A newsroom women’s caucus, formed in 1972, had pored over the rolls kept by the Newspaper Guild, the union that represented nonmanagement employees, and found patterns of unequal pay and unequal promotion. The “attractive brunette” remark from Ms. Glueck’s initial interview itself became evidence. The caucus demanded an affirmative action plan for women.
In late 1972, as the caucus gained strength and momentum, Ms. Glueck was promoted to cultural news editor of the daily paper. John Canaday, then The Times’s chief art critic, wrote of her in the paper’s in-house newsletter, Times Talk: “Since she went on the Women’s Lib kick, she objects to having attention called to her beautiful ankles and long eyelashes, paramount among her other attractions, but where else can you begin?”
He then proceeded to her skills: “Grace can dig out a story with the force of a construction crew dynamiting for a new subway and the precision of a dentist exploring a cavity in a movie star’s front tooth.”
But Ms. Glueck found that she didn’t like her new job as editor, a nonwriting position, and stepped down to return to her trusty bicycle and beloved art beat.
The lawsuit led to a court settlement in 1978 in which both sides claimed victory. The Times did not grant raises, make immediate promotions or substantially change its voluntary affirmative-action program. But the company agreed to place more women in jobs ranging from entry level to top management, and to create annuities covering costs of “delayed career advancement or denied opportunity.”
“Grace lit the fire,” said Mary Marshall Clark, who worked at The Times as an oral historian before becoming director of the Center for Oral History Research at Columbia University, “It was the most important sex-discrimination lawsuit in American journalism.”
Grace Glueck was born on July 24, 1926, in New York, the daughter of Ernest and Mignon (Schwarz) Glueck. She grew up in suburban Rockville Centre, on Long Island. Her father was a municipal bond salesman on Wall Street until the Depression and later an insurance broker. Her mother wrote for community newspapers and was a homemaker. After high school in Rockville Centre, Ms. Glueck attended New York University, where she was editor of its literary magazine, The Apprentice. She graduated in 1948.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
