Lewin, Tamar

English

Hollins University

Hollins University Hollins Digital Commons Ann B. Hopkins Papers Manuscript Collections 5-19-1990 Winner of Sex Bias Suit Set to Enter Next Arena Tamar Lewin Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/hopkins-papers  Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons All the NewsThat s Fit to Print ffeiir Igiwk Stin  New York: To ay, mostly sunny, lightwinds. Hig  74. Tonight, increasingclou s. Low 52. Tomorrow, clou s,some light rain. High 64. Yester ay,high 69, low 53. Details are on page 43.VOL.CXXXIX.... No. 48,340 Copyright © 1S90 Ttu New Yorit Ti NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1990 a Irora New York City, e 40 CENTSmm r  mmHHfciBB1¦¦iiiiHW mm.BKHH nism!mIImLisde .on a Federal sex discrimination cas<terhouse, which awarde  her the partnil m not 3Uoril zaid. TnWlSetIT 1 JMs. Hopkins, 46 years old, said shedid not feel hurt by the commentsthat formed the basis of the sex dis¬crimination lawsuit that was decidedhere on Monday by a Federal districtjudge who awarded  er t e partner¬ship she was denied in 1983.She said it would be fine to be a~ tufiner in a firm where it had beenestablished, for the record, that she® was not wanted, because she wassure of her abilities as a managementconsultant and wanted a chance touse them at a top-notch concern. Inany case, she added, many of the peo¬ple who criticized her are no longer inthe W shington office.Impervious to RejectionMs. Ho kins almost seems imper¬vious to rejection. She said that untilher husband, Tom, walked out thedoor one Wednesday morning fiveyears ago, leaving her with threeyoung children, she had no clue thatthe marriage was in trouble. Further¬more, she sai , he is her one true love,and if he walked back in, she wouldtake him right back.Is she actually that tough?I m not tough; I m tough-mind¬ed,  Ms. Hopkins said in an Interviewtoday. An  Pm comfortable withwhat I am. It doesn’t bother me. Her friends see something else.Bruw Yojog  o - Tnc Ne   York Tin  jj-jgy gay f g 5een devastated by.n Monday the comments about her. But they-  P she was add that after seven years of fightingfor the right to be a partner at PriceWs ms, Hopkins wo ld befoo ich sic cay mat she was not com-fonasH e scin   t ack.¦  cr-s i&MMm, tough-minded.'1C illl tote. ByTAMA.RLP'WINSpecial to The Mew York TimesJL 1 t rklWASHINGTON, May 17   Every¬one has been asking Ann Hopkins thesame question this week.Could she really go back to PriceWaterhouse after a seven-year legalfight in which she repeatedly heardthat she had not been given a partner¬ship at the huge acco nting firm be¬cause she was too macho, universallydisliked and in need of “a course atcharm school ?The question seems to puzzle thisself-described Army brat, who dragson cigarettes and sips beer as si  makes her way through a week of in¬terviews and well-wishers.Ann has been crushed by this, said Ruth Hopper, her longtime¦ friend and next-door neighbor in; Northwest Washington.  She’s beenvery  uch hurt by so e of the things: that Price Waterhouse has said. Youhave to be cognizant that someonewho has had to contain her hurt formany years, as she has, learns not todrop her defenses, to keep her coun¬sel or to make jokes. She’s not goingto tell you she’s cried about it, as shehas many times. With her colleagues at the WorldBank,  here she now works as abudget planner, she treats the com¬ments fro  the lawsuit that sheshould wear makeup and jewelry andlearn to walk, talk an  dress “moreI femininely  as a standing joke.Do I Walk Funny? At an office party held this week atthe World Bank to celebrate the com¬pletion of a budget, Ms. Hopkins  f¬fered a toast to her co-workers fortheir help in handling the delugs c«tcalls from reporters since the dec ¬sion was announ ed Mon ay. Th £¦. •she said,  It s true I don t wear mal e-up. but come on, guys, you can tell msdo I walk funny? There were hugs all around, andthen laughter as Ms. Hopkins, sayin that it might be true that she coulduse charm school, quaffed cham¬pagne straight from the bottle.Ms. Hopkins then briskly left theparty, and, because her shoes hurt,hailed a taxi to take her four blocks tothe bar where two women who had,worked with her at Price Waterhousewere celebrating her court victory.They talked about the case (sheassed out copies of the decision),whether Price Waterhouse would ap¬peal (she thinks they will) andwhether Price Waterhouse is a lead¬ing firm worldwide (she defends it).And when she left the table briefly,they rushed to say that while shemight seem brusque, the mannermasked a warm, generous friend.Ms. Hopper echoed that.  She willdo absolutely anything for you,  she!said.  She’s kind, she’s gracious, and'she’s intelligent. She also workedvery hard at Price Waterhouse, andbrought in an incredible amount of- business, and the reason they didn’tproduce anyone who' worked for herto testify against her at trial was thatno one would. She also works veryhard as a single parent. “I’ve never been a very patient per¬son,  Ms. Hopkins said.  The notionof being up all night changing dia ers: and getting baby bottles, and thenhaving a nice relaxing day of dia ersand baby bottles, you must be kid¬ding. She says that she has always talkedto her children, Tela, 14, Gilbert, 12,and Peter, 10, as if they were adults.No ‘Goo-Goo s  and  Ga-Ga’s’I didn’t goo-goo and ga-ga,  shesaid,  I never learned baby talk. What Ms. Hopkins did learn, fromher childhood, was how to be an out¬sider.  I’m third generation, small¬town Texas, and from the right side ofthe tracks,  she said. “But that’s notthe whole story. Her military father moved thefamily every few years, fro  Galves¬ton, Tex., to West Germany, to Kan¬sas, to Tennessee, back to West Ger¬any, and then to Alexandria, Va.“I have no understanding of peoplewho are concerned about jerking kidsout of school,  she said.  I thought of ;it as,  Hey guys, what s next?’ That’s ?probably, why I m a management:I m not tough;toueii-minde .fend I m¦'" mforiable withconsultant. Hey guys, what’s next? Ms. Hopkins went to Hollins Collegein Virginia and majored in  athe¬matics, then to graduate school in In¬diana. After a brief teaching stint, shetook a job at I.B.M. in Washington,where she found that she loved beinga manager.Ms. Hopkins met her husband atTouche Ross, one of the nation’s larg¬est accounting firms, but after theymarried, she ran up against the rulethat where both husband and wifework for the company, neither will beconsidered for a partnership. So in1978 she moved to Price Waterhouse,where five years later, of the 88 can¬didates for partnership, she hadbrought in the most business.“The explanation I got about why Ididn’t make partner didn t makesense to me,  she said.  I filed s itnot because of the money, but be¬cause I had been given an irrationale planation for a bad business deci¬sion. Once having filed suit, Ms. Hopkinssaid, it never occurred to her to turnback, even as the case dragged on,making its way to the Supre e Courtand back down to the Federal districtcourt. Anyway, she said, Price Water-house never offered to settle.One of the worst days of my lifewas when the Supreme Court took it, she said, since she had already wontwice in the lower courts, and hadeverything to lose and nothing to gain.But assuming there is no furtherappeal, she has gained a lot: the firstcourt-awarded partnership in a pro¬fessional firm, plus back pay that willcome to about $ 00,000.“It’s been an ever-present thing inher life for seven years,  said Ms.Hopper.  And probably the longer itgoes on, the more she needs vindica¬tion. Ms. Hopkins, for her part, playsdown the stress of the lawsuit.I’m a single parent with a 4,500-square-foot house, and dealing withmy children has been a  uch morepreoccupying concern than PriceWaterhouse,  she said.

Winner of Sex Bias Suit Set to Enter Next Arena

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Winner of Sex Bias Suit Set to Enter Next Arena

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