Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

THE WELLESLEY REPORT 181in other countries, and where they need the least amount of help—selfesteem!Reacting to the alarms of the AAUW and the Wellesley College Centerfor Research on Women, Congress is now likely to pass the Gender Equityin Education Act. Unfortunately, a legislative emphasis on gender gaps isan unhelpful diversion. Dr. Stevenson's findings, backed by serious studiesfrom many other quarters, highlight the real problems of a nation thatis educationally at risk. The recommendations that Stevenson and otherexperts on the "learning gap" problem are making are straightforward,constructive, commonsensical, and practicable. Must we wait for Congressto exhaust its need to show that its feminist credentials are in orderbefore we see a serious effort to get our educational act together?The AAUW and the Wellesley researchers had every right to be gratifiedat their success. It had all been so easy. The media had been cooperativeand uncritical. The strategy of "do a study, declare a crisis, getpoliticians worked up" was proving to be astonishingly effective.The Wellesley Center took the lead for the next study, focusing on thesexual harassment of girls by boys in the grade schools. Nan Stein wasthe obvious choice to carry out such a study. A "project director" at theWellesley College Center for Research on Women, she had been prominenton the workshop circuit for many years. Working closely with theNational Organization of Women, Dr. Stein designed a questionnaire andplaced it in the September 1992 issue of Seventeen. The editors at Seventeenpreceded the questionnaire by an article that told a disturbing storyabout a Minnesota girl named Katy Lyle who was tormented and humiliatedon a daily basis by her peers and eventually took legal action. Certainpassages from the story were highlighted in large boldface letters: "It'sprobably happened to you" and "You don't have to put up with it—infact it's illegal. And your school is responsible for stopping it." The articleended with a word from Dr. Stein about the importance of creating morecaring and just schools—"girls included." Then came the half-page tearoffquestionnaire entitled "What's Happening to You?" Among the thirteenquestions asked of the Seventeen readers were these:• Did anyone do any of the following to you when you didn't wantto in the last school year?(a) touch, pinch, or grab you(b) lean over you or comer youthem