Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 1974
Abstract
I just read your report on education in Minnesota in the Women's Studies Newsletter (Winter 1974). I'm pleased that you gave some coverage to Minnesota, which, from my current geographical vantage point, seems like a progressive paradise. However, the emphasis in your paragraph on the State Board of Education is somewhat misleading.
You mention the State Department of Education's certification requirement and then add that "groups like the feminist Emma Willard Task Force" have been used to teach the sexism component. Actually, there would be no such certification requirement without the Emma Willard Task Force. I am one of the founders of the Task Force and I worked with it nearly full-time for the first year (Spring 1971 to Fall 1972). Most of our energy that year was expended in convincing the State Department and school administrators that sexism was a serious problem which they should deal with in their official capacities. It was no easy task. We learned some valuable political lessons about evasion, buck-passing, tokenism, divide-and-conquer, and co-optation.