AAUW CORNER: Legal Advocacy Fund makes difference
By Kay Hardy Campbell

The Hingham Journal
February 15, 2007

Mission Statement: AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research.

The American Association of University Women is currently celebrating the 125th anniversary of its founding. The organization is also looking back at the first 25 years of its Legal Advocacy Fund, the largest fund of its kind supporting plaintiffs bringing sex discrimination cases in higher education.

 AAUW’s Legal Advocacy Fund has helped faculty, administrators, staff, and students in higher education challenge discriminatory practices such as sexual harassment, denial of tenure or promotion, pay inequity, and inequality in women’s athletics programs. The fund has contributed more than $1.3 million to upwards of 100 cases. While the individual amounts contributed to each case may be as small as $5,000, AAUW’s support has been cited repeatedly as a major moral support to the courageous women and men who undertake such suits.

 A case in point: Jill Crystal, a fellow student of mine from graduate school two decades ago. I spoke with her recently about her experience as a litigant who received support from AAUW. Crystal, a brilliant political scientist focusing on the Middle East, earned her PhD from Harvard and took a tenure-track teaching spot at the University of Michigan in 1986. When she became pregnant in 1990, she was shocked to learn that she was expected to be back at work immediately.

 At first the university offered her a semester off without pay, which she could ill afford at the time. After months of negotiations, she eventually received a semester off with pay. However, after her leave was over, she alleged that her superiors took retaliation against her for her protesting the original maternity leave policy and ultimately denied her tenure. She filed a lawsuit against the University, which was eventually settled in mediation for $100,000. Early on, AAUW’s Legal Advocacy Fund donated $5,000 to support her case.

“It made a very big difference,” Crystal recalls. “It turned the University’s attitude around. Up until that point, their attitude with the public and with me had been that I was just a troublemaker, that this was a nuisance lawsuit, and that there was no substance to it. After I received the AAUW money, and the support that went with it, their attitude changed. They treated it as a serious lawsuit, which actually made the lawsuit easier.

“It allowed me to get past the first skirmishes of just trying to discourage me from suing. The moral support also helped. They put me in contact with other people. At that point it was very helpful to hear other people talk about the same story they’ve been through.

“I’m glad I did it,” reflects Crystal, now a tenured full professor of political science at the University of Auburn in Alabama. “At the time, I talked to people who had sued universities, women in similar situations. They talked about how difficult it had been. It was difficult; litigation can be difficult.

“I also talked to women who had gone through the same experience, but hadn’t done anything about it,” she continues. “What struck me was that people who had sued, or contested in some way, had for the most part moved on. The people who hadn’t, you could hear in their voices, it was as if it happened yesterday. I wanted to move on. People kept saying, ‘You have to move on.’ My thinking was: this is the way to move on. Plus I’d leave a little bit of a legacy. They’ll think twice before they do this again.”

 Crystal did leave a lasting, tangible legacy at the University of Michigan. After she left, the school immediately implemented a full legal maternity leave policy.

 Has maternity leave policy improved in higher education in the U.S. since 1996 when the case was settled?

 “I think the elite universities have become more standardized,” Crystal says. “The big institutions do have good policies at least on paper. The problem is that a lot of people don’t know their rights, and unless a university does have a policy, they don’t know what the legal fallback position is. So I think it’s still a mix.”

Married and the mother of a son and daughter, Crystal carries a full teaching load at Auburn. She has penned two books, “Kuwait: The Transformation of an Oil State”, and “Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar.” She is currently finishing up a chapter for a book on Kuwait, and is interested in doing research on drug policy in the Middle East.

 AAUW’s Legal Advocacy Fund is currently supporting 17 cases across the country, for both male and female litigants. In Massachusetts, AAUW is supporting a case brought against UMass Dartmouth by a former facilities and plant director, Cheryl Vuolo. The case alleges pay inequity in violation of Massachusetts state laws and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and sexual harassment and retaliation for complaining about sex discrimination in violation of Massachusetts state laws. AAUW’s fund has contributed $28,000 to her case, which is currently on appeal. To read more about the current cases supported by AAUW, visit. www.aauw.org

In addition to raising funds for the Legal Advocacy Fund, as well as the Educational Foundation of which it is a part, the Hingham-Area Branch of AAUW offers programs throughout the school year. The organization also promotes lifelong learning, and sponsors an array of interest groups. We invite all holders of bachelor’s or associate’s degrees from Plymouth to Quincy to join our branch. For more membership information contact: Hollie Bagley 781-749-6274.

Kay Campbell is a Hingham resident and serves as president for AAUW’s Hingham Area Branch.