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

186 WHO STOLE FEMINISM?Jerry Weiner, president-elect of the American Psychiatry Association,told the Globe, "I have many reservations and concerns about the reliabilityof the data and using that kind of data to draw the broad sweepingconclusions that were drawn in the report." Tom W. Smith, the directorof the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago,also criticized the vagueness of the questions and the wide range ofpossible interpretation.For the first time the merits of an AAUW study alleging gender inequitywere not simply reported but actually debated on national television. TedKoppel chose the AAUW's report on sexual harassment in grade schoolsas a subject for "Nightline." He arranged a confrontation between NanStein and me to debate its significance. Ms. Stein is an excellent protagonist,but she faltered when I reminded her that she had spoken of thelittle boys who flipped up the skirts of little girls in the schoolyard as"gender terrorists." A skeptical Mr. Koppel asked whether she would calla schoolyard bully picking on another boy a "terrorist" too. Ms. Steinmust not have enjoyed the experience—after our "Nightline" encounter,she backed out of another debate between us scheduled for a Bostontelevision program the following week. The producer was too diplomaticto tell me what Ms. Stein had said about me. "Let us just say she does notlike you very much."In December 1993 I took part in another debate about harassment inthe workplace with Anne Bryant, executive director of the AAUW, onABC's "Lifetime Magazine." I said that the AAUW surveys were "tendentiousand biased." I brought up the fact that their harassment study hadfailed to distinguish between "casual banter, teasing, and serious harassment."Shaking her finger at me, Bryant admonished me, "Christina, stopit! Do you want to know something? This is the last time you'll criticizethe incredibly prestigious and well-run organization—the American Associationof University Women." 86It would seem she feels that any criticismof the AAUW is simply out of order and should not be given apublic airing. In any case, the producer told me that the AAUW's publicrelations director later tried to persuade ABC not to run the debate.Feminism is not well served by biased studies or by media that tolerateand help to promote them. Had journalists, politicians, and educationleaders been doing a proper job of checking sources, looking at theoriginal data, and seeking dissenting opinions from scholars, had theynot put their faith in glossy brochures and press releases, the alarmingfindings on self-esteem, gender bias in the classroom, and harassment inthe hallways would not be automatically credited. In a soundly criticalclimate, the federal government would not be on the verge of pouring