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Show O Halt filler ributtf Section FASHION W-- 1 FOOD 2 itestyie W Sunday, July 15, 1984 Page W-1- 1 UTAH IMAGE By Dawn Tracy Tribune Lifestyle Writer A woman gynecologist, married to a doctor who grew up in Provo, refused to locate her own practice in Utah because she said she would be unhappy living with the states negative attitudes toward professional women. A local Chamber of Commerce official said a couple reconsidered plans to move to Utah because the wife, a successful businesswoman, heard it would be difficult to resume her career in Utah. A local company manager verified her fears by talking with her husband and not interviewing her. Supervisors from an Eastern synthetic fuels organization were surprised to learn that Utah has many successful business and professional women. Company officials assumed such women dont exist because of what they thought were Utahs negative attitudes toward working women, said the chamber official. Corporate executives are staying away from Utah. They are reluctant to bring their wives and daughters to live in a state where they believe women are treated as inferiors, according to Dr. Marvin J. Cetron, an expert in technological forecasting, author and president of Forecasting International Ltd., Arlington, Va. If the state can change those images, he recently told business leaders at a meeting sponsored by the Utah Economic Development Division, Utah could become one of three top business areas in the U.S. Better Chance Elsewhere? Vervene Vee Carlisle, immediate past chair of the Women in Business Committee, Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, said strong support networks have sprung up in recent years for business and profesbusisional women but nesses are unaware of their existence. Women are joining chambers of commerce, for instance, and their numbers make up the largest committees in both the Salt Lake Area and Ogden chambers. Women have also formed informal neighborhood groups to support each other in careers and advanced training. A judge and a university professor were members of one informal group. "Its true that opportunities for women are not what they are on the East and West coasts and I know many women who have left the state because of this, said Ms. Carlisle. I also know that the impact of negative statements is usually heavier than fact, but to have Utah known as the last frontier to recognize women concerns me. Utah Must Compete If Utah is to compete with other states for relocations, said Ms. Carlisle, a banking executive and former te state legislator, "attitudes must change or we will lose out in the economic race. Utah's biggest pluses are that its a k state, its students have high national scholastic scores and the University of Utah is recognized as an excellent school, said Dr. Ce right-to-wor- tron. The image that women are inferior in Utah, however, is a very damning impression. Dr. Cetron said a study for investment opportunities conducted by his firm showed that of 140 areas in the country, Utah is the 10th most desirable location. By 1990, the state could move to sixth place and has the potential to become third by the year 2000, behind Austin, Texas, and Research Triangle, N.C. Worth Fighting For Utahns would be well advised to consider why the negative image of womens positions exists, said Dr. Cetron, who predicted the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan, strikes in Poland, the revolution in Iran and Ron- ald Reagans 1980 presidential victory. The first and most important area to consider is wages Utah women receive, and unfortunately, they are lower than national averages. In income, Utahs women lag behind nationally a problem Utah men dont face compared to men across the United States. In 1979 in Utah for year-roun- d fulltime work, the average weekly earnings of a woman with five or six years of college were slightly less than that of a man with less than eight years of elementary school, according to a report from the Governors Task Force on Integrating Women Into the Workforce. Nationally, women with five or six years of college earn about what men do with a high school education. Utah women are paid 54 cents for every $1 earned by men, a pay differential that has not significantly changed in 20 years, according to the report. Yet Utah men earn more than men do nationally: $18,147 to $17,363 respectively. Nationally, women earn 59 cents for every dollar men earn. Utah Lags The educational attainment of Utah women exceeds women nationwide, although lagging behind Utah men. In some areas, such as medical school attendance, Utah trails the nation. I left Utah because I wanted to go to medical school, said Dr. Nancy Parry, a California physician and real estate developer who graduated from East High School. I encountered constant discouragement from becoming a doctor when I worked as a surgical technician in two Salt Lake City hospitals. I found that women have more credibility in California. The number of women enrolled in the University of Utahs School of Medicine is half the national average and last year it was the lowest in the nation. U. of U. officials cite Utahs cultural emphasis on women becom- ing homemakers, teachers and nurses as reason for the low numbers. They added that the number of women medical students is increasing. The number of women physicians in training admitted into the U. of U.s Graduate Medical Education Program is also half the national average: 15 percent vs. 30 percent. University officials said few women are applying, and theyre not sure why. Women doctors moving to Utah te from other states said they have not encountered discrimination and enjoy the family atmosphere and beauty of the state. Its delightful to practice medicine here, said Salt Lake pediatrician Dr. Janet Harnsberger. My husband and I enjoy the camping areas and appreciate the emphasis people place on the family. Marsha Gilford, a hotel convention sales executive, said conventions help dispel negative attitudes. Once outsiders get here, they often form favorable impressions. Ms. Gilford said some groups have canceled reservations for conventions in Utah because of the states anti-ERstand, costing the state millions along with the opportunity of having tourists visit Utah. A Bill E. Dunn, director of public affairs for American Express Company, said employees had no negative impressions of Utah women when the firm moved its Travelers Cheque Operation Center to Salt Lake City two years ago. It simply wasnt an issue, he said. Pete Kutulas, convention sales executive, Salt Lake Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said convention delegates often have erroneous impressions that Utah is a forlorn desert and a liquor-fre- e state more than they have reservations about the position of Utah women. The ERA issue is on the wane, but for some reason Utah, more than any other state, has been singled out as not ratifying the ERA, he said. The n impression that Utah is anti-woma- ago, companies were concerned about the strong influence of the Mormon Church in the state. But that concern no longer exists because reliIn his book Encounters With the gious differences no longer matter in Future: Forecast of Life Into the the business world, and people are 21st Century, Dr. Cetron predicted generally more tolerant of personal that Utah will eventually ratify an religious beliefs. probaequal rights amendment "Based on whats happening in the but it will be the last bly in 1989 East, lifestyle changes in Utah are state in the nation to do so. Utahs coming," said Rosalie Mark, Eastern overwhelming Mormon majority of- Airlines regional manager and chair ten makes it the last state to adopt of the Salt Lake Area Chamber of radical social change of any kind, he Commerce Women in Business Comwrote. Yet the conservative belief mittee. Women in Utah may have structure of the Church of Jesus even because opportunities greater Christ of Latter-da- y Saints has also can benefit from experiences of they made the Mormon Church one of the others and because women here have nations fastest-growin- g religions, he strong gender identity. It will be Utah wrote. women themselves who will change Dr. Cetron said that several years the states image. is still with us, but it does not rank higher than the long-tim- e image that you cant get a drink in Utah. How to raise kids to stand on their own 2 feet By Jim Sanderson Just a week after she graduated from high school my daughter wrote me a letter for Fathers Day. It was a the words every gift beyond price parent longs to hear: You have made me so strong and secure in myself that unlike other kids Im not afraid to go out on my own and start my life. I know yo Tve taught me all the basics, in the most painless way, and I'm sure I will be able to deal with whats ahead. I know all you and Mom need is for me to go out and become a successful thats all you ever wanted person from me and thats the best thing I can do for you. Happy Fathers Day, Dad. The young must be taught what they need to know to survive, and if First in a Series this is a tougher job than it used to be because our society is more complex and changing so rapidly, then all the e more reason to make a conscious, organized effort to cope with the problem. These days if we dont bring our children to safe maturity nobody else or can. will What do we need to do the job? Just three things: 1. The ability to express love and offer emotional support in a constant daily flow no matter what adversities strike us inside or outside the relationship with the child. 2. The courage to believe that we can impart our values and some parts of our experience, that we can succeed in giving this creature of ourselves a separate and functioning adulthood, and that we have a limited time (18 years) to do it. 3. The faith that we can instill the best of what we are (and not the worst) into our offspring, so that we find ourselves in the rather odd, joyous position of trying to live up to the image we would have our child see and model himself after. When a youngster enters the teen years, at Just the stage when thing seems to be falling apart on both sides, the parents must sit down together and organize a plan for the childs final development. Adult at 18 is a planned effort by the parents to relinquish Authority over the child, area by area, as he or she assumes the necessary Responsibility, until on the childs 18th birthday or graduation from high school (whichever come first) the son or daughter is not only fully competent to leave home but is eager to do so. Here's how we explained the plan I to our children on their 13th birthdays: Just five years from now you are going to be completely in charge of yourself. You can vote for public officials and serve on juries; you can borrow money from a bank; people can sue you; you can get married without asking our permission; if you get into trouble with the law youll be put in prison, not sent to a juvenile home; ; you can get an abortion. You will choose you own career, See Page W-Column 1 v 2, |