You’ve Come a Long Way, AGPA!
Marti Kranzberg, PhD, CGP

For the first time in AGPA's history, women are simultaneously serving as President of the American Group Psychotherapy Association—Bonnie Buchele, PhD, CGP, FAGPA—Chair of the American Group Psychotherapy Foundation—Patricia Barth, PhD, CGP, FAGPA—Chair of the National Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists—Jeanne Pasternak, MSW, CGP, FAGPA—and CEO of the organization—Marsha Block, CAE. Led predominately by white male psychiatrists since 1943, AGPA has struggled, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to bring women and minorities into leadership positions. The fact that women hold these positions of power reflects the immense gains that women, and indeed the organization, have made in the past 30 years. To chronicle these changes, I spoke with Ruth Hochberg, PhD, CGP, DFAGPA, and Marsha Block, CAE, CEO, members of an impressive list of strong women who have influenced AGPA in significant ways. 

Marsha Block recently celebrated 30 years of work with AGPA. CEO since 1974, she has worked every aspect of the organization, by assignment or default. She was hired, in part, because of her experience in political work and her ability to manage the vicissitudes of bulk mailings, a necessary and daunting task in the early days of AGPA. She initially dealt with financial aspects of the organization and later handled membership, planned annual meetings, and then managed the governance work of our organizational structure and the multiple jobs that needed to be done. 

Ruth Hochberg also became involved with AGPA in the 1970s, participating first in committees, and later on the AGPA Board of Directors, including serving as the AGPA Treasurer, on the Foundation Board of Directors, including serving as its Chair, and in other capacities. In 1990, she ran for AGPA President. Her niche has been fundraising, and she has been a generous philanthropist and a mover and shaker in raising money and creating scholarships and opportunities for people in AGPA. 

Both women talked about the climate of AGPA when they first became involved in the 1970s. Though women had served on committees and in other capacities and a few women had even served on the Board of Directors, none had held elective office. According to Hochberg and Block, both men and women accepted the status quo: white male physicians ran AGPA. But the second wave of feminism was gathering momentum across the country, attitudes about women and power were changing, and the women in AGPA were no longer content with their position in the organization.

The first woman elected to the presidency was Henriette Glatzer, PhD, DFAGPA, who served from 1976-78. It had taken 33 years for a woman to attain that position, but this change did not result in consistent and continuing leadership for women in AGPA. There would not be another woman president for 16 years until Anne Alonso, PhD, CGP, DFAGPA, was elected to the 1992-94 term. 

After Glatzer's presidency, there were still few women in leadership positions, and a coalition of women lobbied then-President Saul Scheidlinger, PhD, DFAGPA, to form a Women's Task Force. Chaired by Pearl Rosenberg, PhD, CGP, DFAGPA, the Task Force was empowered to nominate women to office in AGPA and to educate the membership about voting for women. The Women's Task Force lasted for about 15 years and became the Women's Special Interest Group when SIGs were initiated years later. 

Meanwhile, a group of women from Los Angeles took the matter into their own hands. Working outside the system, they initiated a petition campaign to place a woman on the ballot when the Nominating Committee had proposed a slate of only men. They obtained signatures of five percent of the AGPA membership (the number necessary for a write-in candidate), and Margaret (Peggy) Frank, MSSW, CGP, FAGPA, became the third candidate on the ballot for Secretary. Hochberg noted that the women were politically savvy in placing a candidate to run for the position they were most likely to win. Peggy Frank won. 

Frank's election resulted in two important outcomes according to Hochberg. First, women had successfully nominated and elected a woman to office. Second, it became clear that the Nominating Committee needed to include women in the demographic assessment of candidates, a category not utilized in the nominating process previously. Women in AGPA had shown themselves to be a force that could not be ignored. 

In the election for President for the 1990–92 term, the Women's Task Force again flexed its muscles. Hochberg ran against Walter Stone, MD, CGP, DFAGPA. For the first time, the Task Force endorsed a candidate and sent a letter to the membership asking them to vote for the woman candidate. Although Stone won, Hochberg garnered what she called a "respectable showing," and the Task Force, once again, had demonstrated that women in AGPA could wield influence. 

Since then, electing women officers in the organization has become routine, and women have served in all levels of governance. Block highlighted the exceptionally vocal, articulate, and generous quality of women in AGPA. "Women in the organization have been pioneers in creating special funds and scholarships," she said. The Durkin-Glatzer Scholarship was the first one offered through the Foundation. Subsequently, other women have donated generously creating the Alonso Award for Excellence in Psychodynamic Group Theory, the Josephine M. Cunningham Scholarship, the Ruth Hochberg Scholarship, and the Mitchell Hochberg Memorial Public Education Fund.

In conclusion, women have made significant inroads into leadership positions in AGPA through a variety of activities. Women have worked within the organizational structure as committee member, as committee chairs, as board members and officers. They have instigated change from within by asking a president to form a Women’s Task Force. They have generated change from outside by placing a woman on the ballot by petition. Women have mentored other women into positions of power, and they have made a place for themselves as philanthropists.

It took nearly 50 years for women to become an integral part of AGPA governance and for gender to be largely irrelevant in the selection of leaders. The business of becoming a more diverse organization, of integrating women and minorities into leadership is a complicated and demanding process. The various ways that women have worked to achieve parity are instructive and confirm that success is possible, despite the odds. 

This article was published in the February/March 2001 issue of The Group Circle.