Documents regarding Patricia Anderson’s fight for equality shared with MSU

The MSU Library Archives received an oral history of Patricia Anderson’s experience filing a discrimination lawsuit against MSU at the end of August this year. Anderson won the lawsuit and changed the workplace experience at MSU for future generations of women.

In 1990, Anderson filed a suit with the Human Resource Commission against MSU for age and sex discrimination. Anderson had worked at MSU for 34 years starting in 1950, working as the dean of women and an advisor for other student groups. She realized while employed at MSU that she was getting paid less than her male counterparts who had the same experience and qualifications as her. After she retired in 1988, she took action and filed a lawsuit.

In 1965, Anderson was promoted to assistant to the dean of women at MSU. Following her promotion, she quickly realized she was not being treated the same as her male co-workers.

Anderson claimed she was only being paid for a 10-month contract, while the men she was being partnered with were getting paid for a 12-month contract. “I was told by my dean, Max Worthington, that I could only have 10-months because I needed to be home to raise my son in the summertime,” Anderson explained in the oral documents.

Anderson attempted to change her contract to 12 paid months but was never successful. Her husband, a tenured professor, was also denied a raise. He was told— by the same dean— that the reason for this was that she was working, so there would not be a need for his raise.

Anderson attended many meetings discussing Title IX disputes, as she was one of the few women in an executive role at MSU. The meetings covered changes at MSU, but she claimed many of the men that were part of the board tried to avoid making changes for women. Some of the topics at hand were sensitive, including sexual assault. In 1966, a female student was suspended after letting five male basketball players into her dorm. The men sexually assaulted her and received minimal punishment.

When asked what Anderson did during those meetings she replied: “I kept my mouth shut much too much of the time. If I hadn’t kept my mouth shut I wouldn’t have survived here [at MSU] as long as I did.”

“She won a case with the Human Rights Commission, so it was not a lawsuit, the Human Rights Commission, where she won damages in age and sex discrimination in 1990,” said Jodi Allison-Bunnell, head of Archives and Special Collections at the MSU Library. Upon completion of the human rights case, Anderson found that during the time of her employment, one of her colleagues had made $500,000 more than her.

The story of Anderson’s fight for equality is an oral history recorded by her daughter-in-law, Janet Peel.

Lindsay Anderson, Anderson’s son, approached Allison-Bunnell last spring asking if she would be interested in receiving the oral documentation of Anderson’s time at MSU and subsequent lawsuit. His wife recorded this history in 2018 and by the end of August 2024, MSU received the documents. Today, Anderson is in her 90s and living in Seattle, Allison-Bunnel explained.

Though Anderson only won this lawsuit 34 years ago, it has made monumental changes for the way female faculty are treated at MSU. It set a precedent for the way Title IX issues are handled at MSU. “The present is always informed by what has happened in the past,” Allison-Bunnell said.