I need help finding the number of women CEO's in the U.S. and political events that created an opportunity for women in management for an essay on Women and Work. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

It never ceases to amaze me how blatantly unjust this world is. Through my work I, unfortunately, see so many cases that are similar to this one. Situations where power takes precedence over fairness and where people are valued by a skewed scale and not a just one.

I am not an attorney or a legal expert, so I am not in a position to tell what is best in the case. Instinct tells me that a contract shouldn't make a difference. In racial and sexual discrimination cases they don't--they do help, but they aren't the end-all be-all. The evidence seems to exist without the contract, so I can't imagine that that would be the determiner.

Obviously the first step would be to find an attorney. The best ones usually come through personal referrals. The next step would be to approach advocacy groups--especially those dealing with "older peoples' issues." For starters, there is the Gray Panthers, founded by Maggie Kuhn. Their phone # is 202-466-3132 and their address is: Gray Panthers, 2025 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 821, Washington, DC 20006.

There is also the Older Women's League which has offices in many places and a national office in Washington, DC (202-783-6686). These advocacy groups are usually familiar with other cases on similar topics and on the best way to proceed.

I hope this helps. Good luck to your friend—and thank you for being such a great friend —Amy

By dual-burden theory I assume you are talking about the fact that the majority of women (and a few men) have two full-time jobs—one outside of the home and one inside? Working under this assumption, I think you can ask almost any mother this and get a personal experience. In general, while more women are working outside of the home, only a few men work inside the home. Whether it is early training or society—who knows, but taking care of children and the home still falls under the heading of women's work. Have you ever heard a man talking about how he is going to combine his career with child rearing?

What I see more and more--are men who do the work, but the responsibility to ask and to keep track remains the woman's. I sat the other night with a group of couples--all without children. They talked about how great their husbands were because they did the laundry and paid the bills (it varied for each person). The husbands were very proud—and good for them, but I didn't hear one husband say how great their wives were for doing the cooking; the cleaning and the grocery shopping. For women to do it, it's life—for men, it is a great act to be rewarded. I think we are getting there—slowly. —Amy