Mary Rowe papers

Mary P. Rowe earned a BA from Swarthmore College, and a PhD in economics from Columbia University. Before coming to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) she worked at Abt Associates for several years as a child care economist. At MIT she served as Special Assistant to the President and Ombudsperson from 1973 to 2014. Beginning in 1985 she was also Adjunct Professor of Negotiation and Conflict Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

In February 1973, MIT President Jerome B. Wiesner appointed Mary P. Rowe to a newly created position reporting directly to the President of MIT -- Special Assistant to the President and the Chancellor for Women and Work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (later more broadly Special Assistant to the President). The 1973 MIT News Office appointment announcement stated:

"As assistant to President Jerome B. Wiesner and Chancellor Paul E. Gray, Dr. Rowe will be involved in the Institute’s efforts to move forth through affirmative action toward equality of opportunity in employment and education for women, and to improve the quality of life for women associated with MIT." Notably, from the beginning, Rowe saw both men and women, with any kind of workplace concern.

In 1980, MIT President Paul Gray established the Ombuds Office and appointed Rowe and Clarence G. Williams as MIT’s first ombudspersons. Mary Rowe served for 42 years as an organizational ombuds reporting directly to five presidents of MIT.

As a conflict management specialist experienced in interpersonal negotiations, Rowe heard from hundreds of women and men a year about serious conflicts and concerns. In 1973 she coined the term “micro-inequities” to expand on Dr. Chester Pierce’ seminal work on micro-aggressions; (he had described apparently “little,” hostile, racist acts in 1970). Rowe used the term “micro-inequities” in order to include all micro acts of unfair behavior of every kind caused by unconscious bias, negligence and ignorance, including “micro-aggressions.”

In the 1970’s she wrote many internal reports about harassment, micro-inequities and other diversity issues. Her first-year reports to the President, Academic Council, and other Institute committees resulted, in December 1973, in MIT President Wiesner’s declaring one of the nation's first policies addressing harassment. Her work at MIT with leaders in systems thinking led her to apply systems thinking to her work. In the 1970’s and 1980’s she described “integrated conflict management systems,” beginning with one of the nation’s earliest articles about such systems.

In the 1970’s and 80’s Rowe fostered ~100, informal affinity groups, and then helped them to propose at least 600 small and large changes in policies and procedures and structures at MIT. Over the years, because of cases in the office and the work of affinity groups, Rowe was able to help MIT establish policies about conflict of interest, academic integrity, sexual orientation, and violence in the workplace. She worked closely with senior managers to help in developing many gender-and-race-equitable practices. These included fostering salary equity, and equitable procedures for recruitment, promotion, benefits to support “work and family,” mentoring and dispute resolution.

She began decades of writing about micro-affirmations, mentoring, and academic support structures to promote diversity and inclusion. She consulted widely to corporations, academic institutions, and to government agencies, and international and multi-national organizations.

Her research interests also include the uses of power in interpersonal negotiations; conflict management system design; and coping with difficult people. She has been especially interested in the role of "bystanders" in helping to affirm professional and productive behavior within organizations. Recent articles discuss what managers can do to support bystanders in organizations and communities, a micro-affirmations research agenda, and the value to society of the profession of organizational ombuds.

From 1973 through 1975, Rowe co-developed and taught an MIT seminar course: Androgyny. She helped MIT librarian David Ferriero to develop the Men’s Studies and Women’ s Studies Collections in the MIT Libraries. She helped to develop and teach an inaugural course on AIDS: Scientific Challenge and Human Challenge, in the MIT Biology Department with David Baltimore in the early 1980s. As Adjunct Professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management, beginning in 1985, Rowe taught a new course, Negotiation and Conflict Management.

In 1982, Rowe was a co-founder (and the first president) of the Corporate Ombudsman Association, later re-incorporated as The Ombudsman Association (TOA). With many others, she taught Ombudsman 101, 202, and other courses offered by The Ombudsman Association. She has worked with others on ten surveys of the ombuds profession. She was also a member of the University and College Ombuds Association (UCOA) and strongly supported its discussions with the American Bar Association, which helped in the development of the profession of organizational ombuds. Rowe supported the union of UCOA and TOA which became the International Ombudsman Association. In 2016 Mary Rowe was one of two ombuds on the chiResolutions team that co-authored a 600-page Report on the use of Ombuds in Federal Agencies for the Administrative Conference of the United States. The Ombudsman in Federal Agencies--FINAL REPORT (2016) https://www.acus.gov/report/ombudsman-federal-agencies-final-report-2016. This Report resulted in ACUS Recommendation 2016-5 – The Use of Ombuds in Federal Agencies.

The Corporate Ombudsman Association (COA) was started in 1982 to serve individuals with responsibilities for a wide range of employee issues. Mary Rowe, then Ombudsperson and Special Assistant to the President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a founder. The COA was formally incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1986 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The purpose of the COA was to serve the interests of individuals whose primary responsibility is handling employee concerns, and to enhance the quality and value of the ombudsman function to business and industry. Activities included an annual conference, training seminars and committees to work on topics of continuing interest such as harassment, privacy, and ombuds ethics.

In 1992, to reflect the breadth of organizations of its membership, the Corporate Ombudsman Association was re-incorporated as The Ombudsman Association (TOA).

The University and College Ombudsman Association (UCOA) was incorporated October 24, 1984, in the State of Illinois.

In July 2005 the International Ombudsman Association (IOA) was officially formed by a merger of the University and College Ombuds Association (UCOA) and The Ombudsman Association. IOA is an international association of Ombuds practitioners in corporations, universities, non-profit organizations, government, and other organizations.