Lawrence journal world 09-01-2014

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L A W R E NC E

Journal-World

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LJWorld.com

MONDAY • SEPTEMBER 1 • 2014

LABOR DAY

A LIFETIME OF WORK Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

As they retire, the first generation of women to enter the workforce en masse reflect on the changes they’ve seen By Kim Callahan kcallahan@ljworld.com

“Why are you here? Why aren’t you married?” Judy Roitman recalls the young man’s hostile interrogation as not so much a question

as an invitation to scram. It was 40-odd years ago, and, it was just one in a torrent of antagonistic remarks, dismissive looks and cold shoulders directed at her, but it lodged in her memory as emblematic. “My stomach hurt every day

Profile of working women Percent distribution of women in civilian labor force, aged 25 to 64 years, by educational attainment, 1970 and 2010

Less than a high school diploma

in grad school,” she says of her years at the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1970s. “It was terrible.” She and the young man were fellow graduate students, in their 20s, and the answer to his question — why was she there instead of being married? — was that, like him, she wanted to be a mathematician. She wanted to have a career, and like many women of her generation — the first to enter the professional workplace in sizeable numbers — she saw no reason why she couldn’t do that and pursue all the other life experiences that were available to men, including having a family. Roitman is 68 now. She retired this year from Kansas University, after a distinguished career that saw her become a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, an honor bestowed for outstanding contributions to the advancement of mathematics. And she’s also a grandmother. As she looks back on the last

Some college, or associate degree College graduates Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

INSIDE

Storms Business Classified Comics Deaths

Low: 64

Today’s forecast, page 10A

8A 6B-10B 11B 2A

Special to the Journal-World

RECENTLY RETIRED LAWRENCE RESIDENTS, clockwise from top, pictured now and when they entered the workforce, are Dana Hale, vice president of nursing at Lawrence Memorial Hospital; Judy Roitman, a Kansas University professor of mathematics; and Susan Hadl, Please see WORKING, page 7A a sergeant in the Lawrence Police Department.

High school graduates, no college

High: 88

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles

6A, 2B Sports 12B Television 9A 12B

1B-5B 10A, 2B

Body found in park

Vol.156/No.244 22 pages

Police are investigating after a man’s decomposing body was found by a couple driving through Constant Park Sunday afternoon. Page 2A

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