The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 273

hey said she had political hair. Pam Rymin, an Atlanta legal secretary, has red, red hair and lots of it. The sort of hair stration, was out of earshot. But the members of Atlanta 9 to 5, an organization of white-collar working women, had caught the ear of the public. At long last.

"Plan with us, not against us," read a sign carried by the demonstrators. "A man of quality is not threatened by a woman of equality," read another. TV cam-, eramen and reporters had turned out to witness it all. Atlanta 9 to 5 had arrived. So far this was, literally, 9 to 5s finest hour.

Atlanta 9 to 5 is one of 10 staffed chapters of the decade-old, national organization that in- that earns her instant attention and, from certain past employers, criticism. "One employer called it 'political she recalls. "My hair has been an issue almost everywhere I've ever worked." Her red hair fluffed by the wind on a crisp fall day, Ms. Rymin was wielding a bullhorn in front of the Sheraton-Atlanta Hotel last September. As many as a hundred demon By Fzazier Moore 'V NT charts listing statistics and upcoming projects.

And there is a poster showing a coffee cup turned over; "Make the Break," urges the poster. Operating on a $40,000 annual budget (collected through grants and fund-raisers), the group is governed by a six-member board and meets monthly. And with the kickoff of its first membership drive at a time abloom with publicity, its ranks should be growing. "It was a blessing in disguise," Ms. Teichert says of the Chamber of Commerce gaffe that inspired the demonstration and granted 9 to 5 its long-sought spotlight.

The chamber had cooked up a seminar entitled "A Strategy Seminar for Managing Today's White Collar Women." It was heralded by a form letter to executives suggesting that the seminar might be "your best opportunity to prepare for, or avoid entirely, confrontations with militant feminist organizing groups." For the next month Ernest B. Davis, the chamber's executive vice-president and the signer of the letter, was kept busy trying to mollify an outraged public. When, the seminar' finally took place, few outsiders took notice of a toned-down title and more conciliatory intent. That letter was still on their minds. In particular, the letter remains on the minds of Atlanta 9 to 5 members as being emblematic of a too-prevalent attitude by management.

Ms. Teichert lists statistics and problems: the office worker is the single largest job category in Atlanta, numbering some more than three fourths of these office workers are women, and 40 percent of Atlanta women who work outside the home are so employed. their annual average pay is little more than $11,000. Many of these workers are locked out of sight in low-paying, tedious jobs least the tellers at banks are out front," notes Ms. Teichert, "but there are lots of other people far behind the Still other employees are, called upon to supplement secretarial or clerical duties with personal chores for their bosses fetching coffee or even picking up k8 6 1 'J, Acfsl Fam Bymin sats i is ar to get iomen in Atana not io fee araid.

rawing on the twin goals of increased rights and respect, the purpose of 9 to 5 is to im spired the Jane Fonda movie of the same Known as Atlanta Working Women until last summer, the local group has a mailing list of 1,300 but only 175 members. "In the past we haven't made a big deal over joining and paying dues," says staff director Diane Teichert, who came from the Baltimore chapter to get the Atlanta group started two years ago. She and her fellow paid staffer, Verna Barksdale, occupy a tiny cluttered office in the Healey Building in downtown Atlanta. The headquarters cozily accommodates three desks, a filing cabinet, a lunchroom table, a fjookshelf. Walls are plastered with strators were picketing the entrance.

A few nattily attired conferees, waiting fof taxis, heard the chants she led. Chamber, chamber, hear us now. Listen, listen, we'll show you Who will? 9 to 51 Who will? 9 to 51 The Georgia Chamber of Commerce, whose seminar deep within the hotel had occasioned the demon- Free-lanee writer Frnsier Moore'i mot rertrnl article for the magatine wat about ffTDS'g Robert Wutfler. prove working conditions for women employed in offices. Toward this end it has arrived at a five-point platform entitled the "Working Women's Support for policies to ease the burden of the working family.

Pay equality. Safe working conditions and control over office automation. End to discrimination. economic security for.