Hie position of women in the American economy has

Hie position of women in the American economy has improved over the last decade, but not nearly so much as forecasters in the 1970s believed, according to Dr. Andrew I. Kohen, professor of economics at James Madison University.

"Statistics show that women are now earning 69 percent of what men are earning, and I believe that is a slight overestimate,” Dr. Kohen said. “It represents rather minimal progress in the direction of equality. The ratio was about 64-65 percent in the early 70s.”

While there has been change in the kinds of jobs that American women hold, Dr. Kohen reported, “We still have a tremendous degree of segregation by sex in occupations.”

Figures indicate that half of the professionals are women, he said, “but that is rather a deceptive statistic. Women are very high in the traditional categories of teaching and nursing, representing nearly three out of five of all professionals in this country.”

Women in the health care professions are over-represented in nursing and technical occupations, Dr. Kohen said.

Although women have progressed in the fields of law and accounting, the professor noted that only 18 percent of the lawyers are women but women comprise 45 percent of the labor force.

Little progress has been achieved in the fields of engineering and natural science, according to Dr. Kohen. “Only six percent of engineers in this country are women, and that figure has been constant for a long time. In natural science, the ratio is one out of five.”

Even in new sectors, women have found unequal opportunity, Dr. Kohen said. “In the hot new field of computer science, it was predicted that sex discrimination would not be so great. Still in this arena there is a considerable differentiation in the kind of jobs that women and men get. The difference is not so extreme, but it is evident. Society is a long way from being gender neutral.”

And women continue to receive