Women notables and not-so-noticeables joined earlier this week in questioning their employer's commitment to affirmative action regarding the reversal of what they termed the "traditional pattern in which few women have been placed in tenured or advanced faculty rank."

Thirty-three women who hold either Corporation or Salary and Wage appointments in several of the faculties and departments of the University urged President Bok in a letter to give higher priority to the University's Affirmative Action program, which they charged is lacking or proceeding at an unsatisfactorily slow pace.

The signatories included; Isabel G. MacCaffrey, Kenan Professor of History and Literature; Dr. Mary C. Howell, associate dean for Student Affairs at the Medical School. Ruth Husband, research associate in Biology; Caroline W. Bynum, assistant professor of History; Ursula Goodenough, assistant professor of Biology; Judith M. Hughes, assistant professor of Social Studies; and, Barbara G. Rosenkrantz, lecturer in the History of Science.

The women said that their dissatisfaction with the lack of tangible evidence of the University's commitment to Affirmative Action is gradually amounting to distrust.

"We appreciate the difficult of reversing old attitudes and changing traditional procedures, especially when the latter are informal and simply 'understood,'" the women wrote.

"It is urgent that the University clarify its position, good will, and intent to undertake action," they said.