E4A Coverage

To the Editors of The Crimson:

We at Education for Action (E4A) appreciated the Crimson article (November 9) on our panel discussion on students organizing. Though the article was basically correct factually, we would like to question its bias.

Some facts: Four women and one man composed the panel, with a male moderator. The Crimson article was written by a male. Each panelist spoke for the same amount of time. Yet the only panelist named was the only man. The only panelist quoted, four times, was the only man. His remarks were given four paragraphs, whereas the four women were relegated to a single paragraph--un-named, un-described, and un-defined by the article. The only other person mentioned in the article by name was the male moderator.

Some important facts omitted from the article: The group sponsoring the panel, E4A, is a Radcliffe organization which understands itself as having a primary responsibility to women. The event occured at Radcliffe, which remains a women's college concerned with the education of women within the Harvard community. The panel's title was "Organized Women. Unions and the Community;" our emphasis on women here was intentional.

Our conclusion: The article discriminates, however unintentionally, against women by ignoring them and thereby de-valuing them. It is almost as if the writer tuned out the women, focusing his attention on the male one-fifth of the panel.

If this article were an isolated incident, it would perhaps not necessitate comment. But such blatantly discriminatory articles (most of which go unchallenged) make one wonder about the way history has been written, where certain agents of history, such as women, are invisible to the male chroniclers.

So, to complete your biased history, let us name "the other panelists:" Susan Eaton, Adair Damman, Jill Puscus, and Sarah Royce. They, too, said many intelligent, relevant, quotable things--these four women organizers.

E4A encourages the Crimson editors and writers to develop a journalistic approach within this male bastion which objectively reveals women and their situation within the university and the world. Annette P. Carnegie '80, for the Student Board   Alison M. Brown '79, for the Alumni Council   Dr. Shepherd Bliss, E4A Director   Susan Eaton '79, E4A Funding and Panelist