[lbo-talk] Sexy Harvard librarian loses glass ceiling lawsuit

Lance Murdoch lancemurdoch at gmail.com
Tue Apr 5 17:44:03 PDT 2005


Larry Summers could have saved her a lot of time and effort if he told her back in 1994 that women are not smart enough to do these types of jobs.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/04/librarian.suit.ap

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Harvard University did not discriminate against a library assistant who claimed she was repeatedly turned down for promotions because school officials saw her as "a pretty girl" whose attire was too "sexy," a federal jury found Monday.

Desiree Goodwin, who is black, also claimed that Harvard passed her over because of her race and gender. [...] Goodwin, who has worked as a library assistant at Harvard since 1994, claimed in the lawsuit that she had been rejected for seven promotions at the library since 1999.

She said she was shocked when, in late 2001, her supervisor told her she would never be promoted at Harvard. In court documents, Goodwin said her supervisor told her she was "a joke" at the university's main library, where she "was seen merely as a pretty girl who wore sexy outfits, low cut blouses, and tight pants." [...] Goodwin, 40, testified earlier in the trial that she overcame a childhood marked by poverty and a chaotic family life to attend Cornell University, Boston College and Simmons College, earning a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, including one in library science.



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