An Uppity Woman

Diminutive, peppery Bernice Sandier, mother of two teen-age daughters, had just earned a doctorate in education from the University of Maryland when she decided that she was capable of a better career than two part-time jobs that paid her a grand total of $5,000. So she went to work in 1970 as a psychologist for HEW and devoted her spare time to the Washington-based Women's Equity Action League. In the two years since then, she has become leader of the campaign to get more and better teaching jobs for women. She has filed some 250 complaints with federal agencies alleging sex discrimination by colleges and universities. This spring she helped cajole Congress into legislating equal treatment for women teachers. Says Mrs. Sandier: "I'm afraid that many men do not act morally unless they are pressured."

Now head of a women's rights program for the Association of American Colleges, Mrs. Sandier, 44, likes to wear a button that says UPPITY WOMEN UNITE. Last week she told some 85 top college administrators and faculty members meeting at the Irvine campus of the University of California that feminists will go all out next fall to get more women hired and promoted at U.S. colleges. They will have help. The session she addressed was financed by the U.S. Office of Education to tell college officials that they must make a "genuine effort" to recruit women and treat them equally.

Mrs. Sandler looks forward to "an enormous increase in litigation," partly because of the new antidiscrimination law but also because of a more activist spirit among women on campus. "Women are now waking up," she says. "And the universities have finally seen the light of day. They are being pressured by the government and by women, and they have no way out."

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