Editor:
I have enclosed a copy of the new cover of the Student/Staff Directory for 1994-95. What do you see when you look at this picture? Is that a man with a briefcase, presumably a professor, and a woman walking four steps behind him, carrying flowers, presumably a secretary, or worse yet, the professor's wife? Is this not a typical old-fashioned attitude showing us once again the University of Arizona's attitude toward women?
I called Mark Woodhams, director of Student Publications, and asked him who approved this cover. He said it was a committee and when I complained about the stereotyping he said there were many women on the committee who approved this picture. My question to him was: did he not see the stereotyping? He told me I was reading more into the picture than what it represented. He said I was being overly sensitive and I told him he was not sensitive enough to the problems faced by women, especially to put a cover like this on a student directory which will be used in every office on campus for a whole year. Well, I for one cut the new cover off and scotch-taped the old cover on. I don't intend to look at that ugly picture for even a minute. I suggest that other staff do the same.
I am really disgusted with one more blatant exhibition of chauvinism. As we can see, it is alive and well at the University of Arizona. Doesn't anyone ever learn anything? I deeply resent this photo and I think that Mark Woodhams and the committee that chose it should make a public apology for their lack of awareness.
Dorothyanne Peltz
Administrative Secretary
Materials Science and Engineering