KATHLEEN A. OLSON:
An Inventory of Her Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Olson, Kathleen A., creator. | |
| Title: | Kathleen A. Olson papers. | |
| Dates: | 1969-1992 (bulk 1970-1984). | |
| Abstract: | Papers of a Minnesota feminist documenting her participation (1970-1980) in voluntary organizations dedicated to achieving full rights for women and the elimination of sexism and sex discrimination in Minnesota schools and her involvement (1980-1984) with University of Minnesota committees working under terms of the Rajender consent decree to end sex discrimination by the University in the hiring and promotion of women faculty and academic staff. | |
| Quantity: | 1.3 cubic feet (2 boxes), 1 master audio file: WAV (85.1 MB), and 1 user audio file: MP3 (11.9 MB). | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description section for shelf locations. |
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
The papers reflect Olson's strong commitment to feminism as an officer, board member, and/or committee chair of the Women's Institute for Social Change, Twin Cities and Minnesota chapters of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Emma Willard Task Force on Education, Minnesota Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and several day care associations (1970-1980); as chair of the Minnesota State Board of Education Sex Bias Task Force (1974-1976); and as a University of Minnesota employee providing administrative support to the Faculty Advisory Committee for Women (also known as the Faculty Advisory Committee on Women) and Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity for Women (1980-1984, 1992).
In addition to documenting Olson's role in these organizations, the papers selectively document the organizations' activities. The files for each organization generally include, to a lesser or greater degree, Olson's notes; board, committee, and membership meeting agendas, minutes, and mailing lists; correspondence and memoranda; reports and related papers; budgets and financial statements; institute, workshop, and conference materials; near print and print items such as newsletters, news releases, circular letters, fliers and brochures, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles; and historical information. In general, the presence of these materials is not specifically noted in the Detailed Description section of the inventory.
Also present is an audiotape of a 1973 interview of several members of the Minnesota delegation to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
ARRANGEMENT
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Kathleen A. Olson Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Accession Information:
Accession number: 15,908
Location of Master Files:
Digital master of audio recording is maintained on the Society's secure digital collectios storage servers and is managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.
The original audiotape was disposed after it was digitally reformatted into a wav file.
Processing Information:
Processed by: Deborah Kahn, September 2005
Encoding by Joseph Larsen, January 2023.
Digital audio transferred from the master audiotape by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (January 2023).
Catalog ID number: 990037167520104294
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| Box | |||||||||||
| 151.I.2.1B | 1 | Kathleen A. Olson photograph, undated. | |||||||||
| Women's Institute for Social Change (WISC), 1970-1975. 2 folders | |||||||||||
| A Minneapolis group organized in 1970 under the sponsorship of the Junior League of Minneapolis to effect social change by developing a program and courses (institutes and workshops) to educate and train middle class women to become agents of change in the community. | |||||||||||
| National Organization for Women (NOW): | |||||||||||
| An activist organization, founded in 1966, embodying all aspects of the feminist agenda and committed to achieving full equality for women in American society. The Twin Cities and Minnesota chapters were formed in 1970-1971. | |||||||||||
| The papers in each folder or unit within a folder are in reverse chronological order. | |||||||||||
| National headquarters, undated and 1972-1975. | |||||||||||
| Twin Cities Chapter: | |||||||||||
| Undated and 1971-1978. 4 folders | |||||||||||
| Committees, 1969-1978. | |||||||||||
| Child Care Committee, Education Committee, and Reproduction Committee. | |||||||||||
| Minnesota NOW: | |||||||||||
| 1974-1976. | |||||||||||
| Includes a campaign flier (ca. 1976?) issued by Olson as a candidate for Midwest regional director of NOW. | |||||||||||
| National constitution and bylaws commissions, December 1975-October 1976. | |||||||||||
| Includes materials relating to the Midwest regional hearings and conference. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 151.I.2.1B | 1 | Emma Willard Task Force on Education, 1971-1975. | |||||||||
| A feminist organization formed in 1970 by Minnesota women dedicated to eliminating sexism in pre-school, primary, and secondary education. Its services included workshops, courses, in-service training, and speakers; publications; a resource center; consultation, coordination, and facilitation; and organization of direct actions. | |||||||||||
| Includes evaluations of a presentation on sexism by Olson at the Elizabeth Kenny Institute (February 1974) and Olson's notes for a workshop she conducted at the Wilder Day Care Center (March 1974). | |||||||||||
| Minnesota State Board of Education Sex Bias Task Force: | |||||||||||
| The state board established the task force in December 1973 to develop guidelines for implementing the board's 1972 policy statement on the elimination of sex bias and discrimination in Minnesota schools. The board's statement and the task force focused on the following areas: employment (hiring and promotion); curriculum and instructional materials; extra-curricular activities, especially student athletics; and professional training for administrators and teachers. | |||||||||||
| Olson's task force notebook, January-April 1974. | |||||||||||
| Olson's task force files, 1974-1976. 3 folders | |||||||||||
| Includes materials relating to the board policy; work of the task force, under Olson's direction, that culminated in the submission of a written report to the board (April 1984); subsequent task force participation in efforts to implement the report's recommendations; ramifications of Title IX of the U.S. Educational Amendments of 1972, which banned sex discrimination in schools receiving federal government funds, and the proposed regulations (1974) for its implementation, notably in relation to athletics; Minnesota Women for Educational Equality, an outgrowth of the task force that worked to assure equal opportunity at the district and state levels of Minnesota's educational system; the Sex Bias Advisory Committee to the Minnesota State Board of Education; and the Minneapolis Schools Task Force on Sexism and activities directed toward eliminating sex bias in the Minneapolis school district. | |||||||||||
| Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Minnesota Branch: | |||||||||||
| WILPF was founded in 1915 during World War I; the Minnesota branch was established in 1922. The organization worked to achieve through peaceful means world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, and an end to all forms of violence, and to create the conditions necessary to assure peace, freedom, and justice for all people. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 151.I.2.1B | 1 | View-Counterview radio talk show, 1975-1980. | |||||||||
| Materials relating to a program broadcast on KUXL Radio, Duluth (Minnesota) that was produced by the WILPF Minnesota Branch under Olson's direction. | |||||||||||
| Internet | Interview of members of the Minnesota delegation to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963), August 28, 1973. 1 master audio file (16 minutes, 52 seconds): WAV (85.1 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (11.9 MB). | ||||||||||
| Interview by Dulcie Lawrence, Minnesota journalist and peace and civil rights activist, of fellow march participants Matthew Little, Denzil Carty, and Josie Johnson on the tenth anniversary of the event. | |||||||||||
Digital audio
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| Box | |||||||||||
| 151.I.2.1B | 1 | Day care organizations, 1975-1978. | |||||||||
| Materials relating to Olson's involvement with the Hennepin County Family Day Care Association (1975), the Southeast [Minneapolis] Child Care Committee (1976-1977), and the Greater Minneapolis Day Care Association (1977-1978). | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 151.I.2.2F | 2 | University of Minnesota Faculty Advisory Committee for Women (a.k.a. Faculty Advisory Committee on Women) (FACW) and Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity for Women (EEOW): | |||||||||
| The majority of the papers for both committees relate to the implementation of the terms of the consent decree issued in August 1980 by the United States District Court, District of Minnesota, Fourth Division in the Rajender, et. al. v. University of Minnesota class action sex discrimination suit. In part, they illuminate the difficulties encountered by women like Professor Patricia S. Faunce, chair of the FACW and director of the University Measurement Services Center (which supplied data on faculty hiring and promotion to the EEOW), and Measurement Services civil service employee Olson--both of whom were actively involved in the Rajender implementation process--in dealing with officials in the University's administration following the issue of the consent decree. | |||||||||||
| The papers for the two committees sometimes closely relate to and overlap one another. The materials in each folder or unit within a folder are in reverse chronological order. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 151.I.2.2F | 2 | Faculty Advisory Committee for Women (FACW): | |||||||||
| Designated by the Rajender consent decree to provide women filing or considering filing sex discrimination grievances and complaints against the University with faculty advisors to advise and otherwise assist them. | |||||||||||
| Dismantled notebook: | |||||||||||
| Correspondence and related papers, October 1980-June 1981. 2 folders | |||||||||||
| Materials relating to committee expenditure reports to the Rajender decree special master, 1981-1982. | |||||||||||
| Loose correspondence and related papers, October 1980-June 1982; 1990-1992. 2 folders | |||||||||||
| Most of these papers deal with the 1992 FACW Rajender Conference. | |||||||||||
| Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity for Women (EEOW): | |||||||||||
| Responsible for monitoring the University's progress in implementing the terms of the Rajender consent decree and consulting with University officials when implementation problems arose. | |||||||||||
| 1980-1984. 2 folders | |||||||||||
| Clippings, 1980-1984. | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous notes and lists, January-May 1984. | |||||||||||
| Includes Olson's notes on a University of Minnesota Law School lecture series titled "Women and the Law" (January 1974) and a discussion of public interest litigation among Minnesota attorneys titled "Loophole for the People" that was broadcast on Twin Cities Public Television (May 1974); and membership and participant lists of organizations and events other than those discussed above. | |||||||||||
RELATED MATERIALS
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Abortion -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota.
- Abortion -- Law and legislation -- United States.
- Adult education of women -- Minnesota.
- Child care -- Minnesota.
- Equal pay for equal work -- Minnesota.
- Family day care -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.
- Feminism -- Minnesota.
- March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963.
- Peace -- Societies, etc.
- Pro-choice movement -- Minnesota.
- Sex discrimination against women -- Minnesota.
- Sex discrimination in education -- Minnesota.
- Sex discrimination in employment -- Minnesota.
- Sex discrimination in higher education -- Minnesota.
- Sex discrimination in sports -- Minnesota.
- Sexism -- Minnesota.
- Sexism in education -- Minnesota.
- Social change -- Minnesota.
- Sports for girls -- Minnesota.
- United States. Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX.
- Women -- Employment -- Minnesota.
- Women -- Societies and clubs -- Minnesota.
- Women and peace -- Minnesota.
- Women in higher education -- Minnesota.
- Women's rights -- Minnesota.
- Persons:
- Faunce, Patricia Spencer, 1937-.
- Rajender, Shyamala.
- Carty, Denzil A., interviewee.
- Johnson, Josie R. (Josie Robinson), 1930-, interviewee.
- Lawrence, Dulcie Ann, 1924-, interviewer.
- Little, Matthew, interviewee.
- Organizations:
- Emma Willard Task Force on Education.
- Greater Minneapolis Day Care Association.
- Hennepin County Family Day Care Association.
- Minnesota NOW.
- Minnesota. State Board of Education. Sex Bias Task Force.
- National Organization for Women. Twin Cities Chapter.
- Southeast Child Care Committee (Minneapolis, Minn.).
- University of Minnesota -- Faculty -- Salaries, etc.
- University of Minnesota. Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity for Women.
- University of Minnesota. Faculty Committee on Women.
- Women's Institute for Social Change.
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Minnesota Branch.
- Types of Documentation:
- Photographs.
- Sound recordings.
- Occupations:
- African American civic leaders -- Minnesota.
- Feminists -- Minnesota.
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