Rejected academic fought for law change banning discrimination on US campuses
In 1969, her newly earned doctorate in hand, Bernice Sandler was hoping to land one of seven open teaching positions in her department at the University of Maryland. When she learned she had been considered for none of them, she asked a male colleague about the oversight. ‘‘Let’s face it,’’ was his reply. ‘‘You come on too strong for a woman.’’
When she applied for another academic position, the hiring researcher remarked that he didn’t hire women because they too often stayed home with sick children. Later, an employment agency reviewed her CV and dismissed her as ‘‘just a housewife who went back to school’’.
Sandler had run headfirst into a problem that had only recently been given a name: sex discrimination.
Knowing she was not alone, she embarked on a campaign that would change the culture on American college campuses – and eventually the law, with the passage in 1972 of Title IX, the landmark legislation that banned sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions.
Trained in psychology and counselling, Sandler devoted decades of her life to documenting, analysing and stopping the forms of discrimination – subtle and overt – that held women back academically and professionally in educational settings.
When she began her advocacy efforts, many university departments arbitrarily limited the number of women they would hire. Others hired no women at all. Some disqualified married women. Some barred female students from chemistry and other departments deemed more suited for men.
Sandler found there was no federal law prohibiting discrimination against women in educational fields. There was, however, an executive order signed by president Lyndon Johnson that prohibited sex discrimination by organisations with federal contracts.
‘‘It was a genuine ‘Eureka’ moment,’’ she later recalled. ‘‘I actually shrieked aloud, for I immediately realised that many universities and colleges had federal contracts, were therefore subject to the sex discrimination provisions of the executive order, and that the order could be used to fight sex discrimination on American campuses.’’
Sandler joined the Women’s Equity Action League and, as the one-member Federal Action Contract Compliance Committee, challenged 250 educational institutions for alleged sex discrimination. She also coordinated a letter-writing campaign that, by her account, ‘‘generated so much Congressional mail that the departments of labour, and health, education and welfare had to assign several full-time personnel to handle the letters’’.
According to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, where Sandler was inducted in 2013, her efforts led to the first federal investigation of sex discrimination on campuses.
She worked for a House subcommittee with oversight of the matter and for the Health, Education and Welfare Department as momentum grew, culminating with passage of Title IX. For decades after the law was passed, Sandler continued her activism for gender equality in the classroom. As a speaker and author, she sought to draw attention to what she and a fellow researcher, Roberta Hall, termed the ‘‘chilly’’ classroom environment for women.
Female professors, she found, were more likely than male professors to be challenged on their credentials. Those with a PhD were not consistently addressed as ‘‘Dr’’, and students expected greater leniency from female academics when they failed to complete their assignments. Female students were less likely to get an engaged response from professors than their male counterparts.
‘‘When Title IX was passed, I was quite naive,’’ she said. ‘‘I thought all the problems of sex discrimination in education would be solved in one or two years at most. When two years passed, I increased my estimate to five years, then later to 10, then to 50, and now I realise it will take many generations to solve all the problems.’’
Bernice Resnick – who went by the name Bunny – was born in New York to parents who ran a women’s clothing store. Sexist practices, she recalled, seemed to be part of the natural order of the world. ‘‘When I applied to college, it was openly known that women needed higher grades and test scores in order to be accepted. No-one complained – it was just the way things were.’’
Later in her career, Sandler explored the ‘‘chilly’’ environment that greeted minority students and academics much as it greeted women. She also highlighted the danger of rape on campuses.
Her marriage to Jerrold Sandler ended in divorce. Survivors include two daughters, and three grandchildren. –
‘‘I thought all the problems of sex discrimination in education would be solved in one or two years at most ... Now I realise it will take many generations.’’