The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-01-09
ADMINISTRATION
BOARD VOTES new
EMPLOYMENT PLAN
Three-to.TWo Division MuIIifies
Action Planned TO Be e.
fective in July
PALMER CHANGES ATTITUDE
Voted to Eliminate Women
Whose Husbands Can Support
Them; Then Changes Mind
PALMER CHANGES ATTITUDE
(By The Associated Press)

A ruling adopted last summer by
the state board Of administration to
drop married women from the pay
rolls Of state institutions has been
rescinded.
The board, which originally adopt
ed a resolution by a four to one vote,
to dismiss all married women from
the staffs Of state institutions where
the employees husband is capable OF
support, nullified this action by q
three to two vote at a meeting OF the
full membership OF the body.
w. ]. Church and r. B. Murphy
voted against resembling the ruling,
while Superintendent Of Public In
struction Bertha r. Palmer, Secretary
Of Agriculture and Labor Joseph A.
Kitchen, and Nelson Sauvain, chair
man Of the board, voted in favor Of
multiplying the previous action.
The ruling, as adopted by the board.
was to become effective next July.
BY resembling the original resolution.
married women who faced the pros
poets Of dismissal may remain at their
posts.
Mr.. Kitchen cast the only negative
vote when the ruling was originally
adopted, while Miss Palmer, Murphy,
Church, and j. E. Davis, former
chairman who recently resigned, vot-
ed In favor of 1t.
Miss Palmer Changed
Murphy and Church, in voting
against resembling the boards previ-
GUS action, urged the board to allow
the ruling to remain in effect, while
Kitchen upheld his original vote
against the ruling and voted for null
LITIGATION. Miss Palmer. in her vote
for resembling the resolution, changed
her original vote which was in favor
Of the proposal.
ed was the first Of its kind to be made
by the board Of administration, al
though institution heads generally
discouraged the practice of employing
married women and usually advised
women employees who were about to
be married that their positions would
be filled by others.
Miss Palmer at the time the ruling
was discussed last summer sought to
have the board make its action af-
feet only new employees, while mar
ried women holding positions would
not be affected. This proposal fall
ed, and she voted with the board to
drop all married women on the pay
rolls of state institutions, unless their
husbands we're incapable of support
ing a family.
Law May Be Enacted
Mr.. Murphy, in fighting the pro-
posal to rescind action, told the board
that unless the ruling Is allowed to
remain in effect it would provoke the
legislature to enact q statute against
the employment Of married women
generally in state offices and insti-
buttons. He was supported In his
argument by MI. Church.
Members voting to rescind action
contended the ruling affects less than
10 employees, and that since the prac-
tice Of institutions is against employ
ment Of married women, the ruling
was not necessary.
The question was brought before
the board last summe by q woman
employee Of the state normal school at
Dickinson. She was about to become
married and was notified by the head
Of the school that she would lose her
position after her marriage. She
claimed that in view of the employ
ment of other married women in state
institutions that the school was dis
eliminating against her and asked
Continued on page nlne)