European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The number Olyou Nglen in the United Sta Tai who an Elani fied at learning disabled hat grown rapidly in recent Yean. New York times photo explanations that defy Quick solutions or that suggest problems at Home might be to blame. " it s More comfortable sometimes for a Parent to say Well it s not my fault it s not the school s fault. It s something wrong with my kid s brain said Pattschull. In Jennie s Case Cohn suspected she was caught in a vicious Circle. Her Reading difficulties made her feel inadequate those feelings in turn were crippling her ability to confront a written Page confidently. Believing that More individual attention might help Jennie s parents took her out of Public school and enrolled her in a parochial school. But things got worse. While Jennie could hide her problems in Large Public school classes she found herself in a humiliating fishbowl in parochial classes with As few As five youngsters and no place to hide. By the time her parents took her to see Cohn Jennie was falling three courses and was in danger of being expelled. Reading clinics use various strategies to help youngsters like Jennie. The Central idea said Cohn and others is not to confuse the symptoms the feelings of inferiority and Inadequacy for the disease which is poor Reading skills. The strategy is to improve Reading skills first. Each Little Success every bit of Progress should in turn be used to gradually build the child s self Confidence. But in the schools say Reading researchers like Scott Paris of the University of Michigan teachers often Lack the materials and the understanding to teach Good Reading strategies such As scanning a text to judge its difficulty drawing inferences or mentally summarizing Tough passages. The Bright kids pick up those strategies themselves. The rest often Don to said Paris. The rest he and others say sometimes wind up like Jennie. Do by in All g Ito i and third or More of the lawyers judges doctors and architects Are women said David e. Bloom a Harvard labor economist who called the labor department s data extremely  it s Only Able to persist because a Small number Are women he  professional occupations listed by the Bureau of labor statistics do not include executive managerial or administrative positions. Women accounted Lor 36 percent of those jobs in 1985, As against 32 percent in 1983. Ehrenhalt said that last april s one month Peak Over 50 percent for women did not constitute a solid  he said that was because in the months preceding april 1985, women held about 49 percent of professional jobs and in the months following returned to that level. He added that a fluctuation of that size 35,000 jobs is not uncommon when 107 million jobs Are involved and he noted that april and May Are a time when women s employment in the professions is at a seasonal High each year. Overall Lor 1985, the percentage of woman was 49.1 percent. But by december 1985 the figure was a few tenths of a percentage Point below 49 percent and by january 1986 it had reached 49.8 percent. As a result of this climb Ehrenhalt said i think it s going to  of last april s Peak he said you can Call it a Fluke. There Are variations like this that  now it is much clearer women Are the majority he added. It could slip the other Way but it in t the kind of Sharp special jump it was in  of the 13,847,000 professional jobs in the nation last month women held 6,938,000 and men 6,909,000. Five years ago women held 47 percent of such jobs but they have gained twice As fast As men since then. In 1980, 5,573,000 women held professional jobs compared with 6,250,000 men. Professionals develop produce distribute and apply knowledge Ehrenhalt said defining the category. They develop new ideas. They apply theory and scientific  the Bureau s definition of professional specially occupations includes people who Are architects engineers mathematical computer and natural scientists physicians dentists pharmacists teachers librarians social workers lawyers and Public relations specialists among others. Another professional group which Ehrenhalt said was based less on education and More on creative Talent and skill consists of people such As writers artists and professional athletes. Now the barriers have fallen or at least have come Down so that there is a significant and substantial movement of women into traditional male occupations he said. The 1980s Mark an acceleration of that  for example 17.2 percent of All doctors Are now women up from 15.8 percent in 1983, and 18.1 percent of All lawyers Are women up from 15.3 percent in 1983. Independent labor economists said the new majority demonstrated what Many of them had seen in colleges and universities that women Are breaking Down sex barriers in what they study As Well As in the jobs they seek. Bloom said the percentage of women who go to College has nearly doubled in the last 20 years from 21 percent in 1966 to 40 percent this year. In 1962. 5 percent of medical Law and architecture school students were women now 32 percent Are. We Are at the very beginning of a period in which gender becomes blurred As an important labor Market distinction said Bloom who has written on women in the labor Force. The growing numbers of women in the labor Market that is probably the most important development in the american labor Market that has Ever taken place he said. The most important development in the next 20 years is going to be changes in the types of jobs that women do and that s where this fits  Victor r. Fuchs. A professor of economics at Stanford University said women have always constituted a Large proportion of professional workers because so Many Are lecher and nurses. Another economist Marianne Ferber of University of Illinois at Urbana pointed out that despite the women s majority in the professions the earnings Gap Between men and women still exists. She attributed it to segregation by sex within occupations. The Gap began to narrow slightly in the late 1970s, she said. Men tend to be at the lop of the belter paying professions she said. At my own University which is probably not atypical of a Large research University about 5 percent of Lull professors Are women and about 25 to 30 percent of assistant professors Are  the most recent figures reflecting the earnings Gap Between men and women in professional jobs Are for the fourth Quarter of 1985, Ehrenhalt said. In that Quarter median weekly earnings for professional men were $581, and for professional women $419. The economists said women s crossing the 50 percent Mark in professions in. Part simply reflects their greater role in the labor Market and therefore has wider ramifications. Ehrenhalt for example said he believed thai women s increasing role in profess Nal occupations has fuelled the service Economy by requiring additional services such As Day care and More restaurants for couples who do not have time to Cook. Bloom said the increasing movement of women into jobs that were traditionally dominated by men was raising personal As Well As professional issues for them. I think that this blurring and the changes in types of jobs that women do is going to pretty much irrevocably alter the american labor system he said. We Are going to see changes in who does the work How much they get paid and the conditions under which the work is  the stars and stripes. Page 15