Women Will Unite In Strike Today, But Boston NOW Is Opposing Action

In an attempt to draw attention to what it calls "the unfinished business of equality," the National Organization for Women (NOW) has asked women across the country to join in a general strike today.

All women--activist and non-activist, professional and working class, housewife and student--have been called on to take a day-long break from their respective routines to demonstrate their economic clout.

The U.S. strike follows a day-long walkout by 60,000 Icelandic women--almost 100 per cent of Iceland's female population--on Saturday. The walkout disrupted many of the country's activities, including the publication of newspapers and other public communication.

Virtually Impossible

But supporters and opponents of the strike agree that such a show of solidarity today among American women is virtually impossible.

Despite NOW's plea, movement and non-movement women alike seem confused, unaware or unaffected by the threat of the general walkout, which NOW leaders have dubbed "Alice Doesn't National Strike Day," derived from the book and movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore."

The book and movie depict the struggle of a widowed housewife trying to fend for herself.

Fearing a collapse of the strike or countering groundswells by anti-strike forces, women's groups in major cities are planning other types of actions that they hope will still draw attention.

It seems clear that national spokesmen for NOW and those at the local level disagree about whether NOW should have called for a general strike at its national convention in Philadelphia last week.

New York's NOW unit, for example, has shunned the strike, opting instead to campaign for a state equal-rights amendment.

Strike supporters hope that the male population will come to appreciate what "Alice does," after living through a day when "Alice doesn't."

A NOW representative in San Jose, California, where the general strike was conceived and sentiment for it is strong, said yesterday that if all women refused to spend money or do office work, housework, or school work, there would be a dramatic "pulling of the plug that keeps the nation running primarily on the efforts of 53 per cent of the population."

Boston NOW, however, is opposing today's strike. Sandra P. Yaggy, president of Boston NOW, said yesterday the organization "does not expect women to be walking off their jobs," adding, "We are urging women to evaluate the kinds of jobs women as a class are limited to."

Yaggy said women should wear yellow arm bands today to show their support for equal employment opportunity.

Members of women's groups in Boston and Cambridge yesterday criticized the local NOW unit because, they said, the group has not tried to establish broad-based support for the strike.

Nancy Nathan, a staffer for the Cambridge Women's Group, said that Cambridge will not have any strike activities or rallies today since Boston NOW is "so opposed to the strike."

Mary Sue Hennifen '76, co-chairperson of the Radcliffe-Harvard Women's Group, said, "It would be tremendous if all Radcliffe women struck," but added, "They won't because NOW's publicity campaign has been so poor."

Boston NOW did not wage a "massive media campaign" about the strike because of internal division on whether or not it should support the action, Deanna Lackaff, vice president for public relations of Boston NOW, said yesterday.

But students at Harvard, as well as faculty and administrators, should show support for the strike in individual ways, including refusing to be consumers and holding discussion groups on sex discrimination in faculty hiring, Lackaff said.

Women should show they object to being "second-class" citizens in any way, they want to, Lackaff said.

Undergraduates--both male and female--contacted by The Crimson last night were mostly unaware of the strike, but were mostly in sympathy with its purpose.

Several women who are clerical workers at the Graduate School of Design said yesterday they will strike to demonstrate their support "of the movement' and to "raise consciousness" on women's issues.

Ralph B. Bennett, assistant professor of Architecture, where employees said they will strike, said he "absolutely endorses the women because the cause is so just and the remedy so tolerable."

An assistant to President Horner said yesterday that the Radcliffe president had planned a regular day and does not expect to participate in the strike