260 Washington Avenue, Albany, N.Y. 12210 (518) 472. $630
Career Ladder Research
The following are the revised questions for the Career Ladder Research
Design:
1. Area larger percentage of women on career ladders that end
at lower grade levels than men?
a
2. Do female career ladders begin and end at lower grade levels
than male career ladders?
3. Do mixed career ladders begin and end at lower grade levels
than male career ladders?
4. Do male non-professional ladders require less education ‘and/or
experience and/or exam requirements to move up? y
5. Do male professional career ladders begin and peak at higher
grade levels than female professional career ladders?
6. Do male professional ladders require less education and/or
experience and/or exam requirements to move up?
Affiliated with Comparative Development Studies Center, Graduate School of Public Affairs,
State University of New York at Albany
Women’s >
seminar
counters
sex bias -
By Olga Molina
ALO STAFF
Several hundred women state
employees took a first step towards
moving up from “dead-end” clerical
jobs yesterday by attending a special
two-day career seminar at the Center
for Women in Government at Mary-
mount Manhattan College.
The seminar, continuing through
today, is the first of a series of all-day
eareer-planning workshops expected to,
reach some 3,000 state-employed
women over the next few weeks as part.
of a program aimed at eliminating sex
discrimination in the public sector,
“It’s a pioneering effort,” said Linda
Tarr-Whelan, director of the State
Labor Department, who serves as
president for the year-old Center for
Women in Government.
“This is the first of a series of eight
programs for women employees of the
state at all levels which will help
women blocked in ‘clerical ghettos,’ ””
she said. . :
Ms. Whelan, who is the highest
ranking woman state employee, added
that 1,300 women had applied to attend
the two-day workshops, but only 600
could be accommodated, ‘Its success
proves the hunger of women for this
kind of thing,” she said.
.- “It’s obvious that women are
excluded,” commented City Council
President Carol Bellamy, who attended
® noon-time press conference held at
the school. “We are past the problem
of women who can’t get mortgages. We
are now getting to the root of the prob«
lem, the economic issues that are
harder to convey,”
Statistics show that women have not
made much headway inte top-level
stale positions. Out of more than
154,000 workers employed by the state
in 1976, almost half--44,7 percent
were women. But of those 68,824
women, only 571 held top manage-
ment or policy-making positions,
More than 60 percent of state-
employed men were paid $10,000 or
more in 1976, but ‘only about 40 pers
~ cent of the women employees fell into
the over-$10,000 category, a statistic
that had not improved from a decade
* earlier, i . 1
The seminar program, supported’ by
a $75,000 legislative grant, has been
designated a work-related assignment
by Gov. Carey~—which means that the
women attending can be paid for the
time they spend learning how to get
ahead.
January 24,
1979
Career panel
in Rochester
By Dawn LePore .
ROCHESTER — “I may not get a
promotion tomorrow, but I feel a lot
more secure now that I know more
about how to get one.” y
That’s how one woman summed up
her feelings during a break in the day-
long proceedings. She was one of 240
women from six counties who par-
ticipated in a state-funded seminar
entitled “Women in the Public See-
tor: A Career Planning Workshop,”
held recently at Monroe Community
College. It was the fourth such
meeting in a series of eight currently
being held across New York State,
Their purpose is to provide state-
employed women with training, infor-
mation and skills necessary to
developing realistic — and optimistic
~~ career goals,
“Tt takes guts, determination and a
lot of courage” to get ahead, ac-
cording to Ann Bachorski, a seminar
panelist and a senior unemployment
insurance claims examiner for the
state Labor Department,
State Department of Civil Service
figures show that out of 65,000 women
employed by the state, only 571 hold
top management or policy-making
positions, while there are seven times
that njany men in similar positions:
The limited number of oppor-
tunities for advancement is one of the
worst problems now facing women,
says a survey compiled by the Center
for Women in Government, founded in
1978 to specifically respond to work-
ing women’s needs, ~
“The state work force is declining,”
said Linda Tarr-Whelan, president of
the board of directors ‘of the Center
and administrative director of the
state Department of Labor. ”
“Promotional opportunities for
everyone are declining and my own
personal feeling is that means we
have to open up the opportunities that
do exist for as many people as possi-
ble because commercial oppor-
tunities aren’t going to be 4s common
as they were,’’ she said.
The remaining seminars were
scheduled to be held on March 6th in
the Suffolk-Nassau counties; on
Mareh 13 in the Syracuse region, on
March 20 in the Buffalo area and on
March 27 in the Alnany area.
March 14,
L079
Program begins
to aid women
im career goals
NEW YORK (AP) — A new program to encourage ¢a-
reer development among female state employees and
the advancement of women In government began Tues-
day at Marymount College,
The program, a series of cight workshops attended by
3,000 of the state’s 68,000 female employees, is sponsored
by the year-old Center for Women in Governme! 1
bany and financed by $75,600 In state Budget funds,
“Ht is veally a ploneering effort,” sald Linda Pe
Whelan, administrative director of the Stat 7
partment as well as president of the Cenler, Except for
Nevada, no other state has financed or organized such a
program for its female government workers, she sald
during a news conference at Marymount announcing the
workshops.
She said participants are attending the workshops as
part of thelr regular work day,
‘The lack of movement of women in state government
prompted the program, according to Ms, Tarr-Whelan,
‘The statistics show us (hat over the past 10 years, es-
sentially nothing has happened. There are jobs, but there
are no stepping stones,” she sald,
Nearly 13,000 of the 18,738 state employees who earn
less than $10,000 a year are women,
Less than one percent of female state employees hold
policy-making jobs while the majority are increasingly
working in dead-end clerical jobs, she said. In 1977, 81.8
pereent of state clerical workers were women, a 1.4 per-
cent hike over the past 10 years, according to statistles
compiled by the Center,
Ms.Tarr-Whelan said civil service barriers and the
lack of career ladders have prevented women from ad-
vancing within government. 7
. Phe greatest concentration of female state employees
is in the metropolitan area where 68.4 percent of the 22,-
939 female state employees hold clerical and paraprofes-
stonal positions while 4.1 percent are {n administrative .
or official positions, according to data compiled by. the
Center,
Through career Sevolanmont discussions, the Cen-
ter’s all-day workshops will focus on individual goals and
encourage women to work together and form networks
to improve thelr status, +
“This just hasn't existed in the past for women, These
are the kinds of things we ought to be doing,” said Carol
Bellamy, president of the New York City Council, who
spoke at Tuesday’s workshop and attended the news con-
erence,
DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE
Rochester, February 24,
NY’s women workers
study career planning
‘ A program aimed at helping female
state employees develop their carcers’
and move into management is being
sponsored by the Center for Women in
Government with (anopy. from the
state.
About 300 state-employed women
from Monroe, Wayne, Ontario, Yates,
Livingston, Allegany. and Steuben
counties were paid’to attend a career
planning workshop, one of eight in the
state, al Monroe Community College
yesterday.
The center, an arm of. the State
University at Albany formed to study
sex discrimination in public employ=
ment, found women have been ex-
cluded from public policy-making and
given low-paying, dead-end jobs, said
panelist Linda Tarr-Whelan, adminis-
trative director of the state Labor
Department and president of the cen-
ter’s board of directors.
She said civil service barriers and
the lack of career ladders have’ pre-
vented women from advancing in gov
ernment. .
Research by the center found that, of
the 154,056 people empluyed by the
slate in 1976, 44.7 percent were women.
Of those 68,824 women employees, only
5%1 were in top management or poli-
ey-making positions. .
The study also found 63.9 percent
‘advisory groups in thei
of the men employed by the state were’
paid more than $10,000 tn 1976, while *
only 42.3 percent. of the females earned
more than that,
In 1977, she said, 81.8 pereent of all
clerical workers employed by the state ,
were women, ,
‘The greatest concentration of women
employees is in New York City, where
65.4 percent of the 22,939 women
working for the state hold clerical and
paraprofessional jobs. Only 4.1 percent
work in official and eepinirirative
“capacities. :
Of the 18,738 state employees in New
York City earning less than $10,000,
nearly 13,000 are women.. Less than
one-third of the nearly 6,000 state em. *
ployees earning more than $16,000 are
women, Ms. Tarr-Whelan said,
A lack of movement in these areas in |
the last 10 years prompted the work- |
shops, she said.
‘The workshops started in January | in
Buffalo, Albany, Syracuse and Suffolk
County. Future conferences are
planned for New York City. and West-
chester with $75,000 from the state.
Ms. Tart-Whelan said the workshops
have encouraged women to set up
offices to meet,
with top-level administrators about
implementing affirmative’ action ae
grams.
1979
Kathteen Ryan, editor
Women seek exit from 'clerical ghetto’
4
A
By CARYN EVE WIENER
Staff Writer
VALHALLA — Health Department em-
ployees sat beside Labor Department em-
ployees, who sat beside employees from
the departments of Mental Hygiene and
Corrections. As individual workers in their
various departments, they had little in
common, As women employed by New
York state, they were united by a common,
bond: They came Tuesday to Westchester gio
Community College for a career planning =
conference to discover what kind of
‘wood” they were made of.
‘The conference, by the state
and organized by the Center for Women in
Government, was the third of eight to be
held statewide this year. Its purpose: toup-
grade skills and broaden knowledge of
‘women working in the public sector.
* Some 300 state employees attending from
Ulster, Sullivan, Rockland, Westchester,
Orange, Putnam and Dutchess counties did
‘so on duty leave, being paid for a full day's
work. By day's end, they had received
other kinds of remuneration: a clear-cut
definition of what is hampering women's
progress; assertiveness training and,
x “We need to defrost
., ourselves like we do our
¥ refrigerators.”
a
Clara Franklin, R.N.
2
throughout it all, hope.
First person stories women told during
the morning pane! program held that hope.
Clara Franklin, a nurse at Hudson River
State Hospital, progressed from atteadant
in 1949 to head murse, her carrent post. A
1937 high school graduate, she now is work-
ing toward a bachelor’s degree. For her,
hope meant assertiveness and education.
“We need to defrost ourselves like we do
Gur refrigerators,” she said. “We need to
throw the garbage out.”
“eeutive orders
Claire Beckhardt started in volunteer
‘work. The sole woman general manager for
the New York City Region of the Ollice of
Parks and ion began in the early
1560s, when she was a tecent college gradu.
ate and young mother. A member of com-
munity organizations, she approached the
parks department about building a new
playground — and, at the same time, began
constructing the foundation for the job she
now holds.
Audience members also stood on various
rungs of their own career ladders. Eliza-
beth Williams commutes from Midiletown
to Poughkeepsie, where for the past three
months she has been an engineering aide
for the state Department of Transporta-
tion. Peg Gladwin of Ellenville, director of
volunteer serivees for Woodbourne Corree-
tional Facility, is pleased with the 4% years
she has been there, Ske is active on an advi-
sory task foree that works with the
center.
For the other women — those who came
out of either curiosity or need — the Center
for Women in Government has one main
function: To help workers who may feel sti-
fled by their jobs.
* Women who want to get ahead but cannot
may be in a “‘clerical ghetto,” according to
‘Revord ilu ratios by Rod Eyer
Linda Tarr-Whelan. administrative direc-
tor of the state Department of Labor and
president of the board of directors of the
center. employees out of “dead-end” state jobs,
“A ghetto,” she szid, “tis a place where «
walls keep people in and prevent them from
‘ing into arees where their real talents
take them.”
training prograrns, Public Siesta id
wi
No fixed geographical sites determine a
clerical gt
agencies a:
‘The state organized the center a year
ago, instructing:
nation in pubiie emaployment. In the year
since, the center has meshed research,
ploy
are women, Two-thirds of the women who
linda Tarr-Whelan, pictured on dame, is board president of the
Center for Women in Government which is working fo get women
work in state jobs are either employed in
sales, teaching or other servire
a woman begins ker state em-
annual sa
9, Without a college degree, the
Jhighest solary level a typist can hope to
reach is $10,000 a year. This progression in-
Women politicians
_—pagetd—
volves @ great many women, the center
found, In 1977, women held more than 82
percent of all clerical positions in state gov.
ernment.
Time will tell what the center's work will
mean to the 70,000 women employed by the
state. There are 1,400 of them in Orange
County; 250 are in Sullivan County and 580
in Ulster County.
Along with state funds, the center is fond-
ed in part with grants from the Ford Foun-
dation and the Civil Service Employees As-
sociation (CSEA). It operates under the
auspices of the Graduate School of Public
Alfairs at the State University of New York
at Albany. 7
“State government has 2 <op-level com-"
mitment to help women,” said Mrs. Tart-
Whelan, Gov. Hugh L. Carey issued two ex-
yvne calling for
affirmative action in employment; the
other establishing flexible work schedules.
“The rhetoric is there,” said Mrs. Tarr-
Without a college de-
gree, the highest salary
a typist can hope to
reach is $10,000.
Whelan, “The laws are there. But the prob-
Jems remain.”
In its first year, the center began its re~
search. This Year, it is taking action.
‘uesday's assembly was deemed a
st” by the center. The $75.000 program.
of eight conferences is probably the largest
of its kind in the state as well as the nation,
said Donna George, communications direc-
"°K totat of 3000 persons are
have attended after the final c
completed.
ta is the first time a state government
has appropriated funds for women to get to-
gether and talk about their careers,”
Mrs..Tarr-Whelan.
‘Women. are an under-utilized resource,
she contends. “Public service is like a mir-
Tor on society,” she said. “The statistics
are a reflection of society as 2 whole.”
Instriving for change, the center does not
work alone. In November, the center creat-
ed the Coalition for Career Mobility. It
draws on the efforts of the CSEA, the New
York State Coalition of People with Disabi-
lilies, Wheels to Independence, Wome) in
State Government as well as women’s advi-
Sory groups in 23 state agencies. Personnel
and affirmative action councils from
various state agencies also joined the coali
tion.
Collective effort is important, said Nancy
Perlman, director of the center. “One of
the things we would like to do is encourage
women to form advisory groups in their
own facilities and take action.”
Changing a formal system is just one part
of the cenfer’s line of action. Equally en-
trenched in women’s problems with state
employment are attitudes — and not just
those of ep-workers or those reflected in of-
fice procedure.
“One of the barriers you must deal with
in career planning is attacking the system,
not only outside yourself but also within
yourself," Dr. Joseph H. Hankin, president
‘of WCC, told those gathered at Tuesday's
conference.
Women need to think of themselves as
achievers, as assertive, as movers and
makers of progress, he said. And that
means shedding old ways of thinking that
are in conflict with the demands of a new li-
festyle.
“To quote Walt Kelly in thé comic strip,
Pogo,” said Hankin, “We have met the
enemy and he is vs.
“Or rater,” he added, after 2 trovsht,
“SHE is us."
ted ta
ference is
SURE we
Gannett/Westchester,N 2wspa.
a
141979, 5
iC OU. MALy:
ers
py PATRICIA KEEGAN
Education Editor &
"Women in public “employ-
ment have been lulled into
“ta false sense of security”
that job equality with men
has been achieved, the high-
est ranking woman in the
state Labor Department
said Tuesday.
Linda . Tarr-Whelan, ad-
ministrative director of the
Public- —j
ant
Depa ment of Labor, told
about 300 female state em-
ployees at a career planning
workshop at Westchester
Community College that
statistics show “women
have heen excluded from
- public policy-making and in-
cluded in dead-end jobs.
“Without career mobility,
there is no affirmative ac-
tion for women,” she said in
the keynote address to the
female employees, most of
ston ‘hota jobs at the lower
end of the state pay scale.
~* The all-day workshop, for
women in the lower Hudson
region, was one of eight be
ing held throughout the
state. It was sponsored by
the Center for Women in
- Government, a year-old or-
ganization working to elimi-
nate sex discrimination in
the public sector, and fund-
ed by a state grant.
_ About 3,000 women who
Published in the:
“work “tee the’ state “are
Scheduled to attend the
workshops, making the se-
fies the first such extensive
training program in New
York and the largest of its
kind in the country, accord-
ing to Center officials.
The state Legislature ap-
propriated $75,000 to fund
the workshops and those
women who attend the ses-
sion in their area are freed’
from their job responsibili-
Bronxville Review Press-Reporter
Mamaroneck Daily Times
Mount Vernon Daily Argus
New Rochelle Standard Star
Nyack Journal News
Port Chester Daily Item
Tarrytown Daily News
Westport Fairpress
White Plains Reporter Dispatch
Yonkers
Herald
Statesnan
ties that day, ee
Ms. Tarr-Whelan cited
‘number of statistics to show ~~
job discrimination still ex-
ists in the state public sec-
tor and that it has in fact
worsened
years. *
—. In 1967, she said, 80.4
percent of all clerical work-
ers employed by the state
were women. By 1977, the
figure had risen to 81.8 per-
cent, although the percent-
the last
-
age of women working for
the state remained about
“the same. tetescbyagen se?
— In 1967, 61.9 percent of
allt those employed by the
state at, the low-paying
, grades of one through six
were women. By 1974, the
last time such data was
_ compiled, the figure had_ris-
en to 64.8 percent.
—~ In 1976, less than one
percent of the state's fe
male employees were in top
management positions,
while almost five times that
percentage of the male
work force held top man-
agement jobs.
But Ms. Tarr-Whelan said
she saw positive signs that
“the time is right to open
the system.’’ She cited the
. State’s funding of the work-
shops, Gov. Carey's ap-
pointment of women to se-
veral state office leadership
jobs and his agreement to
meet with the Coalition for
Career Mobility, a group
comprised of the Center, the
Civil Service Employees As-
sociation, Women in State
Government and — several
other groups.
The coalition hopes to ex-
:pand the opportunities so
women in lower-level jobs
can take state advancement
fests to step up the career
ladder, she said. .
~; ‘'The key word of the '80s
is going to be productivity,”
Ms. Tarr-Whelan told her
audience. “Does it increase
productivity to prevent tal
ented clerical workers from
moving up? £ think not.”
The day’s program also
included a panel discussion
by four women who had
worked their way up in ei-
* The latter’ were ein
Sef
tried | to. overcome the pro
to give the women the skills “lems of being the “first ar
to plan their careers and t:
encourage them to form
‘visory groups within thei
Town state agencies to mon-
itor the progress of affirma-
tive action programs.
* One of the panelists, Mar-
garet Apee, who is. the di-
rector of correctional volun-
teer services and ancillary
programs for the state De.
Partment of Correctional
Services, spoke of how she
“only woman” at the centr
“office of her department.
She ‘offered five‘ care:
planning tips to the wor
shop’ participants: Read
variety of books; -set bo
short and long-term care
“goals and be aggressive
trying to attain them; e
plore available resourc
and use them; develop ar
alistic action’ plan with :
ternatives; and keep a po:
tive outlook.
