HomeHomeFebruary 2000
There's an old movie from the early 1960's which shows up periodically on cable called "The Best of Everything." The movie focuses on the lives of three young secretaries who move to New York to find love and adventure before marriage. Work seems to be an afterthought--something to do while looking for Mr. Right. Joan Crawford is a crusty, curmudgeonly editor at the publishing house where the women work, and her character serves as a dire warning as to what can happen to a woman when she's made the mistake of focusing on career, in lieu of finding a nice man with whom to settle down! She's the quintessential Boss-from-Hell. It's clearly a man's world, and Joan has made it, but God help any of the talented female underlings who try to rise above their lowly secretarial stations and get near her turf. She keeps them in their place. It's clearly too late for Joan to find love and happiness in her personal life, so she has to settle for the (gasp!) career she's carved out with her tough-as-nails persona. Poor bitter Joan! All work and no man to cook for makes for a dull life.
While this golden oldie does reflect the values and mores of that era, thankfully, times have changed. The obvious change is that more women are in the workforce now than when that movie was made. Today, a career is no longer an afterthought; it's an economic necessity--and for the 70+ million Baby Boomers at mid-life, the yearning for a meaningful worklife is also part of the equation. We're at the beginning of a new millennium, and we're in the midst of a new era--with changes to our work and personal lives as far-reaching as during the earlier Industrial Revolution.
And where do women fit into the Brave New Work World? There's an old saying that women hold up half the sky ---yet we have a long way to go to reach parity with men in the workplace. Occasionally, magazines like Forbes will focus their cover stories on how women are changing the business world. For example, see the February 1999 issue about Oxygen TV--the Interactive network that Oprah Winfrey, Marcy Carsey, and Geraldine Laybourne are building. Yet the annual issue listing the 400 richest Americans includes very few true female entrepreneurs who haven't inherited their wealth. The same was true for Vanity Fair, which recently listed the new movers and shakers of the Information Age, and only a handful were women.
What is going on here? We can't all be billionaires, but we know that women are changing the world in big ways and small, and their contributions to the global marketplace are immeasurable. In the last decade, thanks to the Internet, there's been an explosion of information available to anyone with computer access, and that includes a wealth of information on women and employment . How do we keep up with all that information? That's where we come in. At WITNE, we'll help you keep up to date with tidbits about work conferences, news, books, essays, web sites--any information which reflects where women are heading in the new global economy.
Here's a small sampling of what you'll see in this column in the coming months:
There's a fascinating conference coming up soon in San Francisco, California. From February 7th- 9th, the Grand Hyatt will host the Women in Leadership Summit: Strategies and Tools for Future Success. Gloria Steinem, Benazir Bhutto, and Helen Thomas are among the scheduled speakers. You can find out more at http://www.linkageinc.com/wil2000. One of our favorite sites, Advancing Women, is the online sponsor for the conference.
California will be the site of another interesting conference next June. From the 20th through the 22nd, the Santa Clara Convention Center will host Women in Technology International's 2000 Technology Summit. Find out more at http://www.witi.com/center/conferences/santaclara.
Black Career Women Online will be holding a terrific forum next fall called Can We Talk. It's a diversity forum for Black Women/White Women/Women of Color. Check it out by clicking on their Can We Talk section.
Washington, D.C. was the site of three terrific conferences this past fall for Women Work, Wider Opportunities for Women, and the Business Women's Network.
Women Work, the National Network for Women's Employment, formerly was known as the Displaced Homemaker Network. Their worthy mission is to empower women from diverse backgrounds and help them achieve economic self-sufficiency. Check them out at http://www.womenwork.org/.
Wider Opportunities for Women's annual conference focused on Paths out of Poverty: Strategies for Families, Programs, Communities and States. The mission of this important organization is economic independence and equality of opportunity for women and girls.
The Business Women's Network focus is on the growing international presence of women in business. Their top-notch site lists over 2,000 women's organizations, businesses, and associations online. . The Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor is a resource-rich site, with a wonderful section on international women's conferences. Their mission is to encourage women to seriously consider careers in high-wage, high-opportunity fields, many of which have been considered traditionally male.
Another good web site is The Glass Ceiling. Their goal is to assist all women in their pursuit of excellence in their business as well as personal lives, and they've got a good biography section on women
Are you interested in other parts of the globe? Take a look at the Wise Women Network of New Zealand. This site showcases networks for women whose primary interest is self employment.
Another good place to start for international information is Winvet, the Women's network for technical and vocational education and training in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region.
Canada's businesswomen have a network at http://cdnbizwomen.com, which features an excellent find-it-fast area.
A fascinating site is the Women's India Trust, which, in 1998, celebrated its 30th anniversary of helping provide employment opportunities to needy and unskilled women coming from the lower strata of society.
And if you're a computer professional, you must know about the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility web site. They have a good list of women's organizations.
Find out about the National Association for Women in Construction. From April 14th through April 16th, they're holding their National Tradeswomen Summit.
Are you a work-at-home Mom? We haven't forgotten about you, and neither have the people at Home Based Working Moms. This is also a good resource site.
Do you have a daughter or granddaughter with career aspirations? Check out this site: http://girlpress.com/books.htm#. They offer a series of interesting books, including Girl Boss, which will push entrepreneurial thinking with the idea that it's better to build a career than to settle for one.
Let's not forget about the YWCA and their mission to empower women and girls and eliminate racism. They have a wonderful program called TechGYRLS, and their goal is to raise girls' interest, confidence and competence in the crucial area of technology by developing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Find out more at http://www.ywca.org.
And speaking of careers, don't forget that Equal Pay Day is coming up in April, sponsored by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE). Find out more at http://www.feminist.com/equalpay.htm.
Women-friendly workplaces and campuses are a concern of the National Organization for Women. You can learn more about these issues at http://www.now.org/issues/wfw.
And that's our sample for this month. If you have a site or an organization which will be of interest to Women in the New Economy, let us know. You can reach me at tcallies@hotmail.com.
We're looking forward to hearing from you!
Teresa
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