Title: Joan Roberts Speech
Inclusive Dates: 1974

Creator:

• Roberts, Joan

Call Number: Tape 830A

Quantity: 1 tape recording

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Speech by Joan Roberts, a former member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Educational Policy Studies Department and a founder of the women's studies program, entitled “On Building a Feminist Future in Our Time,” plus comments regarding her unsuccessful fight for tenure in the all-male department.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-tape00830a

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Just a week before Joan Roberts presented the speech recorded on this tape she had been denied tenure, for the second time in less than three weeks, by a committee of the Educational Policy Studies Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The speech, delivered on March 6, 1974, was entitled “On Building a Feminist Future in Our Time”, but for the most part it described the political lessons Roberts had learned in fighting for tenure in a department in which she was the only woman.

Joan Roberts joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1968. In the early 1960s she had been employed by Teachers' College, Columbia University, as a member of the research staff of the Teachers for East Africa Program. Between 1964 and 1967 she was a research associate in Teacher Resources for Urban Education Project, Hunter College, New York. Born in Salt Lake City in 1935, Roberts earned a B.A. at the University of Utah (1957) and an M.A. (1960) and an Ed.D. (1970) at Columbia University.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Roberts led the effort to establish a women's studies program, she taught the first such course on the campus, and she founded the statewide Association of Faculty Women. In both her tenure hearings, the faculty of the Educational Policy Studies Department approved strongly of her “community service” record and her teaching, although there was some feeling that her lectures were too polemical. She was denied tenure, however, on the grounds that her published work consisted mainly of programmatic statements rather than analytical research. The first hearing was held on February 8, 1974. The committee vote was 7-4 (with two abstentions) against granting tenure. The next day the Madison Capital Times reported that an “overflow crowd” participated in the proceedings to the extent that they degenerated into “utter chaos.”

On February 27, 1974, the committee met to reconsider its decision. On that occasion the vote was 12-3 against granting Roberts tenure. A group of 350-400 of Roberts' supporters either attended the meeting or listened to it nearby through a closed-circuit relay. After the vote, some of the crowd blocked the exits from the meeting room, assaulted some of the committee members and Ralph Hanson, chief of University of Wisconsin Protection and Security, and forced eight of the committee members to watch a guerrilla-theater presentation called “The Terrors of Tenure.” Roberts herself left the meeting before the disturbances, after thanking the committee for their conscientiousness. She was, however, deeply dissatisfied with the composition of the committee and with their evaluation of her. Roberts fought her dismissal in the courts but was never re-hired by the university.

The tape of this presentation has two tracks: a voice track containing the presentation itself and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract below lists, in order of presentation, the topics covered on the tape and indicates the time-marking at which point each segment begins.

Thus, the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped presentation. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the remarks about “TWO SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY” should locate the place on the second track of side one where the voice announces the 03:45 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “three minutes, forty-five seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the commentary. The discussion of “TWO SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY” continues until approximately 05:15 at which point the next topic (“HAVE FACED BOTH PROBLEMS IN LAST 2-3 MONTHS”) begins.

Notice that in many cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the content of the topic. For example the sentences underneath “TWO SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY” give further details on what appears on the tape between 03:45 and 05:15.

Statements, questions, and answers that have been transcribed verbatim from the tape to the abstract are given in quotation marks. Other entries in the abstract are either paraphrases or condensed topical statements. At certain points the abstract may give the researcher information about the quality of the sound on the tape, the identity of a speaker, the continuity of a discussion or answer, or other aspects of the recorded presentation as they occur. Information of this kind appears in brackets.

The abstract is designed to provide a brief outline of the content of the tape and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to it. However, the abstract will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics among the many minutes of presentation.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives holds additional documentation of Joan Roberts' career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Acquisition Information

Speech recorded for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin by Sarah Cooper, March 6, 1974. Accession Number: M74-068

Processing Information

Processed by Thomas S. Flory, July 25, 1980.

Tape/Side   1/1 Time   00:00	Introduction
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   00:30	Wants Freedom, Respect, Equality for Women Scope and Content Note: Thanks women who have fought with her.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   01:55	“We Have Stood Together” for Two and a Half Months Scope and Content Note: But also frustrated and angry.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   02:40	Anger Over Police at Door to Tenure Committee Meeting Scope and Content Note: Long negotiations to get anyone other than media into meeting.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   03:45	Two Special Problems of Women in Society Scope and Content Note: 1) Growing up knowing that one is potential rape victim; 2) “Imposed state of non-seriousness.”
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   05:15	Have Faced Both Problems in Last Two to Three Months Scope and Content Note: Now university knows “women mean what they say, and mean to get what they want.”
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   06:00	U.W. Women's Accomplishments in Fight for Roberts' Tenure Scope and Content Note: Revived concern for human dignity; did not resort to tactics of 1960s. Learned strength of numbers; learned to act collectively, without “vertical power structure of men.” Brought men into women's movement.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   08:40	Broke Women's Silence and Isolation Scope and Content Note: Men surprised that a woman would defend herself.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   10:40	No Progress Made in Affirmative Action for Women at U.W. in Last Four Years Scope and Content Note: Typical reactions of men to women's proposals have not changed. Feminist faculty leaders politically vulnerable. Title IX has not guaranteed fairer treatment of female students.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   14:OO	Disdain for Women Who Make Themselves More Like Men
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   14:55	Women's Studies Scope and Content Note: Women must be able to create their own program reflecting different “power structure.”
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   16:00	Realizes Need for “A New Social Reality” Scope and Content Note: “Role expansion” not enough. Reform of dehumanizing institutions needed. Example of tenure hearings.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   17:55	Calls for “A Feminist Vision of a New World.” Scope and Content Note: Urgent commitment by women needed.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   19:10	Too Little Money in U.W. Budget for Women Scope and Content Note: No money to subsidize low-income women, for women's studies, or female counselors.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   21:20	[Answer to Question Joined in Progress:] Steps in Appealing Tenure Ruling
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   22:15	Comment from Floor: Women's Movement Cannot Progress Without Allying with Workers' Movement
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   23:40	Answer: Correct, But Women Need Their Own Struggle to Contribute to Others
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   24:35	Question: [Indistinct. Concerns Protection from Official Action While Case in Court.]
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   24:50	Answer: Title VII Guarantees Protection While Case In Court
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   25:05	Question: [Inaudible.]
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   25:10	Answer: Prefers Not to Comment on Court Case Scope and Content Note: Most important is going forward from the political gesture of this meeting.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   26:10	Question: Have You Heard about a “State Bill of Rights for Students”?
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   26:20	Answer: Important to Use Title IX: Prohibits Discrimination in Educational Programs Scope and Content Note: Has heard of local, not state, bills of rights for students.
Tape/Side   1/1 Time   26:50	End of Presentation and Responses to Questions