UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 15, Page 1
December 17, 1992
Women's commission head eager to promote 'real issues'

     Mary Donaldson-Evans, professor of foreign languages and literatures,
has always had an interest in women's issues, an interest that's reflected
in her teaching and research.
     As new chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, she is
assuming a leadership role in promoting women's concerns on campus.
     "It is exciting to be involved in a worthwhile cause, confronting real
issues with a group representing women across the campus-from graduate and
undergraduate students to salaried staff, professionals and faculty.
Through discussion and consensus, the commission has identified women's
concerns on campus, and there has been much progress during the past
several years in addressing these concerns," Donaldson-Evans said.
     Some issues, such as campus safety, are common concerns she said.
Lighting and emergency telephones have made the campus a far safer place,
she said, and the commission is planning to look into the feasibility of a
volunteer escort service for women students, faculty and staff.
     Other areas of interest involving all women's groups are mentoring,
upward mobility, equity, promotions and career opportunities, she said.
     Other issues are specific to different women's groups on campus,
according to Donaldson-Evans. The faculty constituency, for example, will
study the effectiveness of parental leave and will track "stop the clock"
tenure policy, currently only available to new parents, to determine if it
might be extended to other exceptional family responsibilities, such as
caring for an aged parent.
     Exit surveys and interviews are important to both faculty and staff to
determine how employees who leave campus jobs perceive the University, she
said.
     For students, sexual harassment, classroom climate and gender equity
are important, she said. A survey of graduate students to identify any
problems is planned, and orientations for graduate students who are not
teaching assistants and for returning adult students are also of interest.
Students who also are parents are investigating flexible, part-time child
care on campus. This kind of service also could benefit part-time workers,
according to Donaldson-Evans.
     Professional staff are interested in creating a vita bank as a
resource for consideration for internal positions.
     The salaried staff group has distributed a survey to determine the
concerns of its constituency.
     The French professor said she feels that, in general, "the campus
climate for women is positive, although there is still room for
improvement. In addition to sexism, forms of intolerance that affect
specific groups of women, such as anti-Semitism, homophobia and racism are
also a concern of the commission."
     A graduate of Marquette University, Donaldson-Evans holds a master's
degree from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and her doctorate from
the University of Pennsylvania. She has been teaching at Delaware since
1969.
     Her current research is on the intersection of literature and medicine
in the late 19th century in France. She is particularly interested in
literary portraits of women by male authors and the degree to which they
were influenced by the medical profession.
     "Women were relegated to the status of convicts and miners by the
Napoleonic Code. They had few rights and were reduced to their sexual and
maternal functions. Women were always considered ill by definition, and
this attitude can be attributed in part to the misogynistic medical
profession of that time," Donaldson-Evans said.
                                        -Sue Swyers Moncure