A Target of Conservatives' Ire, Y.W.C.A. Chief Is Dismissed

NYTimes ^ | October 21, 2003 | BRIAN WINGFIELD

[RJCogburn]

The feminist leader Patricia Ireland has been dismissed as chief executive of the Y.W.C.A. less than six months after she was hired to head it.

Ms. Ireland was notified of the decision on Thursday in New York, where she was attending a conference. She said in an interview on Monday that members of the national coordinating board of the Y.W.C.A. had asked for her resignation, but she declined because she did not want to give the impression that she had "jumped ship."

"I was uncharacteristically speechless," Ms. Ireland said. "There had been no notice."

Her dismissal was first reported in this week's issue of Newsweek.

The Y.W.C.A.'s appointment of Ms. Ireland last May was strongly criticized by some conservative groups, which said her background made her unfit to run an organization historically associated with traditional Christian values.

Among the concerns raised by the groups were Ms. Ireland's tenure as president of the National Organization for Women, which supports gay and lesbian rights as well as a woman's right to seek an abortion, and Ms. Ireland's living with a woman in the early 1990's while remaining married.

Ms. Ireland praised the 144-year-old Y.W.C.A. as a "wonderful organization with a lot of potential," and she declined to comment on specific issues on which she and the organization's leaders disagreed.

She said, however, that in recent years the Y.W.C.A. had focused more on restructuring than on advocacy work and that her enthusiasm for advocacy might have "raised some disquiet in some quarters."

She also mentioned an article in The New York Times last May about conservative groups that opposed her appointment as chief executive. At that time, the chairwoman of the Y.W.C.A.'s national coordinating board, Audrey Peeples, said she had not anticipated the intensity of the criticism surrounding Ms. Ireland's selection.

Ms. Ireland said that those comments "set this relationship off on a somewhat difficult course." Still, she said that she harbored no animosity toward the organization.

Ms. Peeples declined to comment on Monday on the reasons for Ms. Ireland's termination.

"We had a meeting with her. We told her at the meeting," Ms. Peeples said. "Patricia knows why she was terminated."

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, a conservative group based in Washington that posted an online petition to have Ms. Ireland fired, said she believed that her organization's campaign led to the decision.

The Y.W.C.A. has named Dorris Daniel-Parkes, the organization's former human resources director, as its interim director.

[Yo-Yo]

Tell me again, what the "C" in Y.W.C.A stands for, Ms. Ireland?

[Hidgy]

Just can't imagine why she didn't fit in with the Young Women's Christian Association? No doubt her agenda was to reform the old organization.

[samtheman]

It was only at that meeting that she learned that the C doesn't stand for Communist. When she learned that, she was actually happy to go.

[IrishBrigade]

Yes, but the WYCA ought to be truthful and drop the 'C'...it practices a vigorous, if lower profile, campaign of core feminist advocacy and is firmly in the camp of the anti traditionalist vision of Christianity that seems to hold sway in our increasingly secularist world...

[mombonn]

"I was uncharacteristically speechless," Ms. Ireland said.

Here's hoping that happens more often, you screeching banshee.

[Loyal Buckeye]

My guess is that she was fired because of being incompetent rather than some VRWC.

[Prov1322]

The amazing thing is that it took six months for the ywCa to figure this out! (The "C" used to stand for what...?)

[b4its2late]

She said, however, that in recent years the Y.W.C.A. had focused more on restructuring than on advocacy work and that her enthusiasm for advocacy might have "raised some disquiet in some quarters."

They call it advocacy work now, huh? Guess the members of the national coordinating board of the Y.W.C.A. saw through her....

[Tijeras_Slim]

Ms. Ireland praised the 144-year-old Y.W.C.A. as a "wonderful organization with a lot of potential,"

I bet.

[mountaineer]

The "C" used to stand for what...?

"Used to" is the operative phrase. A few months ago I was perusing the web site for the Pittsburgh YWCA, where I took swimming lessons as a child, and was mildly nauseated at the politically correct feminist/"diversity" emphasis of all the programs.

[OpusatFR]

"She said, however, that in recent years the Y.W.C.A. had focused more on restructuring than on advocacy work and that her enthusiasm for advocacy might have "raised some disquiet in some quarters."

IOW, it ain't your way or the highway, honey. You disregard the viewpoints of a substantial majority. You promote the hateful rhetoric of the left that mocks and degrades men and boys with breathtaking ugliness. You and your group promote a lifestyle that mocks women and their desires to be whole and complete as mothers, wives, and workers.

In short, you are not an appropriate choice and I am very happy that you have been canned.

Signed,

One tough mother

[Aegedius]

The YWCA operates on donations and voluntary memberships. I suspect that both started drying up immediately upon Ms. Ireland's appointment. And her traditional followers would never join or donate to a "Christian" organization, so the gap was not filled. Follow the money.

[justshutupandtakeit]

It never even registered on me that they had hired this vicious C*** in the first place. YUK.