Women today can thank the Women's Task Force for a number of their opportunities from their representation on campus to equal salary scales to the toilet seats in campus restrooms.
The Women's Task Force was born out of long-term planning during President Edward Lindaman's tenure, said Pat MacDonald, former professor of psychology and longest serving chair of the task force. The theme of the long-term plan was that the college should be oriented to fully develop all persons on campus, including students, faculty and staff. Women were identified as needing the most focus, she said.
That planning committee appointed a women’s task force in 1973, and that was the beginning. It was formed with the purpose of making the university a better place for women.
While MacDonald was not the first chair of the task force, she was the longest serving as chair, serving for nearly two decades, according to the spring 1994 Whitworth Today featuring the women of the task force. The task force had both male and female representatives from all areas of campus – students, faculty, staff, building and grounds, and trustees.
MacDonald divided the task force into a variety of subcommittees to focus on specific issues including athletics, inclusive language, hiring and personnel, and educating the community. The task force met once a month.
Along with women’s issues, questions were raised over whether the task force should take up racial issues. Out of the task force came the Affirmative Action Committee, an official university committee, that was to be represented on all search committees to make sure qualified women and minority candidates were included in the poll and received full and fair consideration, said John Yoder, professor of political science.
The task force disbanded for two years during the late 1980s with the idea that the AAC could serve in its place, but it became apparent that the issues reached beyond the AAC's employment-based focus, according to the spring 1994 Whitworth Today.
Janet Yoder, former director of international student academic programs, served as chair of the task force after MacDonald. She was also designated as one of the college's affirmative action personnel, serving on the AAC. She said this meant she served on an unusual number of hiring committees.
The task force since its inception addressed issues including concerns that males were being frequently hired at higher rates and promoted faster than females, gender inclusive language, and the number of female role models on campus, according to articles in The Whiworthian in the mid-'90s. The task force worked on trying to implement a sexual harassment policy since the 1980s, and at the time she left Whitworth 15 years ago, MacDonald said it was one of the big issues the school still needed to make strives on.
'98 alumna Amber Palmer did an independent study, working with Julia Stronks, professor of political science, and Elsa Distelhorst, now director of development for major gifts, to read and summarize minutes from the task force when she attended Whitworth in the late '90s. The goal of the project was to determine how female professors and staff were treated at Whitworth throughout the past 15 years and whether things had changed, Palmer said.
"A lot of buildings didn't have a place for women faculty members to go to the bathroom. This was something they had to work on," Palmer said.
Palmer said she cannot remember many of the specifics from her study, but did learn valuable lessons from it.
"I realized my experiences of great equality are only possible because of the people who came before me," Palmer said. "It was amazing to see these women in the hallway and know they really worked hard to make sure there was equality."
Palmer said there was disagreement within the task force she studied about the group's existence and whether the need for the group demonstrated ongoing inequality.
Palmer said she was particularly struck by the strives toward maternity leave.
"It was crazy. Now you have Ginny Whitehouse, [associate professor of communication studies], adopting children and Whitworth supporting that. Not many years before women would get pregnant and immediately begin making plans to leave their positions," Palmer said. "It's a sign of how quickly that changed."
A number of current female Whitworth faculty and staff served on the committee in the past, including Dayna Coleman Jones, Jo Wagstaff, Kathy Fechter, Janelle Thayer and others.
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