
the difficulty such women have in combining careers with marriage and family
responsibilities. Her analysis also describes increased mobility for women in
public, as opposed to private sector positions. This essay is particularly useful
when read in conjunction with Helga Hernes'’ discussion of political elites in Norway,
where female representation in elected legislative bodies and ministerial positions
has increased dramatically, partly in response to pressure from the feminist
movement and government intervention to insure equity. Bogdan Denitch's article
on Yugoslav women contains some suggestive findings relating urbanization to high
levels of political representation for women.

This book will be an invaluable resource for students of comparative feminism
because many of the articles present new and important information and analysis.
Unfortunately, some important nations are omitted from consideration, among them
Sweden and Italy, countries where in disparate ways feminism has had a considerable
impact on politics and elite representation. A concluding chapter which developed
the most significant themes in the sixteen essays and their implications for
theories of women and power, and which suggested possible areas for future research
would have been a useful addition to Access to Power.

--Joyce Gelb, Department of Political Setence
City College

BETWEEN MONEY AND LOVE: THE DIALECTICS OF WOMEN'S HOME AND MARKET WORK
by Natalte J. Sokoloff
(New York: Praeger Publishers, 1980) 300 pp. 3 $22.95

In her introduction to Sokoloff's book, Elise Boulding states the importance
of Sokoloff's book in developing new conceptual categories for analyzing the
process in which patriarchy has become "both metaphor and paradigm for all
hierarchical relations." Her claims are not overstated. In synthesizing the advances
made in the analysis of monopoly capitalism and the segregated role of women within
it, Sokoloff goes byond existing knowledge.


(Book Reviews, cont'd)

The statement of the problem Sokoloff tackles is familiar: there has been a
dramatic increase in the number of women in child-bearing years who work, but
inequality between women and men in a sex-segregated labor market not only persists
but increases. Her summary of the positions taken on this problem is based on
extensive reading and is a fair appraisal of the studies included. "Status as
attainment", she points out, clarifies many myths about women's aspirations and
behavior, butthe theory does not get at the underlying problem of how women's
responsibility for the devalued sphere of the home was structured in the first
place. The failure of those "mainstream'’ sociologists who focus on social status
and prestige is, she concludes, that they lose track of important determinants
in property, power and decision-making.

"Dual labor market" theorists enter into the terrain ignored by "status
attainment" theorists, but fail to address the question of why the two separate
labor markets operate by different rules. This is where Sokoloff has stepped into
the theoretical breach. She shows how the new breed of managers who were not owners
of the centralizing corporations that came into being in the late nineteenth
century sought to legitimize their new roles in professionalization of the field.

By separating the technical ability to perform from the cognitive ability to abstract,
plan and understand the whole, they found a functional role that is spelled out in
Braverman's remarkable (1975); this is one of the basic building blocks in Sokoloff's
theory.

Sokoloff subdivides the segregated labor market into three part: the competitive
sector which is the least profitable productive sector drawing on what "dual market"
theorists would call the "secondary" labor force; the monopoly sector which generates
technical innovation and growth, and the state sector which does not create value
but absorbs it. Women are owerrepresented in the competitive and state sectors.

The lower wage earned by the less-favored female or ethnically-prejudiced workers
employed in these sectors sustains growth in the monopoly sector.

Sokoloff does not get caught up in the chicken-and-egg controversy about
patriarchy and capitalism. She demonstrates the advance in the Marxist-feminist
position showing how patriarchal organization of male-female relations provided the
material and ideological bases of capitalism and patriarchy. What has changed with
capitalism is that patriarchy has moved from private-centered to publie-centered
exploitation of women, with men of all classes benefitting.

Sokoloff's book is one of those increasingly rare productions of scholarship
that build on existing theories, always moving forward in her criticism and
reformulation of the central arguments. It realizes the dream we share as social
scientists of advancing scientific understanding at the same time that we are aware of
the ideological by-products both of what we criticise and what we produce.

--June Nash, Department of Anthropology
The Ctty College

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An Advanced Workshop in the Evaluation of Sexual Disorders will take place, under
the direction of Helen Kaplan, on November 15, 1981, at the Payne Whitney
Psychiatric Clinic. To apply to attend the workshop, contact Ruth Pollack,
Office of Continuing Medical Education, P-111, Department of Psychiatry, The

New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, 525 East 68th Street, New York, New
York, 10021. Or Call 472-4344.

Women in Music is the focus of a conference sponsored by the University of Michigan
School of Music. The deadline for program proposals is November 1, 1981. The
conference will take place on March 12, 13, 14, 1982. Contact Marilyn Mason,
Coordinator, School of Music, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109.


Announcements

The 92nd Street Y will present the Jewish Film Festival in September, 1981. ‘Two
programs focus on women's issues. The first is Jewish Women: Independence, which
features Joyce at 34 and Girlfriends. Claudia Weill, director of Girlfriends, is
the speaker for the program which takes place on September 15, at 6 pm. The

second program on women is titled Jewish Women: Independence and Aging. The

films are Yudie and Tell Me A Riddle; the speaker is Mirra Bank. The program

is scheduled for September 15 at 8:30 pm. Call 427-G000, ext. 212 for information.

The National Association for Women Deans, Administrators and Counselors seeks
submissions for the Ruth Strang Research Award, an award of $500 and manuscript
publication. The manuscript may focus on any subject deemed timely and of importance
by the members of NAWDAC. Preference is given to emerging professionals and students.
Send 3 copies of the manuscript and a C.V. to Dr. Carolyn Wood, Department of
Educational Administration, College of Education, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque,
New Mexico, 87131. The deadline is January 1, 1981

Women Educators announces their annual "Curriculum Materials Award", to be presented
at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York, March,
1982. Send one copy of materials on women for use in educational settings to:

Mary Harris, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Kansas State University,
Manhattan, Kansas, 66506. Include a one-page description of how the materials relate
to sexism, sex-role stereotypes, and the image of women and girls. Deadline: Dec. 15,
1981.

The Fulbright Teacher Exchange program offers opportunities to teach and attend
seminars abroad for the 1982-83 year. Those eligible to apply are teachers of
classics, German, Italian, and world, Asian, or Middle Eastern history and area
studies, social studies supervisors, teacher educators and administrators.
Requirements are U.S. citizenship, a bachelor's degree, and two years of teaching
experience. Applications are due between September 1 and November 1, 1981. Contact
Teacher Exchange Branch, Office of International Education, U.S. Department of
Education, ROB-3, Room 3068, Washington, D.C. 20202, (202) 245-9700.

Newsflash, the newsletter of the Women's Educational Equity Act Program, has
published a list of foundations that provide grants for women's education projects.
Check Volume 3, Number 5 of Newsflash, or write to WEAL, 805 15th Street, NW,

Suite 822, Washington, D.C. 20005.

The Center for Women's Studies at Wichita State University seeks a visiting
Associate or Assistant Professor to teach undergraduate women's studies in Spring,
1982. Send a letter of application, vita, and three letters of recommendation to
Selection Committee, Center for Women's Studies, Wichita State University, Box

82, Wichita, KS, 67208.

The New York Feminist Art Institute will held an open house on Sunday, September
20, from 2 pm to 5 pm. Members and teachers at the Institute will be present to
discuss the workshops and classes for the fall semester. For further information,
contact the Institute, 325 Spring Street, New York, 10013, (242-1343).

The Body: Matter, Metaphor, and Mores is the topic of a Fail colloquium at Douglass
College in New Brunswick, New Jersey. All sessions will take place at 7 pm in
Room 922 of the Loree Annex of the Douglass Campus. For more information, contact
Viola Van Jones, (201) 932-9729.