Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999
From: "Paula C. Barnes" <drbarnes who-is-at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Action needed: the de-tenuring of Mary Daly
To anyone interested in feminism, women's studies, and/or academic
freedom:
Mary Daly, pioneering feminist theorist and theologian and author of the
groundbreaking book _Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism_,
has, in effect, been "de-tenured" at Boston College. According to an
editorial in the most recent issue of The Nation ( Laura Flanders,
"Feminist De-tenured," July 26/August 6, 1999 issue, pp. 5-6), Daly has
been teaching a course at BC, Introduction to Feminist Ethics, for the
past 25 years to women only, in order to promote a safe space to discuss
such issues as violence against women. A male student who wished to
register for the course and who ignored Daly's offer to teach him outside
the women's class (something she has done for the past dozen years)
threatened, with the backing of the Center for Individual Rights, an
organization that led attacks on affirmative action at the universities
of Texas and Michigan, to sue BC under Title IX antidiscrimination
provisions.
The intimidation worked and BC canceled Daly's courses for the upcoming
academic year. BC claims that Daly resigned voluntarily, a claim she
denies, and is no longer a faculty member. They have also denied her
access to the university's grievance procedure. Daly is fighting Boston
College's actions and has filed complaints of breach-of-contract and
violation of tenure rights.
Daly is a scholar who put feminist theology and feminist ethics on the
academic and political map and deserves the support of all who care about
women's studies in the academy, about academic freedom, and about
protecting the real purposes of Title IX.
The Mary Daly Defense Fund can be reached at:
P.O. Box 381176
Cambridge, MA 02238-1176
mdalyfund who-is-at aol.com
Letters to Boston College in defense of Mary Daly can be sent to:
Pres. William P. Leahy, SJ
Boston College
Botolph House
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3934
If you do write a letter, please forward a copy to the Defense Fund as
well.
Please pass this message on to others.
Jane Rothstein, Ph.D. Candidate
Department of History and
Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University
jr231 who-is-at is5.nyu.edu
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