Papers of Alison Palmer, 1971-1978

Alison Palmer was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1931; she received a B.A. from Brown University in 1953, and an M.A. from the Boston University African Studies Center in 1966. She attended American University in 1959 and again in 1970, and Virginia Theological Seminary, 1972-1974. She was the thirteenth woman in the United States to be ordained an Episcopal priest.

Palmer began working for the Department of State in July 1955 as a clerk typist, and began her career as a Foreign Service Officer in the spring of 1960. After several ambassadors objected to her assignment to their embassies in Africa in the late 1960s, and when she was expected to act as social secretary to an ambassador's wife, she started an internal grievance procedure through the department's Equal Employment Office charging sex discrimination. In 1969 Palmer, then stationed in Vietnam, was notified that the EEO had found in her favor but refused to enter the report in her personnel file.

Palmer returned to the United States and, with the help of the American Federation of Government Employees, took the case to the Civil Service Commission. The hearings were held in June 1971 by appeals examiner Andrew B. Beath, who found in Palmer's favor. A dispute ensued between Palmer and the department on the question of whether Beath had recommended a retroactive promotion for Palmer; this was granted in 1975. The State Department then announced that sex discrimination would no longer be tolerated. Palmer's case thus provided a basis for the more conciliatory tactics of the Women's Action Organization.

In 1976 Palmer filed a class action suit against the State Department for discrimination against women; the case was heard in a United States District Court and was decided for the Department in September 1985. Also, in 1985, Palmer was planning to publish a book, to be entitled Palmer v. Church and State.