Gender Discrimination
At Work- Incident 1
Stroudsburg School District
June 1992
Our superintendent of schools
left our district for another position. That meant several of us received new
positions. I was promoted from assistant principal to principal of the high
school. My former boss was now the assistant superintendent, replacing a man
who was now the superintendent of schools. We also had a few retirements so two
women were also appointed as principals of our elementary schools.
Because we worked in public
sector, our salaries were published in the newspapers. Everyone in the
community got to see what we were paid. The men who received promotions also received
large increases in their salaries as compensation for these new
responsibilities. We, the women, received a $500-dollar increase for our new
positions and new responsibilities. That
meant I was now earning $10 a week more for double responsibility. This was wrong.
We, the women, brought this
matter to the attention of our new superintendent. While he sympathized with us,
he told us that was really not much he could do because this was a board
decision. He cowardly suggested that we speak directly with the board and keep
him out of the discussion because he wanted to stay in good graces with all of
the board members.
So we did meet with the Board
President who incidentally was running for a County Judge position. This Board
President told us he was very sorry but there was no more money to be
distributed. He also thought the men had more responsibilities and therefore
deserve the greater salary.
We explained that we were
taking on greater responsibilities and felt that we should be compensated as
well. He did not agree with this us.
“They're men,” he told us
unabashed and with no thought of his audience.
Then he continued, “Bridget,
we looked at your salary and thought you don’t have kids. You don’t need as
much money as these men who have children. He actually said this. He believed this
statement, unapologetically, illogically, without any good judgment and no
intent of reflecting on this is very stupid sexist statement.
We sued. We won. Our salaries
were adjusted. And the man with poor judgment was elected a judge.
