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Show i ; too, over the reluctance of most black and Puerto Rican women to work for women's rights. She also chides feminist groups for not developing programs of major interest to minority women. "Women of all races must become involved in the women's movement," she says. "What we fight for now will shape the world we live in 20 years from today. All of us should be its D C. WASHINGTON, woman's place is wherever she wants to be," declares Carmen Maymi, whose new place these days is as director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Depart- ' ment of Labor. The bqreau keeps track of the progress of working women, a task that frequently puts it in the position of agitating for the enforcement of women's rights. Ms. Maymi, the For Presidential appointment is "I always wanted a dream fleshed-ou- t. to be in a position where I could be in the forefront of fighting for women," she says. byllene Garth planners." Plans workshops end, the Women's Bureau is structuring equal employment opportunity strategies for all women, and minority women in particular. One of Ms. Maymi's pet plans is for a naTo this busy Prefers Ms. I t Even the "Ms." in her name is imMaymi Although Carmen portant. legally became "Mrs." in a brief but marriage, she prefers the liberation designation and has fought to use it. When she was nominated for the directorship earlier this year the President requested her official biography. "I wrote it using Ms.," she recalls, "but my staff said 'You can't use Ms. in talking to the White House.' I said, 'Yes, I can,' and I did." It is this "Yes, I can" determination that Ms. Maymi has - shown all her life. At age 15, she emigrated with her parents from Santurce, Puerto Rico, to a slum section of Chicago. Her father, an accountant, could not find a job in his field and became a $1.25-an-hopunch press operator. Her mother, a schoolteacher, was unemployed, and the three of them crowded together in flat. But the a kitchenless, two-roodetermined to remain in were Maymis Chicago where they had come to assure their only child a good education. tional workshop in which black, Puerto Rican, Indian, and Mexican-America- n women can define the problems they share. Another project, still in the stage, is a conference of women judges to discuss the unequal criminal and civil penalties meted out to women. When Carmen Maymi is not shaping policies, she is devoting herself to her think-ing-abo- ut ur I m Carmen Maymi in the director's chair at her new job as head of U.S. Women's Bureau. Originally from Puerto Rico, Ms. Maymi worked her way up to this government post Scared to speak School was a nerve-janglin- experi- g ence for Carmen, who could read English but was afraid to speak it. "Every morning I'd practice exactly what was going to say in English that day," she remembers. "Half the time when I got to school I was too frightened to speak up." Eventually, however, she gained confidence and was graduated from high school and admitted to DePaul I University. "I realize now that during college years I suffered from triple discrimina- e, as a tion," she says, "as a Spanish-speakin- g person, and as a woman. I wanted to be a teacher, like my mother, but my counselor told me, 'Forget it, no school board would ever hire you.' I cried a lot and lost 30 pounds during my freshman year." But she ended up on the dean's. list with a Master's degree in education. Ironically, she decided against being a teacher, instead going to work as an employment counselor to Puerto Ricans. She became a specialist and then non-whit- 10 one of 6,191,000 female heads of families in the United States, Ms. Maymi has firsthand knowledge of women's needs for daughter, an administrator in finding economic opportunities for disadvantaged groups, By 1972 she largely Spanish-speakinwas consultant to a Presidential committee to aid Spanish-speakin- g people, and from there she jumped to the Women's Bureau, serving six months as associate director before being awarded the top job. Slim and graceful, with her black, braided hair piled on top of her head, she looks more like a ballet dancer than a powerhouse executive. Her dark, flashing eyes and lilting Spanish accent bring to mind instantly the operatic Carmen, but her pirouettes, are all verbal, and her sharpest daggers are reserved for any who would stand in the way of full human rights and opportunities for women. "Male chauvinists abound in government," she says. "You find them in the .) highest places. I've seen government officials look .surprised when a woman says something that g. well-know- makes sense. That makes me angry." She is politically chivalrous enough, however, to refuse to name the worst offenders, and is quick to point out that many of her staunchest supporters are men. In fact, she reserves some of her most pungent scorn for women who claim :hey're "already liberated." 'Women not free' "That's a statement made out of ignorance," she says firmly. "No woman can be liberated in a society where laws limit her possibilities." Accordingly, her patience is also limited with those who oppose the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that is now before state legislatures on its shaky course to ratification or defeat. "The anti-ERcampaigners try to scare people with half-trutand insinuations that if the amendment passes somehow a woman will become less of a woman." Carmen Maymi expresses dismay. A hs Rosa. As good, secure jobs and topflight childcare arrangements. "I've been divorced so long I hardly remember my husband," she laughs. "But one thing he left me was my beautiful daughter. I've had to take care of things myself." Fortunately, Ms. Maymi's widower-fathe- r, Luis Maymi, has been a .villing baby-sitte- r, and he now lives with his daughter and granddaughter in a rented row house in Washington. Carmen Nevertheless, Maymi frequently takes Rosa along on business trips so they may spend as much time as possible together. Quiet social life Ms. Maymi participates but sparingly in Washington social life, making the occasional command appearance at an official evening event, dining out some- times with friends, or more frequently in what she calls her favorite restaurant, "home," where she delights in preparing a Puerto Rican speciaity, an olive-an- d pimento-stuffe- d roast. As for the future, her most distant hopes center on one day working internationally for full rights for women everywhere. But right now her eyes sparkle as she talks about what she thinks American women can achieve this decade: "I see many, many more women in professional and technical jobs, as air traffic controllers, in television repair work, in all kinds of jobs that pay well. You can earn more fixing a typewriter than sitting behind it. That's what the bureau wants to let women know." PARADE AUGUST 12, 193 i 8 1 |