ANTELOPE VALLEY COLLEGE : Women’s Workplace Issues Cited

Women in today’s workplace should concern themselves with issues such as employee child care, flexible work hours and parental leave, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus told a conference at Antelope Valley College.

“The family of father, the breadwinner; mother, the homemaker; and two-point-however-many-kids is gone,” Picus told about 90 people attending the fourth annual Women’s Conference at the college March 16.

“Women are in the work force in virtually every family these days. Many women who live out here in Lancaster and Palmdale are on crowded freeways for two to four hours a day getting to their jobs; they need help when they have children.”

The all-day conference, titled “Women: Choices and Challenges,” was held in conjunction with Women’s History Month. The conference included workshops on a broad spectrum of topics, including assertiveness, financial planning and fitness and nutrition.

Picus is known for her efforts to “humanize” the workplace, said Debra Tolar, conference co-chairwoman and an instructor at the college.

During her keynote address on “The Family-Friendly Workplace,” Picus said women should “go out, seize the day and dare to be different.”

“Women are recognizing that they can break the barriers,” said Brenda Nash, a part-time instructor at the college and a conference planning committee member. “They can reach their own goals, they can look inside themselves and find what it is they want from life.”