October 30, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The YWCA of the U.S.A. this month fired its chief executive officer, Patricia Ireland, after only six months on the job. During her tenure, Ms. Ireland faced strong objections from socially conservative groups that did not approve of her ties to abortion rights and gay causes.
“We have the deepest admiration for Ms. Ireland’s dedication to women’s issues and social justice, but the YWCA has proved to be the wrong platform for her to advocate on these issues,” said Audrey R. Peeples, chairwoman of the YWCA’s National Coordinating Board. Ms. Peeples said the decision to fire Ms. Ireland arose from “some personnel issues I am not at liberty to discuss.”
The Traditional Values Coalition and other conservative organizations protested Ms. Ireland’s hiring last May and encouraged people to stop supporting the group. Several of the 313 local Y’s objected to Ms. Ireland, who previously ran the National Organization for Women, saying they feared her appointment would lead to a decline in donations.
Ms. Ireland could not be reached for comment. In an interview with The New York Times, she said that the board’s decision surprised her and that the YWCA had asked her to resign but she had refused.
Charity’s Motivations
Ms. Peeples told The Chronicle that pressure from conservative groups did not motivate the YWCA’s decision. What’s more, she said, donations to the YWCA’s national office, in Washington, had not declined because of Ms. Ireland’s appointment. However, at local Y’s, fund raising may have been affected by the hiring. “In this financial climate there have been a lot of declines, so it’s hard to say if they lost money because people are upset or the times are such that foundations and corporations are not giving the money they once did,” Ms. Peeples said.
The YWCA, officially known as the Young Women’s Christian Association, said it hired Ms. Ireland to reinvigorate the group’s advocacy work. It has appointed Dorris Daniel-Parkes, its head of human resources, to serve as interim director while the board searches for a new chief executive.
