Business Notes LABOR

When Martha Page went to work as a trainee for Chicago's Harris Trust, she soon learned that "all the women were required to type and the men were not." Recalls another former Harris employee, Fran Hurwitz, who worked 15 years as a clerk: "Harris was your basic boys' club." Both women left the bank during the mid-1970s, but last week they got a measure of satisfaction when Harris settled a twelve-year-old Government suit charging the bank with race and sex discrimination.

Without admitting guilt, Harris said it would pay $14 million in back wages to thousands of workers. Nancy Kreiter, research director for a women's advocacy group that helped push the lawsuit, called the settlement "a fabulously sweet victory." But even before last week's decision, the bank had come a long way. In 1977 Harris had five women vice presidents. Today it has 102 (out of 380).