## Notes
from Secretary Reich and Director Nussbaum

### Letter from Secretary Robert B. Reich regarding the Working Women Count
Report:

America's working women have made their voices heard.   In vast numbers and
with extraordinary candor and insight, women from every region of the country
have responded to this unprecedented questionnaire and told us about their
lives.  This report is the culmination.

The report weaves a fabric of opinion and experience that is as richly
diverse as America's working women themselves.  Yet these wide-ranging
convictions are unified by a common thread:  women -- indeed, all working people
-- want the opportunity and the resources to lead full, productive lives.   They
want to be treated not as disposable parts, but as essential assets.   And they
want to work in an environment that treats them with dignity, respects the
importanceof their families, and invests in their skills.

Moving in this direction is essential.  It's essential for reasons of
fairness and equality, but it is equally an economic imperative.  In today's
economy, only one resource offers an enduring competitive edge: people. 
Everything else -- machines, processes, raw materials -- can be easily
replicated.  The only element that cannot be easily duplicated is workers --
their skills, their creativity, their capacity to work together.

Investing in America's workers is the key to competitive success.   Private
companies, government, and labor unions must equip workers -- whatever their
gender or race -- with a set of flexible skills that they can sharpen throughout
their working lives.  Working women appreciate the urgency of this task. 
On-the-job training was cited by more than half the women in this questionnaire
as a priority for change.

The same is true for giving workers -- especially women -- authority on the
job.  This, too, is a matter of both equity and common sense.  Workers who are
treated fairly, who are respected, and who are given responsibility perform
better and produce more.  Our best companies have recognized the value of
flattening their traditional hierarchies and pushing responsibility to the
front-line workers who know the product and customers best.

Still, not every organization is committed to investing in workers' skills
and reorganizing the workplace.   Some have opted for another route.  And that
is why it is also essential to block the low road of unsafe conditions, job
discrimination, and meager wages.  Fair pay and adequate child care, the
questionnaire results reveal, are critical to working women and therefore
critical to the country.  Providing safe, healthy, and family-friendly
workplaces is a national priority.

As we continue to reshape workforce policy -- together with employers,
women's groups, and community and labor organizations -- we will address the
issues which working women themselves have so forcefully and eloquently raised.

#### Robert B. Reich

Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor

### Letter from Women's Bureau Director Karen Nussbaum regarding the Working
Women Count Report:

This report -- an historic attempt to collect the views of working women --
arrives in a Capitol that has already begun to change.   Much work remains to
improve the lives of working women.  But already hopeful signs of progress are
emerging throughout the country.

The Clinton Administration began making progress almost immediately upon
taking office.  For example, the first bill President Clinton signed into law
was the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives workers -- men and women --
unpaid time off work to care for a new child or a sick relative.  The importance
of this achievement cannot be underestimated, coming as it did after a
decade-long congressional battle and two vetoes by the previous President.  This
legislation is a landmark achievement, the first legislation in decades to honor
women's work and put families first.

In addition, this year the President signed the Head Start Reauthorization
bill, which expands this proven child care program.  More children will now be
able to participate, and there will be more full-day, full-year slots to better
serve working parents.

The Administration is also forging solutions to working women's central
concern: economic security.  Thanks to the School-to-Work Opportunities Act,
more of our nation's young people -- both young women and men -- will be able to
move smoothly from the classroom to a job with a future.   The Earned Income Tax
Credit, part of the President's economic plan, is providing tax relief for
fifteen million working families with modest incomes.  And this Administration
is vigorously enforcing the laws that promote equal opportunity and prohibit
discrimination based on race, gender, ageor disability.

We've made a good start.  And the voices of America's working women add the
fuel to power even greater progress.

#### Karen Nussbaum

Director, Women's Bureau

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