Silly woman!
Sir: What a very silly article Olga Franklin wrote on Fleet Street Women' (May 20). She confuses personal experience with a general state of affairs. She says, firstly, that as an unqualified journalist she got into Fleet Street via a "top editor's bed" and then goes on to say she has never encountered any discrimination.
Is it likely that she would, under the circumstances?
There is ample evidence, solidly based on wide research, that shows discrimination exists againt women in journalism on pay (despite an equal minimum), on pensions, on entry, on training, on promotion, and on job allocation during work. This cannot be brushed aside by a facetious piece of double-think like Miss Franklin's article.
Her article is out-of-date in many ways. If she were an aspiring entrant to journalism today she might, for instance, find herself facing a selection board of the NCTJ for her first break, and, collectively speaking, she would find it more difficult to subvert them in the manner described than a solitary editor. Another reason why her approach is unlikely to be practical in 1972 is that the ' top editors' of today — certainly those whom I have met — have all been too old to be interested (or should the word be capable ').
Margaret Hignett National Union of Journalists, ADM Committee on Equality, 2 Rockrose Way, Cowslip Estate, Penarth, Cardiff
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