Women's Equality Journal Lois Kathryn Herr

The case of the EEOC against AT&T continued through hearings in California, New York, and Washington.  Passionate testimony as well as statistical studies filled the hours.  And finally, the case was settled by a Consent Decree.  To find out how this case ended, read Women, Power, and AT&T: Winning Rights in the Workplace by Lois Kathryn Herr.

The EEOC and AT&T were joined in a battle over equal opportunity in the early 1970s.  Too proud to admit its failure to provide equal opportunity for the women in its workforce, AT&T was willing to share all its data and records.  AT&T's records, file after file, were provided without objection to the EEOC and thus built the case.  AT&T even renovated a floor of a building in DC to provide a place for the EEOC lawyers to review those records.  And in those files, the EEOC found documentation of just what it was trying to prove.

As the EEOC built its case, the lawyers discovered that AT&T's own data showed exactly how women and men were treated differently.  They used that data to build their case, entitling it "A Unique Competence: A Study of Equal Employment Opportunity in the Bell System."  When AT&T officers saw that document, they were shocked.  When AT&T's women saw it, they were ready to organize.

NOW played a major role in making sure the phone company took sex discrimination seriously!

It was not enough for a company like AT&T to have good intentions when their numbers and rules stood in the way of equal opportunity.  Even changes that the company saw necessary were difficult to make happen.  It took the shock of a government challenge and the ensuing public hearings to bring the reality home.

A hint about chapter two of Women, Power, and AT&T: Winning Rights in the Workplace