Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Editor's Note, Dawn-Marie Driscoll

New England Journal of Public Policy

This issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy had many beginnings and, like most efforts in which a theme is slowly resolved, probably should not have an ending.

The discussion of this theme started several years ago when a group of senior Boston businesswomen talked about the need and value of meeting on a semi-regular basis. Their purpose would be to focus discussions on a narrow but important issue — the economic advancement of women.

The criteria for these informal meetings quickly fell into place. All the women who comprised the group would be drawn from within the …

Moving In The Economic Mainstream, Brunetta R. Wolfman

New England Journal of Public Policy

The requirements for economic mobility in a postindustrial society present many barriers for low-income women. Social policy and program goals for improving their opportunities should focus on educational, training, and entrepreneurial activities using individualized assessment, counseling, and academic and occupational advisers. Social consensus needs to be achieved in order to establish viable programs that address women's total needs rather than approaching the problem with fragmented, uncoordinated solutions.

Issues In The Corporate Workplace, Carol R. Goldberg, Aileen P. Gorman, Kathleen B. Hansen

New England Journal of Public Policy

Workforce supply and demand has catapulted "women's issues" to the forefront of the business agenda. These issues will continue to be the poor stepsisters of other corporate needs, however, unless they are recognized as broad-based workforce issues of the 1990s. The dynamics of women's entrance into the labor market have dramatically changed the structure of the family and consequently the needs of both men and women in the business community. The corporate challenge for the next decade will be to solve creatively the work/family puzzle and establish an environment that supports the full utilization of women in business.

Not By Numbers Alone: A New Decade For Women In The Law, Margaret H. Marshall

New England Journal of Public Policy

There has been a dramatic increase in both the percentage and the numbers of women who have entered the legal profession in the last fifteen years, but women have not penetrated its higher echelons — partnerships in law firms, general counsel of corporations, and chiefs of government bureaus — in the same percentage that those advances should be reflecting. While entry-level salaries may be equal for male and female attorneys, are women in the legal world discovering the same glass ceilings and barriers to entry at these top levels of economic empowerment that their corporate counterparts have experienced? The author …

Providing Access To Power: The Role Of Higher Education In Empowering Women Students, Margaret A. Mckenna

New England Journal of Public Policy

Access to education opens the doors to future economic power — but are opportunities for women limited by the very way that institutions of higher education think about women students? Women comprise the majority of college students today, but the institutions they attend may not be serving their educational needs. This article explains that women's needs are different from those of men and illustrates how educators can respond to that difference, offering a "feminist environment" in which female students can meet their own educational goals.

Foreword, Rosabeth Moss Kanter

New England Journal of Public Policy

Two significant facts are apparent from reading this volume. First, the authors are themselves examples of women overcoming barriers, breaking into formerly all-male domains, succeeding against the odds, and exercising economic, political, and educational leadership — on behalf of other women as well as on behalf of the institutions they serve. Thus their own lives are eloquent rebuke to anyone who still thinks that women cannot manage effectively in any realm, or that women must always take second place to men, or that family responsibilities make women less serious about public responsibilities, or that women fail to help one another; …

Women, Power, And Partnership, Elizabeth Graham Cook

New England Journal of Public Policy

As women in a community move into senior positions from which they can influence the economic advancement of women at all levels, commentators have examined factors contributing to their advancement. This article outlines data about the Women's Economic Forum, a Boston group formed in 1985. The degree to which interdependence or "partnership" is a positive element in achieving the group's objectives suggests that other communities could adopt the WEF model.

The Third Stage: An Economic Strategy, Dawn-Marie Driscoll

New England Journal of Public Policy

If the first stage of the women's movement raised consciousness, changed statutes, and proposed the Equal Rights Amendment, and the second stage broadened the debate to include family, workplace, and societal issues, the third stage may focus simply on giving women economic power and independence. Issues for women in the 1990s will center on economics; this article suggests strategies for achieving these goals.

Alcoholism: A Barrier To Empowerment For Women, Marion Brink

New England Journal of Public Policy

Women's increasing economic power has encouraged the promotion of their drinking as fashionable. However, women are more vulnerable to the impact of alcohol, and the stigma attached to alcoholism is greater for them than it is for men. As a consequence, a woman — and those around her — will deny her alcoholism until she has lost much more than her male counterparts. When, or if, she seeks help for this devastating disease, she finds a lack of woman-specific programs and facilities. This article notes the barriers to recovery for women and offers some suggestions for breaking them down. Two …

Women And Money: Getting Money And Using It, Sheryl R. Marshall

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author of this article has spent her career in the world of finance. Here she examines the way women make economic decisions. The article centers on attitudes concerning women, money, and financial independence; the availability or lack of capital for women who want to start businesses; and a strategy for using their economic clout to forward the agenda of the economic empowerment of women.