Acceptable
horseplay among
men
by Eve Sicular
If this firecracker incident had been
between two men, they would have
done nothing at a ll... it would have been
acceptable horseplay among men.
6
A fter years o f legal action, Charlotte
W alters’ suit against Harvard University is
finally com ing to c o u rt
W alters charges that she was harassed and
discrim inated against on the basis of her
gender when she worked at Harvard Universi­
ty ’s B uildings and Grounds (B&G ) depart­
m e n t As she made clear to university officials
d u ring m onths o f negotiations before filing
her grievance in O ctober 1980, Walters wants
Harvard to im plem ent a policy regarding sex­
ual harassm ent, including an educational
tra in in g program to help prevent discrim ina­
tion. By interesting coincidence, the results of
the sexual harassm ent survey conducted by
undergraduates Christine Spaulding and
Joseph D iNunzio were released shortly after.
In one reaction to the survey’s findings, Dean
Henry Rosovsky said, “ It is clear that sexual
harassm ent is perceived to exist at Harvard to
a m uch greater extent than official complaints
w ould indicate." (The N ew York Times. 10/
2 8 /8 3 , p. A7.) W hile Charlotte Walters, a B&G
em ployee, was not included in the survey’s
sam ple her experiences shed light on-the
inadequate and even callous treatment which
certain university officials gave a duly reported
harassm ent grievance. Little wonder, given
the arbitrary way in which university officials
handled this grievance, that few such com ­
plaints w ould be reported at Harvard.
W alters’ com plaints were based on several
incidents including one in which a co-worker,
Jo h n B. Tegan, who had repeatedly antag­
onized W alters on the job, threw a lit fire­
cracker at her. The official response has been
to deny that any sexism or injustice was in­
volved. A lthough representatives of Harvard’s
general counsel eventually offered Walters a
m onetary out-of-court settlem ent they con­
tinued to insist that her grievances were
m erely based on “ personality conflicts.” Her
supervisors at B&G, says Walters, came to
regard her as a "troublem aker" with an "a t­
titu d e problem " because she took action
against Tegan. However, throughout investi­
gations by W alters’ and Harvard’s attorneys,
“No one has denied that Charlotte Walters
was a good, if not exemplary, worker," ac­
co rd in g to W alters’ lawyer Holly Ladd.
W alters m aintains that the authorities from
•whom she sought redress were often more
concerned w ith protecting Harvard's reputa­
tio n fro m charges o f sexism than with her
rights o r welfare. No preparation had been
m ade to deal with potential discrim ination
problem s when Walters became the first wo­
m an to w ork in the B&G property m ainte­
nance shop o f30-35 men in the main yard in
February 1979. M o st if not all, o f these men,
had never before worked with a woman as an
equal, doing sim ilar types o f work, according
to W alters. "They had worked with women
being secretaries o r other traditional
w om ens’ roles." Despite the fact that her
supervisor, Frank Marciano, assured Walters
when she was hired that "N o nonsense will be
tolerated from the m en" in their dealings with
her. He and her forem an, Ken Hinsman later
adm itted in m eetings with Walters and a
union steward that they expected m ore from
W alters than from her co-workers. (Both of
these m en later harassed Walters by insinuat­
ing th a t she was faking illness when three
differe nt doctors at University Health Services
had diagnosed her stress-related allergies as
serious enough to require sick days; both
also adm itted later that they resented Walters’
filin g a grievance against Tegan and refusng
to w ork w ith him after the firecracker inci­
d e n t) Yet when W alters’ com plaints reached
m anagem ent level at B&G, she found that
the official em pow ered to act on her case,
personnel director B ill Lee, w ould reprim and
Tegan only by putting a letter in Tegan’s file
fo r insubordination and not com pleting a
w ork assignm ent in an allotted period of
tim e. W alters, who at this po int was still as­
signed to be Tegan’s acting crew chief, re­
calls the m eeting w ith Lee and Tegan as
“ infuriating.” "There was nothing about the
firecracker, o r the threat (w hich Tegan had
made to her the day before throw ing the
firecracker, that 'If you were a m an, I’d punch
you’). He (Lee j w ouldn’t even let m e m ention
it ’’
W alters was to ld by Dr. Tucker o f UHS, who
was treating her fo r ear dam age caused by
the firecracker, that-sleeplessness, night­
m ares and anxiety she was suffering from at
this tim e resem bled those o f a rape victim . He
referred her to a counselor at the rape crisis
center. The counselor, who, like Tucker, was
outraged by C harlotte W alters’ story, made
an appointm ent for her with Nancy Randolph,
special assistant to President B ok fo r affirm a­
tive action. At this p o in t W alters was hopeful
that satisfactory measures m ig h t be tak^n;
R andolph seemed horrified by her story, as
W alters rem em bers, and suggested that per­
haps som e educational preparation should
have been made before W alters too k up her
jo b at B&G. In their first m eeting, Randolph
said she w ould check w ith people w ho knew
w hat could be done on W alters’ behalf. But
the answers she brought to th e ir second
m eeting were very discouraging. Both Bill
Lee and Harvard associate general counsel
Ed Powers had told Randolph, as Walters
recalls, “ that this was a union m atter, that
they’d taken care o f it and the situation had
been diffused. So there was no problem at
a ll” and, as Powers to ld Randolph, “ that If
this [the firecracker incident] had been
between tw o men, they w ould have done no­
thing at all, because it w ould have been con­
sidered acceptable horseplay am ong men.’ ’’
Lee, in checking Tegan’s file, found a re­
cord o f previous insubordination problem s
at B&G. Yet when W alters refused to work
w ith Tegan, Lee decided that both w ould
have to be transferred o u t “ because we want
to be fair." "I was being punished,” says
W alters, “ and I still hadn’t done anything
w rong, except com plain that they’re punish­
ing me.”
The entire situation was very frustrating to
W alters. "The way I was brought up, I always
th o u g h t if you did a good job, and you were
basically a reasonable person, other people
w ould be reasonable w ith you; only to find out
in the w orld, it isn’t so. And politically, that
m en m ake the rules, and then if you play by
the rules, they can change the rules. I felt like
th a t’s what happened to me.
“ They said they were supportive, they set
up these rules o f what one w ould consider
acceptable behavior and there were sup­
posedly all these channels by w hich one
cou ld grieve a situation if you felt you had
been w ronged, and justice w ould prevail.
Then you do it and they [H arvard officials]
take care o f the one at fa u lt" W alters’ case
against Tegan, filed in fall o f 1980 along with
her suit against Harvard, was dism issed after
Rope son, Gray, the law firm entrusted with
Harvard’s defense, consulted w ith Tegan’s
attorney. Tegan was fired this year by B&G for
drunk and belligerent behavior on the job.
A ccording to Walters, his drinkin g problem
had been noticed by her and other co-workers
Just Out, August 17-August 31.1984