Bonnie (Jersvig) Vastag

Throughout history, women have fought for equality. Voting rights, jobs, and equality in the work place, school and leadership roles are some basic rights that women have been advocating for. In the '60s and '70s, though legislation regarding the women’s movement was picking up, the enforcement of these laws was inadequate. The delay between creating laws and seeing the result in society was significant in the nation as well as Concordia.

Bonnie Vastag’s Oral History addressed issues regarding women’s equality at Concordia College during the 1960s. She shared a story about working at Concordia that demonstrates how laws were put in place; equality was not seen in the work place. Bonnie married while she was in school and returned to Concordia to work after graduation. Working in administration, she had her own office, however she was the only female that had an office, the rest were secretaries. She felt that there was an expectation to socialize with the secretaries because she was female and in her interview, she shared how there was a divide in the work place between men and women. She also explained how inappropriate jokes that offended women were told in the office. This personal statement contradicts what during this time seemed to be advancement in equality at the college. (1)

Throughout history the traditional role of women has been the homemaker and the one to stay at home with the children. In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan “blamed the ‘proper’ role (of women) itself and the society that created it.”(2) This creation of gender inequality in the work place can be seen in all ages throughout history. In the 1950s “men and women usually took distinct roles with male breadwinners and female homemakers. (3) This gender classification fulfills ‘traditional roles’ that society created. Females would earn on about 60% of what males were paid. They were shuffled into “female fields, as maids, secretaries, teachers, and nurses.” (4) Help wanted ads would specify the gender that they had a position open for. (5) This creates a distinct division of roles that are allotted to each gender specifically. Having married women in the workplace was also a controversial issue. In the '20s and '30s “employers often required women to resign upon marriage and refused to hire married women.” (6) However as time went on more married women began to enter the work place. By 1960, 30 percent of married women were working. (7) This inequality was seen at Concordia as well. Rules and regulations were more strongly enforced on women. So in 1968 the women’s action committee was created at Concordia. They fought for more equal rights such as extended hours in women’s dormitories and the right to smoke like their male counterparts. (8) This push toward equality was seen on the national level as well during her time working at Concordia.

The original Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not include gender but after a delay from southern opposition, it passed. (9) Then, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was created to “investigate job discrimination.” (10) However there was still a view in society that waved inappropriate behaviors aside.  Cases were overlooked and “the tens of thousands of cases filed with the EEOC suggested that racial and sexual discrimination were widespread, but each alleged incident required proof that the employer intended to discriminate.” (11) The EEOC did not necessarily follow through on each case unless there was ‘sufficient evidence,’ though harassment and discrimination may have been very apparent. President Knutson addressed this at Concordia in 1972 when accused of discriminating based on gender. President Knutson “established a college-wide equal opportunity commission to examine existing personnel policies.” (13) After Bonnie was done working at Concordia, a change was noticed. She commented saying that when she was working, “the issues (gender equality) were just beginning to be raised” (14). 

There was strong opposition to this especially in the south because strong Republicans thought that the government was taking too much liberty enforcing the rights of minorities and women. (15) This traditional way of thinking created the gap between legislative action and a real change in society. There was and still is opposition to the women’s movement as it was a new way of thinking compared to the tradition social roles. Some women opposed the movement because they ‘did not want to be ‘equal’ if that meant giving up traditional gender roles in marriage or working at low-wage jobs.”(16) There was also conservative thinking in society that stunted the progression of women in the work place. Businesses tried “to maintain a narrative that women are unreliable and not worth training because they would soon ‘retire’ to marry.” (17) This thought fails to acknowledge the capabilities of women.

The strong gender roles that have been established since the beginning of human kind making it a difficult thing to break the mold. Though there have been large improvements compared to when Concordia was established, there was and is much work to do order to achieve equality. Enforcement of legislation regarding equality, even more so a shift in the thinking of society; is needed to really achieve equality.

Essay by Allie Thom

Bibliography

(1)  Vastag, Bonnie (Donor), “Bonnie (Jersvig) Vastag, Oral History Interview, 2014 (Part 2),”Concordia Memory Project, accessed December 8, 2014.

(2)  Mary Beth Norton. A People a Nation: A History of the United States. (Stamford,

Connecticut: Cengage Learning., 2015), 795.

(3)  Norton, A People a Nation, 748.

(4)  Norton, A People a Nation, 749.

(5)  Norton, A People a Nation, 796.

(6)  Kim England, “Women’s Work: the Feminization and shifting Meanings of Clerical Work,” Journal of Social History, (2009): 313.

(7)  England, “Women’s Work,” 323.

(8)  Carroll Engelhardt, On Firm Foundation Grounded: The First Century of the

      College (1891-1991) (Moorhead, Minn. The College, 1991), 277.

(9)  Norton, A People a Nation, 770.

(10) Norton, A People a Nation, 771.

(11) Norton, A People a Nation, 798.

(12) Norton, A People a Nation, 796.

(13) Engelhardt, On Firm Foundation Grounded, 277.

(14) Bonnie Vastag, Interview, 2014.                                                 

      (15) Norton, A People a Nation, 771.

(16) Norton, A People a Nation, 776.

(17) England, “Women’s Work,” 313.