The women’s liberation movement had already shaken up some traditions by 1977, but plenty of employers still expected the women in the office – and only the women – to make the coffee. When legal secretary Iris Rivera refused, she was dismissed from her job. The firing launched a secretary coffee protest that made headlines.
Assuming the Women Will Take Care of That
Was a secretary coffee protest necessary to make office workers reconsider their assumptions about gender roles? The feminist advocacy group Women Employed thought so. Women Employed was started in 1973 to organize working women and help them communicate with one another. Inspired by Cesar Chavez' farm workers movement, which stood up for the basic human dignity of migrant workers, Women Employed fought against discrimination and harassment.
Many female office workers performed administrative duties and were not expected to advance in their careers. Apart from their low wages or long hours, secretaries could be exploited if their subordinate position in the office was based on the fact that they were women. Women who were stuck earning lower wages than men in pink-collar jobs had started to pay attention to subtle workplace discrimination. Iris Rivera was paying attention when her boss issued a memo reprimanding the secretaries and reminding them to make the coffee.
Job Duties?
According to Chicago newspaper reports from February 1977, Iris Rivera’s boss at the Illinois appellate defender office, James Geis, had been frustrated by the secretaries' work performance for months. He issued a memo of several pages that included rules for the secretaries, such as arriving at work on time. One of the rules was that secretaries make the coffee. Iris Rivera challenged her supervisor’s order. Her reasons were simple:
- She didn’t drink coffee
- Making coffee wasn’t listed as one of her job duties
- Ordering the secretaries to make coffee was carrying the role of homemaker too far
Coffee Grounds for Complaint
When Iris Rivera was given notice that she would be fired, the advocacy group Women Employed responded by turning out several dozen secretaries for a lunchtime protest at the law office. The protesters awarded a “prize” of used coffee grounds to the male attorneys. The women also had a flyer ready with instructions on how to make coffee: so simple even an attorney could learn how to do it.
Unfortunately, James Geis had left for vacation and was not there for the protest, but the news media later reported that he would reconsider the decision to fire Iris Rivera.
Job Duties By Gender
The issue of making coffee in the office was something that Women Employed knew would resonate nationwide with other working women as a symbol.
Twenty or thirty years after this secretary coffee protest, a typical Generation X or Generation Y worker would be more likely to associate the menial job duty of making coffee with unpaid interns rather than female secretaries. Were women perceived as the lowest rung on the corporate ladder, regardless of their position or education, during the 1960s and 1970s?
This workplace theme even slyly slipped into episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show during the 1970s. When independent, single career woman Mary Richards came into work late, none of the men seemed capable of functioning at the coffee pot until she got there. The real question raised by the 1977 secretary coffee protest was about the “role” of women – and why that role should include making men’s coffee.
Employees of the 21st century might be unfazed by the secretary coffee protest if they are used to having a professional barista make their daily grind at several dollars per cup. But a few decades earlier, women were expected to make the coffee, and Iris Rivera challenged that unspoken assumption.