Women who enter the business world today have far more in common with men than in years past: the same educational background, training and skills.
Just two decades ago women often entered the labor force without proper preparation or the time to get necessary credentials. They needed to earn money and to earn it right away. Many of these women have been going to school ever since, trying to catch up. Moreover, it wasn`t too long ago that many colleges, especially graduate schools, did not accept women or had strict quotas on their admission.
Today more than half of all college undergraduates are female, and 40 percent of all graduate school students are women.
CONSUELO E. BEDOYA
Age 37, attorney and partner in the law firm Burditt, Bowles and Radzius Ltd.
”I came to the United States alone as a foreign student, when I was only 16, and financed my college education,” says Bedoya, a native of Lima, Peru. She did well in high school in Peru but moved to the United States because she disliked her country`s class system. ”My father was a doctor and a lawyer,” she says. ”My brothers are doctors and lawyers. My mother didn`t push me to get married. She told me getting an education was the most important thing.
”I begged my mother to let me prove I could do it,” she says of paying her way. ”My brothers said I would be back in three months. I`d die before I`d have gone back in defeat!”
Instead, she lived with friends and attended Aurora University in the western suburb. ”My first job was cleaning houses. I was quite green. I thought I was making a lot of money. I was all by myself in the U.S. and did not know the language. But I was lucky. I met good people.”
She majored in criminology and criminal justice and planned to study for a master`s degree in psychology when she heard about DePaul University Law School`s minority student program.
She enrolled, went to school at night, worked days and was graduated in 1977. She established a private practice and was married in 1981 to Gary Skoog, a Ph.D. in economics and an executive in a consulting firm. They have a 3-year-old child.
Today she is a specialist in international law, real estate and corporate law. ”Women in general have tremendous hurdles to overcome in the business world, and Hispanic women have twice the hurdles,” she says. ”Education allows women to see how far they can go. It gives a fantastic boost to your self-esteem. Advanced degrees help because the doors are not opened completely but opened enough to get your foot in.”
LINDA J. LEVICK
Age 34, vice president of marketing, Dove International Inc., Burr Ridge
”Advanced degrees add to your credibility,” says Levick, who earned her MBA from Northwestern University in 1979. ”I don`t mean that in a snobbish way at all. What I mean is that it says to business leaders that you are serious about your business career.”
A marketing major, Levick says that having an MBA helped her get her current job, though she had impressive credentials from her previous position at Quaker Oats Corp. as brand manager for a major product that had $70 million in annual sales.
In February she joined Dove, where she oversees marketing and advertising for current products and for development and introduction of new ones.
”I wanted a degree in business education for the actual knowledge I could get,” Levick says. ”It adds to your credibility, even with
suppliers.”
Advanced degrees are ”an additional way to screen people,” she adds.
”You can buy a more experienced or qualified person if she has more education. You get more value for your money.”
Levick will be hiring soon. ”I`m going to look for those degrees, mainly because this is a small but rapidly growing company and we can`t afford as much time in training,” she says. ”I need sophisticated and knowledgeable people.”
MAISHA B.H. BENNETT
Age 38, deputy commissioner of health for Mental Health, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse of the Chicago Department of Health
”I believe deeply in the value of education for advancement,” says Bennett. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Chicago and undergraduate and master`s degrees from Mt. Holyoke College. She now heads a department of 400 people and also has a small private practice.
”When I was 5 years old, my parents started a college savings fund for me. I got $2 allowance a week, and $1 went to the college fund. They did it for all seven of their children.”
Her education ”empowered” her, she says. ”The income potential is there. I make $59,204, and that goes up to $61,000 in January. In the private sector, I`d be making far more, but I believe in Mayor Washington`s agenda, and here I have the opportunity to impact on a larger group of people.”
Having a doctorate, Bennett says, means ”I can call my own shots.” She is married and has three young children who are ”definitely going to college.”
”College helps you think analytically, appreciate the intellectual aspects of life. Women need something to fall back on. Not to be educated means to have a lower-paying job, to be impoverished. It`s the difference between a job and a career. Black women, I think, who have advanced degrees are elevated into a different arena, with many more choices.”
MARY JANE KEARNEY
Age 56, professor of English at National College of Education, Evanston
”Without a college degree, you might get ahead but you have no mobility,” says Kearney, a teacher for 34 years. ”You might do well in a firm where you have worked your way up, but you never can move elsewhere. You`re stuck.”
She has her bachelor`s and master`s degrees from Loyola University and 30 hours of additional graduate work. ”At National College a large percentage of the student body is made up of returning students, many of them women. The students I have here and at Loyola University, where I teach English and basic writing, are mainly women.”
Kearney is married to a professor of history at Chicago State University and has five children. She notes that ”women usually return to school first and then enter the labor market. They know a degree makes a difference in pay and in status. The results of women`s return to school are seen in the increasing successes of women re-entering the work world.”
Kearney herself ”took that long journey from one side of the desk to the other” when she returned to school in the 1970s to ”understand my students better.” She took classes in ethnic history to learn more about her diverse students.
”(Women) are educated from our work in the home and our participation in the community. Academic credentials and life experience are the best references.”
Send comments and ideas for future questions to Carol Kleiman, The Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
