Women Employee Organization Plans to Press for Equal Pay

The steering committee of the newly-formed "Women Employed at Harvard" met last night and determined that the foremost issue confronting them is "how and where to apply pressure" to force the University to cope with their demands.

The most important of these demands calls for Harvard women to receive the same pay as women to receive the same pay as women employed by non-profit organizations and men employed at Harvard.

The Corporation appointees and salaried workers who attended the meeting cited several examples which demonstrated that women's wages remain much lower than those of men within the University. They said that Harvard's current affirmative action plan which is under consideration by HEW is not effective in implementing equal conditions for women employees.

The women also complained about the practices of Harvard's personnel department. "Too many women are vastly over-qualified for their jobs," Carolyn Logalbo, a staff assistant in the Psychology and Social Relations Department, aid.

"Pretty soon they're going to want a Ph.D. for a dishwasher," another woman added.

Logalbo said that wives of graduate students are actively sought out to work as secretaries and staff assistants in her department, because they are more likely to "stick around." Other applicants are discriminated against, and a man has never been accepted as a secretary in her department, she said.

The organization is planning to write a newsletter which will be sent to all women employees at Harvard. The steering committee hopes to expand the membership of the organization beyond its present size of 64 women.