The Washington Blade March 5, 1999 Professor challenged for female-only class Mary Daly rejects order to integrate by Peter Freiberg A prominent Lesbian feminist theologian and philosopher has ignited a controversy by canceling her course at Boston College this semester rather than allow men into the class. Mary Daly, a 70-year-old associate professor of theology at the Catholic school, offered to teach the male students separately, as she has done at least a dozen times in the past 25 years, her attorney says. But she rejected a college order to integrate men into her all-women class. The issue has erupted sporadically on campus in the past but eventually subsided. This time, a male student, identified by the Boston Globe as senior Duane Naquin, drew support from the Center for Individual Rights (CIR), which the college says has threatened to sue. The CIR, a Washington, D.C.-based legal group, describes itself as libertarian and opposes, among other things, affirmative action and government mandates dictated by what it calls "radical feminism," such as the Violence Against Women Act. The group won�t comment on or even confirm its involvement in the Daly issue, but Jack Dunn, a spokesperson for the Jesuit-run school, says the college responded to the lawsuit threat by ordering Daly to admit men. The college position is simple: Sex-segregated classes, it says, violate Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 which stipulates that, "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid." "Our legal people are 100 percent convinced that it�s a violation of federal law under Title IX," says Dunn. "All the university�s resources are available to all students, regardless of gender, and that includes Professor Daly�s classes." On the threat of a lawsuit, Dunn says, "We�re agreeing on the issue [with the CIR] so they aren�t likely to sue�." Besides, says Dunn, "We also wish [Daly] would admit men into the class so they could avail themselves of her unique perspective." Through her lawyer, Gretchen Van Ness, Daly declined interview requests from the Blade. Van Ness said Daly did not want to make additional public comments and was busy this week preparing and traveling for a speech. But Van Ness said the college had not raised the women-only policy "as a do-or-die issue at any time in the past," and that Daly has been "teaching this way for quite some time." In an interview with the Globe, Daly said, "Boston College has wronged me and my students by caving in to right-wing pressure and depriving me of my right to teach freely. This is not about discrimination. � This is about leveling the rights of women and minorities so that white male power reigns." Daly proudly calls herself a radical and identifies as a separatist, according to Van Ness. Behind her refusal to teach men and women in the same class, Van Ness said, is the conviction that "when it�s just women, something unusual happens. The students � soar together." In contrast, Van Ness said, when a male student is present in a predominantly female class, he "receives a lot of attention. When a male student isn�t present, women give the other women in the class a lot of attention." "She has never refused to teach men," Van Ness said. "Out of hard-won experience, she says the class is just so different � because the women are protective of the men. If you�re doing a heavy critique of patriarchy, the women feel sympathetic to the men, rather than being able to interact with each other." Asked whether Daly�s policy violates Title IX, Van Ness says, "I really don�t know�. I would argue that, if the spirit of Title IX is to add educational opportunities [for women], then there should be more courses like this, not simply Mary Daly�s." Chai Feldblum, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and longtime Lesbian legal activist, said it is uncertain how the courts would rule on the complex issue presented by Daly. Previous decisions, Feldblum said, have permitted excluding men "when a women-only space is compensatory for women." For example, she said, the courts indicated years ago that, because men and women are still not equal in wages paid, women may have to be treated differently in order to gain full equality. "The question for Mary Daly and all the rest of us today," Feldblum said, "is, �Is it still necessary to create that women-only space?� For me, personally, that is an open question. I don�t see it as a slam-dunk either way. � It�s a very tough, and very current, question in the women�s community." But Feldblum said she believes there is "an undercurrent of homophobic and anti-Lesbian feelings that is generating" the threat of a lawsuit in the Daly controversy. "The conservative group [the CIR] has an ultimate target in mind, which is to undermine some feminist efforts," Feldblum said. "I think they have decided, as a calculated matter, that their hand is strengthened if they go against a very masculine-looking Lesbian. I don�t think it is at all by chance: They�re smart political operators." Terence Pell, the CIR�s senior counsel, told the Blade the group has no ties to the religious right, has not been directly involved in Gay cases, and often angers conservatives with its lawsuits. Van Ness, a Lesbian who was one of the lawyers for a Boston Irish Gay group that sought admission to the city�s St. Patrick�s Day parade, said the CIR wrote a brief opposing the Gay group�s lawsuit (the brief was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on technical grounds.) But Van Ness acknowledged that the CIR�s argument was not necessarily based on an anti-Gay stance but on the group�s opposition to Massachusetts�s public accommodations law, the grounds for the Gay group�s lawsuit. In a fundraising letter sent out last Nov. 24, the CIR does not mention any position on Gay issues. It does indicate opposition to "hate crimes" legislation and says its "most important cases are attacks on two of feminism�s sacred cows"�the 1994 Violence Against Women Act and Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments. Dunn, the Boston College spokesperson, said Daly�s sexual orientation has not influenced the administration�s position on single-sex classes. "She�s been open about her sexuality since the 1960s," said Dunn, "and I give her credit. It�s never been a Gay issue to us. We just think all students have to have that legal access [to her classes]�." He called Daly an "internationally-renowned author, very popular on the college lecture circuit." Daly has sparked other controversies since she began teaching at Boston College in 1966, when she taught all-male classes because women were barred as undergraduates. Originally a Catholic (she left the Church years ago), Daly was at Boston College when she published her book, The Church and the Second Sex, in 1968. The book criticized the Church for centuries of misogyny and patriarchy. When she was denied tenure the following year, according to the Washington Post, 1,500 male students demonstrated in her behalf � and she won a permanent position. In 1989, Boston�s Gay Community News reported that 50 women rallied against Boston College�s refusal to promote Daly to full professorship. She never did gain that status. Daly�s books include Gyn/Ecology:The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy, Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage, and her most recent book, Quintessence�Realizing the Archaic Future: A Radical Elemental Feminist Manifesto. Her books are used in women�s studies and other courses worldwide. There were occasional protests by male students who sought admission to her classes after she began single-sex instruction in 1974. In 1989, the Globe said, Daly took a semester�s leave after several male students challenged her policy. When she returned, the protests had faded and she resumed her single-sex classes. The latest controversy elicited a critical editorial from the Globe, which said that, because of Title IX, "Boston College is right to insist that�Daly admit men to her course." But a Globe columnist, Eileen McNamara, defended Daly, saying, "She doesn�t refuse to teach men; she assigns them to a separate section�.[T]he empirical evidence is on her side�[F]rom grade school to graduate school, males dominate the classroom." Dunn says overwhelming sentiment at the school is against Daly�s position, but a group of 14 women students signed a letter to the administration backing her stance. Meanwhile, Daly�s future at Boston College is unclear. Attorney Van Ness is negotiating with the administration on possible retirement, but says Daly still isn�t sure what she wants to do. Speaking for the college, Dunn says, "The logical thing would be for her to retire�and move on."
