Oral History Program Margaret Waterfall Interviewed by Anonymous 18 May 1995 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Margaret Waterfall Interviewed by Anonymous 18 May 1995 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. 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It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Waterfall, Margaret, an oral history by Anonymous, 18 May 1995, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Margaret Waterfall. The interview was conducted on May 18, 1995, by an anonymous interviewer (AN). The interviewee discusses gender-based salary among the faculty of Weber State University. She also describes some of the physical education courses that she instructed over the course of her career. MW: The main part of Women's issues I was involved with was the Women's Salary Equity Committee. Maybe I should just back up a bit. I was hired at Weber State in 1962, and began as an instructor with a salary of $4,300. And four years later, in '68, I received my Master of Fine Arts in dance; that's what I was teaching. In ‘70 I was made Assistant Professor, and in ‘75 was promoted to Associate Professor. And as these increments, things were taking place, the salary was not commensurate with the responsibilities or the degree, or whatever. Now, I don't remember exactly what year it began; the only way I could figure out it must have been in ‘72 that I spent most of my contribution toward the Committee was evaluating women's salaries as compared with men's salaries on campus. And, the reason I thought it had to be ‘72, is because in ‘72 I had a salary of $9,100, and in ‘73 my salary jumped exactly $3000 to $12,100. So, for me, the interesting thing of working on that Committee, the Women's Salary Equity Committee, was that we had access to the information of all the women's salaries across campus. And those women who had been hired in '69, ‘70, ‘71, many of their salaries were above and beyond the comparable men's salaries. But for those who had been hired back in the '60's, there were incredible discrepancies. And, about the only thing I can remember specifically is, at that time there were three women in the Physical Education 1 Department, and once all the salaries had been looked at, the three of us in Physical Education had the greatest disparity among all of the salaries, and yours truly was at the bottom of those three. I mean, I was the one person on campus who had the greatest inequity, and all things were considered, such as rank, teaching assignments, degree held, and so that was why I remembered that. But, one thing about the thirty years I spent teaching at Weber State; it was not for the salary, it was because I loved doing what I did. And all of a sudden, it seemed I was ready to do something else, or do less, maybe I should say. I had worked indirectly with the Women's Program, Women's Studies, I think they called it; I would do special workshops in rape awareness, and unfortunately, to my knowledge, when I retired, no one has picked up the information on rape awareness. Of course, I don't know if this goes into anything you're interested in, but it's a class I wish someone were teaching, just because, I thought, it seemed to fill a need. I was able to schedule two each quarter, and the class was always filled. So that was one of the classes I felt good about. I enjoyed the autonomy of being able to introduce subjects I felt there was a need for. And, I taught yoga classes, which again were popular, but no one is now teaching. Of course, when Dr. Davis gave up the physical education requirement, I understand it has diminished many of the one hour activity classes, because students may not see the need, but if it's a requirement, they find time for those classes. Helen Farr was the chairperson of the committees that were working for women's salary equity. And I have tried to remember other names, or people who met, and, we were meeting weekly, I guess for at least a school year, and I guess I have told you really everything I can remember regarding this salary equity thing. And apparently, some of the discrepancies were corrected the following year, or 2 at least improved, and the only reason I said it must have been in ‘72 that we were meeting, is because in ‘73 I had such a substantial salary increase. Other than that, if you have questions for me... AN: Do you have anything to say about what you actually did on the Committee? MW: l don't remember...I do recall that there were people who flew in from Denver that were on some national Equity, but I don't remember their names even, or the name of the organization. But it seems to me that there was some movement across a broad spectrum of college and university campuses to address that particular problem. AN: Well, tell me a little bit more about your rape awareness class, then. How long did you teach that, and what kinds of things did you go over? MW: Primarily prevention, the emphasis was on prevention. But in order for it to be a part of Physical Education, we did need to include some of the physical defensive skills, such as how to hit, where to hit. I also taught the "feigned faint", just because it is nonthreatening to an attacker, and there may be a time and place that it would so catch the individual off guard, that they wouldn't deal with that. Specifically, if you were approached, say, by a man as you were ready to leave the mall, rather than leave a place where there were other people, even if he sticks something in your side and says, "Just keep walking - don't make a sound", rather than get out to a less safe place, you'd have a couple of options. One would be to scream and start fighting, and take your chances that way, or another one would be to pretend to faint. And, to me, that is very non-threatening, and yet, what is he going to do, grab you by a leg and start dragging you along? So we considered some options in terms of the physical side, and the alternative to that— prevention was much of what I emphasized, because students 3 come into the class; in this area generally, people think, "Oh well, I don't need to lock my car, or I don't need to lock my house, or if someone rings my doorbell, I don't need to use the door viewer". But just simple things, like if they put out $3 or $4 investments, they can put a door viewer in, and before they open a door, particularly if they live alone... So, prevention, security measures, and then considering different responses. AN: And how long were you able to have that class running? MW: Oh, I must have taught that class anywhere from 5-7 years before I retired. AN: When you retired in '92 , did you have any sense of how women's salary equity was going on within the P.E. department? MW: Just that, if you start out low, and you get a 5% increase, then those who have a higher salary are going to get proportionately more. And as each year goes by, the higher salaries with, again, 3%, 5%, whatever it is, if it's across the board; that discrepancy is going to increase. And, in Physical Education, men's salaries may always be disproportionate with the women's. It's just a fact. AN: Do you think there's any way that can be changed? Can they start out, across the board, and raise up the women's, or lower the men's? MW: Well, perhaps that has changed with the new hires, because as women have come into the department more recently— I would hope, I'm not sure— that their salaries would be more on par with the men's based on, again: degree, rank, and assignment. Those are the three things, theoretically, that salaries are based on. But I really don't know what's going on at this time. 4