October 7, 1970
Mr. Don F. Scott
Office for Civil Rights
Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare, Region V
226 W. Jackson Blvd., Room 114
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Dear Mr. Scott:
I have your letter of October 6, 1970 with respect to alleged discrimination against women at The University of Michigan.
Your letter, and the documents which are attached, are lengthy and require analysis. It is probable that there will be points of disagreement between us, some of which may be serious.
Given the magnitude of the task which your letter would impose upon us, it would seem to me unlikely that an affirmative program of the kind you envision could be generated within thirty days, even assuming we were in complete agreement. Nevertheless, we shall work immediately upon the analysis of your letter end the development of our program.
We do not differ with respect to the principle of equal treatment for women. There are extraordinarily difficult problems in establishing criteria for what constitutes equal treatment, and we believe they are quite different from the now familiar problems in the field of race.
We will keep you informed as our work progresses.
Sincerely,
R. W. Fleming
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