The position of women and
minorities in the workplace has improved considerably over the last
thirty years. Yet the data seem to suggest persistent inequities. In
1998, the average hourly wage for women was 80 percent of what it was
for men. Women still account for a mere 10 percent of engineers and
29 percent of lawyers (two higher-paying occupations), but for 98
percent of secretaries and 66 percent of sales workers (two
lower-paying occupations). In the upper echelons of corporate power,
women are still highly underrepresented, accounting for only 12
percent of corporate officers. Female senior managers of color earned
only 92 percent of what their white counterparts made last year.
A symposium at MHC on
Wednesday, April 12, will provide a forum to discuss the main
challenges to gender and racial equity in the workplace and what the
government and the private sector can do to address these challenges.
Titled "Equality in the Workplace? Insiders Report from the Field,"
the event will begin at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium. The symposium
is cosponsored by the Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman Center for
Leadership, the Career Development Center, and the U.S. Department of
Labor. There is an impressive line
up of panelists from the public and private sectors. They are Ann
Winston Foley '76, executive vice president, Showtime Networks;
Leonard E. Redon, director of Rochester area operations and vice
president, Eastman Kodak Company; and Shirley J. Wilcher '73, deputy
assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor. Eva Paus,
codirector of the Weissman Center, will moderate the discussion. Says Paus, "I am delighted
about the participation of such high-profile experts. Their insights
and lessons will be most useful to enhance all our understanding of
equity issues in the workplace. They should be of particular interest
to our students who are about to head out into the world of work." Ann Winston Foley '76,
executive vice president of East Coast programming for Showtime
Networks, Inc., is responsible for leading the company's overall
programming strategy and serving as the key liaison between the East
Coast and the West Coast programming departments, as well as serving
as a liaison between Showtime's departments of programming and on-air
promotion, creative services, and marketing. Foley also oversees
scheduling, analysis, talent relations, and all children's and family
programming for the company. Under Foley's leadership,
Showtime's family programming has been honored with numerous awards.
In March 2000, Showtime garnered twenty-one Emmy nominations--more
nominations than any other cable network in Emmy history. A twenty-year veteran of
Showtime Networks, Foley came to the company from Warner Amex
Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC). Prior to joining WASEC in
1980, she served as a columnist and assistant entertainment editor at
Mademoiselle magazine. She is a magna cum laude
graduate of the College and earned a B.A. degree in American
intellectual history and theater. Leonard E. Redon,
director of Rochester area operations and vice president of Eastman
Kodak Company, began his career with Kodak in 1973 and over his many
years with the company has enjoyed a steady rise up the corporate
ladder. His management experience includes serving as district
service manager, product service manager, director of service parts
management in the Customer Equipment Service Division, president and
CEO of Qualex, Inc., and director of Rochester area operations. His
marketing management assignments have included market manager for the
Copy Products Division and corporate account executive. Redon has
also served as the assistant to the chairman and president of Kodak.
He was appointed to his present position in 1998. At Kodak, Redon is a member
of the Kodak Leadership Team, the Corporate Health, Safety, and
Environment Management Council, the African American Leadership Team,
the Corporate Diversity Council, and the Corporate Finance Committee.
He earned his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Worcester
Polytechnic Institute. Shirley J. Wilcher '73
became deputy assistant secretary of the U. S. Department of Labr and
head of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCA) in
1994. In this position, she provides leadership and guidance to more
than eight hundred OFCCA employees nationwide. The OFCCP is
responsible for enforcement of laws requiring opportunity regardless
of race, gender, color, religion, national origin, disability, or
Vietnam-era veteran status. From February 1990 until
joining the Department of Labor, Wilcher was general counsel and
director for state relations for the National Association of
Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). She was associate
counsel to the House Education and Labor Committee from 1985 to 1990.
In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing enforcement
efforts at the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and
the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. From 1980 to
1985, Wilcher was staff attorney for the National Women's Law Center
in Washington, where she worked on litigation involving sex-based
discrimination in education. Wilcher graduated with honors
from MHC and went on to earn an M.A. degree from the School for
Social Research in New York. She received her law degree from Harvard
Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Harvard Civil
Rights/Civil Liberties Law Review.
ABOUT THE
PANELISTS
Ann
Winston Foley '76, executive vice president, Showtime Networks.
Leonard
E. Redon, director of Rochester area operations and vice president,
Eastman Kodak Company.
Shirley
J. Wilcher '73, deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of
Labor.
top photo courtesy of
Darryl-Ann Saunders/Showtime; middle photo courtesy of Eastman Kodak
Co; bottom photo courtesy of the Department of Labor
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