Women on Words and Images Records

Women on Words and Images (WOWI) was a consulting firm based in Princeton, New Jersey. Although the organization had been active since 1970, it was not officially incorporated until May 1974. Six permanent members were the foundation of the organization--Cynthia Eaton, Carol Jacobs, Phyllis Alroy, Joan Bartl, Rogie Bender, and Pryde Brown. The women belonged to the Central New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and WOWI sprung from their involvement in NOW. According to the New York Times, "[t]he group of consultants started their corporate life as part of a larger task force that has worked for two years assembling evidence of sex-stereotyping, and presenting it to groups of educators, parents, writers, editors, and publishers." At WOWI's first meeting in 1974, officers were chosen. Ann Stephan became the chairperson of the board, Carol Jacobs was named president, Rogie Bender vice president, and Phyllis Alroy secretary-treasurer. With backgrounds in education, psychology, business, and writing, the women of WOWI focused their efforts on "the elimination of sex role stereotyping in education."

WOWI propagated ideas of gender neutrality and equality in children's literature, sought fairness in occupational education and hiring, and took on gender stereotypes in entertainment and the media. The primary goal of the organization was to promote non-sex-biased educational materials. They published several booklets on sex role stereotyping in children's literature, the biased nature of vocational education materials aimed at women, and conducted studies on the prevalence of sexism in the media.

WOWI's first project was a study of gender stereotypes in 134 popular children's readers. This resulted in the 1972 publication of Dick and Jane as Victims: Sex Stereotyping in Children's Readers, their first of several publications. WOWI found that in many children's readers, "males were shown to be strong, competent, curious, brave, [and] independent" while "females were portrayed as passive, dependent, fearful, [and] incompetent." They concluded that these readers exposed children to "narrow stereotypical paths" that have "detrimental effects on all our children." WOWI's goal was to eliminate this pigeonholing of children and young adults into certain career paths and gendered expectations. Dick and Jane as Victims became so popular that WOWI created a slide show presentation based on the information that they had gathered for the booklet. The publication itself went on to be used as a textbook in several college courses and the slideshow presentation was rented out to numerous organizations. The study was recognized by several education and civil rights groups, including the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The women of WOWI parlayed the success of Dick and Jane as Victims into workshops, conference speaking engagements, television appearances, and other publications. In a brief write-up about their organization, the members of WOWI referred to themselves as "experts in the field" and stated, "our work has been instrumental in developing and expanding the nation's awareness of the damaging effects of sex role stereotyping on children." Two of WOWI's later publications, Channeling Children: Sex Stereotyping on Prime Time TV and Help Wanted: Sexism in Career Education Materials, were both published in 1975. In these publications, WOWI continued to explore and denounce the harmful effects of sexism on children and young people. In Channeling Children, WOWI found that just as in children's readers, sex role stereotyping was prevalent on some of the most well-liked television programs of the day, including those popular with children. With Help Wanted WOWI found that educational materials dealing with occupations propagated traditional male and female career paths. The booklet offered parents and educators advice on how to confront such materials, or how to alter the offending material in order to make it more gender neutral.

As part of the broader women's movement in the 1970s, WOWI was one of many groups concerned with sexism in education. WOWI's contemporaries also noted the unequal treatment of the sexes in textbooks and in the classroom. In 1974, the Springfield, Illinois chapter of NOW found similar instances of sexism in their district's textbooks. In an article from 1973 written by Elizabeth Burr, Susan Dunn, and Norma Farquhar, entitled "Guidelines for Equal Treatment of the Sexes in Social Studies Textbooks," the authors found that women were often misrepresented or underrepresented in these books. They recognized underlying issues in social studies books that were similar to those WOWI described in Dick and Jane as Victims, including authors not mentioning the roles women played in historical events, declaring certain tasks to be "men's work" and others to be "women's work," portraying women primarily as mothers and homemakers, including fewer illustrations of women than of men, and referring to people in general as men (i.e. manpower), thus denoting that the individuals in question are male. In this context, WOWI's work can be viewed as being on the cutting edge of studies recognizing the negative effects of sexist attitudes and teachings on youth.

Besides conducting their own studies, WOWI collaborated on projects with various other organizations. They completed a project for the Bureau of Occupational and Adult Education called "Guidelines for Non-Sexist Vocational Educational Materials" that resulted in a booklet regarding the gender bias found in career materials. Sex role stereotyping was not aimed only at children, but at women and men of all ages. For young women thinking of pursuing professional careers, they were handed career materials telling them they could be nurses, but not doctors, and flight attendants, but not pilots. WOWI's attention to the issue of women in the workforce was interrelated with their interest in how women and girls were portrayed in children's readers and in the media.

After a slightly over a decade of combating sexism in education, WOWI ceased its activities in the early 1980s. The organization's legacy lives on in its publications and in a less sexist educational environment in the twenty-first century.

Sources:

Burr, Elizabeth, Susan Dunn, and Norma Farquhar. "Guidelines for Equal Treatment of the Sexes in Social Studies Textbooks," 1976. (Available from Westside Women's Committee, P.O. Box 24D20, Los Angeles, CA 90024).

Fremon, Suzanne S. "New Image for 'Dick and Jane.'" New York Times, April 30, 1972.

"Local Women's Firm Names First Officers." Business World. May 8, 1974.