In February 1997, Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima told the orchestra "at an awards ceremony that there was 'creative potential in the other half of humanity and this should be used.'" The orchestra, wrote "The New York Times," was "facing protests during a tour" by the National Organization for Women and International Alliance for Women in Music. Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of the orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997 in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist." According to Lelkes, who had played as an adjunct with the orchestra since 1974, the orchestra was "terribly frightened by the possibility of demonstrations by American women's rights activists. I believe that this pressure was decisive"; she adds that the orchestra voted to accept her not unanimously but "by a large majority", and that the vote showed generational differences, with retired members voting against her but "quite a few players got together and even got organized and said this can't go on any longer. The younger generation stood up for me..."