SECRET FOR SUCCESS: Women seem to have...

SECRET FOR SUCCESS: Women seem to have the touch when it comes to start-up companies: 40% of new businesses fail, but only 25% of those headed by women, according to the National Assn. of Women Business Owners. . . . Women tend not to be risk takers, so they have all their ducks in a row before they hang out a shingle, says Judee Slack, president of the Orange County chapter. And women know how to keep overhead low. “Men are more likely to hire a secretary and a janitor because they’re not used to that kind of work. But women type their own letters and empty their own trash cans.”

CATCH-22: Judy Rosener, a UCI business professor and ubiquitous commentator on women’s issues, makes an appearance in Lear’s magazine this month discussing what she calls “the Hillary syndrome”. . . . “If you act leaderlike, you’re seen as male and threatening,” she says. “If you act feminine, you’re not seen as leaderlike.” Rosener says that, in Orange County, “A lot of women are saying, ‘I’m not going to put up with this,’ and they’re starting their own businesses.”

FRONT LINES: Of the 600 full-time firefighters with the Orange County Fire Department, just 26 are women. Among them: Peggy McClure, a Laguna Beach native who helped put out the flames last month in her hometown. . . . “It was a very emotional experience,” says McClure, 28. “I’d see the house of someone I know and think, ‘I wonder if they’re OK.’ ” McClure’s dad, Joe McClure, is the battalion chief for the Laguna Beach Fire Department. While battling the fire, “he drove by and honked, and we waved at each other.”

HOME, NOT ALONE: Although the number of women in the work force has steadily increased over the past two decades, one-third of the women in Orange County still don’t work, compared to only one-sixth of the men. . . . “Unless you have a very skilled job, child care can cost more than you take home,” notes Eleanor Jordan of the state Employment Development Department in Santa Ana. Women here average $27,000 annually--day care runs about $6,000 per year per child.