Page 14 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1981
Features
iEC
Every working woman needs a wife, professor says
United Press International
WASHINGTON — “Every
working woman needs a wife,
says a University of Maryland pro
fessor. “Imagine going home from
work and having a drink ready or
dinner ready. Or, when you go on
a business trip, someone to pack
for you, and even better, someone
to unpack and do your laundry
when you get home.”
Because executives work under
constant, intolerable stress, large
corporations spend millions to
help managers cope with the
rigors of running the company.
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But it’s not the executives who
need help, says Prof. Dale Masi of
the University of Maryland School
of Social Work. It’s secretaries.
A secretary — generally a
woman — pounding a typewriter
and scribbling in a steno pad is
subjected to much more pressure
than her higher-salaried boss,
Masi says. The boss often is re
sponsible for her stress. He uses
her as an escape valve for his ten
sion.
Secretarial pressure often leads
to mental and physical damage,
alcohol and drug abuse, Masi said,
and it can be deadly.
A federal government ranking
of the 10 most stressful occupa
tions rates secretary second, be
low coal miners and construction
workers. Officer managers and
foremen are ranked lower. The
ranking is based on death rates
and admissions records at hospit
als and mental health facilities.
Masi, who works for the U.S.
Department of Health and Hu
man Services through the Univer
sity of Maryland, said secretarial
strain is manifested by a greater
risk of heart disease, abuse oflegal
drugs, alcoholism and mental ill
ness, most often in the form of
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depression.
She said the rate of coronary
disease among clerical workers is
double that of all other working
women.
Stress among women office
workers is more acute than other
“pink collar,” low-paying occupa
tions — cashiers, nurses and wait
resses — for several reasons, Masi
said.
One is the disparity between
the amount of responsiblity and
autonomy. Secretaries very often
have more knowledge of the nuts-
and-bolts operation of the firm
than their bosses, but seldom have
the authority to make or imple
ment decisions.
Other factors are lack of oppor
tunity for advancement and bore
dom, particularly for secretaries
with college degrees who entered
the field because they couldn’t de
cide on a career.
“Secretaries are underem
ployed, especially college grads
who didn’t know what to major in.
You work for years as a secretary
and all of a sudden, you wonder if
there isn’t something more, some
thing better. You ask, ’Where do I
go from here?”’ Masi said.
Feeling that their contribution
to the firm is minimal, or com
pletely ignored, enhances low self
esteem and heightens frustration.
Another factor among all
women workers, but particularly
secretaries, is lack of sleep caused
by trying to excel at two jobs —
one at home and one outside.
“The biggest social change of
the past decade is the number of
women working outside the
home,” Masi said. “One reason is
because they want to, but in a
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great number of cases, the eco
nomy pushed them into the work
force to keep their families going. ”
Trying to stretch a meager pay
check also exacerbates stress,
partcularly for divorced women
and single parents, whom Dr.
Masi called the country’s fastest
growing poverty group. They bear
the double burden of child care
and job.
Married women don’t fare
much better, Masi said, because
they are saddled with housefrau
responsibilities after they cover
their typewriters for the day.
Working women often feel guilty
if they can’t handle both jobs prop
erly, she added.
She said the subgroup most vul
nerable to coronary disease is the
secretary married to a blue collar
worker with at least three chil
dren. Their husbands suffer from
the “that’s women’s work” syn
drome and offer little help with
household chores or caring for
children.
On-the-job stress has boosted
the number of secretaries abusing
legal drugs and alcohol. Masi said
women workers are “almost
matching” men addicted to alco
hol, with one woman alcoholic for
every four males.
Conducting occupational re
search in Boston a few years ago,
she found a shocking number of
working women who took pre
scription tranquilizers would save
the pills for a Friday "jolt.”
Masi said companies can save
money by implementing prog
rams to alleviate secretarial
“People with personal
lems don’t operate at peal
ciency. Lateness, absence,
govers, poor decision mi
lot of lost time — if cora[
do something to get people
tioning, it’s very cost-i
She said women emi
should present their
concerns to their malesu|
“and put their heads tog(
solve these problems,
these men are fathersofdi
who might become 9
one day.”
Companies should instil
ployment counseling for
ies who want to move
career ladder, she said
should also involve clerical
ers in decision making,
shops on how to handles 1
up in-house day care andol
time to let secretaries to
their work days around
needs.
The problem of secrdii
stress just won’t go awayA&M
going to get worse before i!» ws to fj
better. Masi said. Replay
There.,s n0 „f Sout
people who say women snoi -
work have to realize that. \Vo;L
are working for economicreas^
and because they want I
“Unfortunately, there ii|
cultural resistance to wtd
women. But it’s a very sadl!
There simply is no altemafe
women not working outside|
home.”
Father says courts
^ Bansas c
have pro-mother bife'
ijust anotlu
United Press International
EVANSTON, Ill. — Jeff Atkin
son’s story is not unique. He is a
divorced man with two young
daughters.
The girls are in his ex-wife’s
custody. Atkinson is out to change
that with a suit charging sex discri
mination. It will be argued before
the Illinois Supreme Court in mid
May.
“The suit is just a very natural
outgrowth,” said the 32-year-old
attorney.
“I had been raising those kids
for eight years. I still feel I can do a
better job.
“The ability to parent is not
unique to women. My former wife
got custody because she is a
woman and the kids are girls. If
the kids were boys, things might
be different. Courts have got to
look at the individual facts and not
just arbitrarily award custody to
women.”
Atkinson was divorced from
Janet, 31, in 1977. Since then,
Janet, who also is an attorney, has
remarried. Atkinson has not.
The father said he got the short
end when Judge Albert Porter
awarded custody to his ex-wife.
“The visitation rights are not
very good,” Atkinson said. “I’m
only allowed every other weekend
and Tuesday nights. But I’ve
found ways to get around that. I
teach at the girls’ school part-time
and get to see them then.”
Atkinson said his daughters,
Abby, 11, and Tara, 9, have told
him they would prefer living with
him. That, he said, creates “a lot of
bitterness” between him and his
former wife.
“I am not trying to take away
Janet’s motherhood,” he said.
Janet, now Mrs. Hoffman, says,
“I’m just a mother who has watch
ed her children suffer. The kids
have become a battleground.”
The tension has affected the
children.
“I am trying to be as nahiulj
loving as I can be,’ Atkinson
“They feel caught in the mi(H|
Atkinson denied he is ti)i
use his children to get backaltj
mother.
“Our marriage is
i Moses M
-a firm t
action o:
Elalone’s 1
[night shif
Houston
lory over tl
over. I want my personallifer 1 l ; 0 ? M " n
on,” he said. ’T can give Conferen
WI1 > .YdlLI. J. Ldll Uft [ij , >
better sense of themselves as; r lous s
pie. I tune into them more [ , 0 ‘
He said it has been 30« ' edtwo . st ‘
since the state Supreme Couill s as .
agreed to hear a child custody: a (
where sex discrimination was
issue. Houston h
“Times have changed,Ti Takers in
son said. “Courts shouldnoln the best
decisions based on sex.” 1® t^ en be
Attorney Herbert Gleibers^tonio thn
a divorce lawyer and author,wt best-of
mates one third of all father!#°d news ft
fight for custody of their clii ^" s:ls City
actually win. jvantage in
In Illinois, the state con* | Moses M
tion’s equal rights clausedisat' punt of p
custody decisions based solel ^yer that’
sex, he said. ® mR > said
“If you have two workinil F n '> Peo
rents, the mother doesnI F what kirn
any more time to devote K 1 1
child, ” Gleiberman said.
“If when she comes
does things of a personal
and the father on the other
comes home and starts helpiilj
kids with their homework 1
court could conclude he’s thtj
ter parent because he’s ,
quality time. That’s what hatdf H0US
ing in many, many cases. Astern
Atkinson is less than opti"* slay has
about his chances.
“The law is neutral butj«*j '
hearts are not,” Atkinson said alls fror
is their gut instinct that mod'
should raise children.”
“It’s t
liey can
ley wan
:an do.”
Even if he doesn’t win cu^
Atkinson said he hopes.
will result in better visit* 11
rights and perhaps make it^ ^ ere
for other fathers to win custody e P
the future.
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