few jobs at the lowest end of the wage scale in jobs that have been mentioned, traditional women's jobs-sales clerk, service worker, or factory plantworker. Interrupted work experience and the low level nature of the jobs may result in no, or at best minimal, pension and retirement benefits.

If the widow is not working-and others have touched on this-she finds herself ineligible for the assistance of unemployment compensation since homemaking has never been quantified as employment. Should she seek work, she will face still existing sex discrimination, wage disparity, and a pitiful paucity of resources to guide, counsel, and direct her toward any employment at all. She does not know how to translate her years of experience as manager, child raising expert, and charity volunteer into job qualifications-all too frequently she does not even understand her legitimate claim to benefits, however small they may be. Twenty-five percent of our Nation's widows never receive all of their husband's benefits.

The widow confronts this bleak reality at the very time her strength is at its lowest ebb. She has been given the dread task of grief, and make no mistake about it, the path through the stages of the grief process is work-emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausting and dehabilitating work. Unemployed or underemployed, unskilled or possessing long outdated skills and job experience, it is little wonder that may widows join the ranks of the welfare rolls.

It is true that many of us are more fortunate-either because of the earning capacity of our husbands, and their ability to provide help for our futures or because of our own developed skills. Our experience, nonetheless, still seems overwhelming. For those without our assets it must appear impossible. For the woman left without resources, the only sure path out of the morass depends on education and training, two ingredients that study after study has shown make the difference between a viable and productive life and despair. Those of us fortunate enough to have had these dual advantages can testify to the truth of such findings.

Backed by a solid education, and greatly aided by the counseling, testing, and direction given in George Washington University's Widening Horizons for Women course, I moved slowly back into the world of work when our youngster reached second grade. Serendipityin the form of an association with two fellow children's carpoolers who began a small business-led me to the WorkPlace-an enterprise which offers workspace and services to freelance professionals in the social sciences and humanities. A year of on-the-job training, made possible by the financial and moral support of my husband and the freedom of flex-time hours, provided invaluable experience in management, editorial, administrative, and, yes, clerical skills. Contacts formed at work, and the support of my colleagues led, in turn, to freelance research. Last year, the WorkPlace's president, Jean Levin, and I wrote a book for the American Bar Association; this year we serve as research associates to the National Academy of Public Administration for the academy's major study of the approval system for veterans' education and training benefits. If I have at least neared the threshold of economic independence for myself and our child should we need it, it is due to the twin supports of education and training. I was blessed to be able to afford both; many of my fellow widows are not.

This Government can well afford to implement the proposals offered by the study presented today to provide similar opportunities to others, whether through grants, scholarships, counseling or tax credits. In fact, it may well be that our Government cannot afford not to do so.

Investments in education have always reaped rich rewards for our Nation. Over 17 million veterans received education and training benefits under the GI bill through 1977. Expenditures for 1976 alone reached $5.2 billion. It is conservatively estimated that each dollar expended for veteran training returned from $3 to $6 to the U.S. Treasury in the form of taxes paid on increased earnings directly related to that training and education. A similar readjustment benefit bill for widows and displaced homemakers would be far more modest in scope and cost, but likely to provide an equivalent return.

Even if the returns were not so large, given the age disparity between the veteran trainee and the midlife woman, can we afford not to make the investment? This committee's study shows quite dramatically that the woman who does not receive training permitting her to reach economic independence in this midlife period will become a drain on our resources in other ways: Aid to dependent children, welfare payments, institutional care and medical costs. At the very least, support for a life which has become meaningless, support for life which offers no avenues of hope, has always been expensive. Assistance not given now will surely result in more costly aid lateraid which is too often demeaning rather than encouraging—aid which will leave a trail of stark financial statistics as graphic witness to an unconscionable waste of human potential.

The needs are immediate: The proposals presented to this committee modest. We have reached out with compassion and healthy self-interest to other segments of our population in the past. It is now time to offer the tools of self-help to today's midlife women who need, deserve and hunger for it—and most importantly, will enrich their own lives and the fabric of our society because of it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. BURTON. Susan DeConcini.

STATEMENT OF SUSAN HURLEY DeCONCINI

Mrs. DECONCINI. I want to compliment this committee for your willingness to devote your valuable time to the subject of midlife women and national policy proposals that affect them. It is truly a milestone to be a part of this hearing which is the first that Congress has ever held on the important subject of midlife women's problems. Just the recognition that midlife exists for women is noteworthy, for, in this age of a reverence for youth, it often appears that women are either young or old and there is nothing in between. Reality indicates otherwise, of course, and it is my hope that we Americans will be cognizant of the fact that each age has its contribution to make to a better society and each age segment has special talents to offer as citizens of this great country. Diversity of background and talent has always been America's greatest strength and it is truly heart warming to me to see an awareness of this fact in terms of age. Our country needs the participation of everyone to make it ideal; the midlife woman is certainly a person that has a great deal to offer in terms of creative talent, experience, and education.

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An area of special experience, to me, has been in volunteerism, and I consider this skill that I acquired as a part of my resume. Research bears out my personal experience; namely, that often women have more opportunities to learn and perform management tasks in the volunteer sector than they do in the public sector. In my personal volunteer career, for instance, I have had the opportunity to be a part of many groups and projects, and I acted as an administrator, policymaker, advocate, lobbyist, fundraiser, public communicator, negotiator, adviser, educator, researcher, catalyst, and skills-service volunteer in the social welfare, education, and political fields. These significant roles should be transferable to the work world, I believe, and recognized on a par with experiences gained while receiving a salary.

Most of my volunteer training has, by choice, been in the field of education, health, and welfare. At age 40, after 18 years of marriage, 18 years after graduating with an undergraduate degree in economics, 17 years of mothering three children, I felt that my career development would be enhanced by obtaining a professional graduate degree. Now after 2 years of attending Catholic University of America, I can testify that my life experiences as a woman, wife, mother, and community volunteer have truly enhanced my abilities as a student and practitioner in the field of social work. While working in a mental health clinic for my field training this year, my practice wisdom derived from my life experiences in community services and my very real personal experiences as a woman in midlife. In simple terms, I discovered a wonderful and delightful fact, that being 42 years of age was my greatest asset.

In terms of recommendations to you, I make them in a general framework. Attitudes are crucial and precede behavior, and with this in mind, I would encourage each of you to create a climate in Government that shows respect for women in midlife and their potential for offering a contribution to the world. Many midlife women are without the bootstraps of life. They need your vote and they need you to care about their future.

Thank you for your attention.

Mr. BURTON. To comment on the testimony which we have just heard, we welcome an expert who has already ably contributed to the subcommittee's compendium on midlife women. Dr. Nancy Schlossberg coauthored an excellent paper on Counseling: Shifting the Balance from Problem to Possibility; it contained valuable data based on original research she performed in the subcommittee's behalf-a survey of women's centers. Dr. Schlossberg.

STATEMENT OF NANCY K. SCHLOSSBERG, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, COORDINATOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF COUNSELING ADULTS, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK, MD.

Dr. SCHLOSSBERG. Thank you.

I am struck today by the stories we have heard from women of great ability. At every meeting I attend, women, both advantaged or disadvantaged, talk to me about the problems they are experiencing. One reports: "My family is supportive of my going to work. We need the income, but dinner has to be on the table at 6." Or another says "after hearing you speak I was encouraged to go back to school.

Yet, I find that upon returning to the classroom, I am looked down upon and treated badly." Or I've heard of stories of women who entered the workplace and were kept at a lower level than they deserved.

I think we are hearing the cries and the concerns, the fears_and the inadequacies that underneath men and women all share. I see that these problems can be classified in two ways: 1. Women and men face internal barriers as they approach midlife in terms of work and education, and 2. They also face institutional barriers in the workplace and in the educational setting. We need to rectify both. By internal barriers, I mean baggage we all carry around. The baggage that says: I am too old to do this, or I am too pressured to do this, or I am too incompetent to do this, or I will be found out as a fraud if I attempt this. We need to help women deal with their own age bias about themselves. But I am also struck with the institutional barriers that exist which tend to keep women at lower levels and "in their place," such as the lack of opportunity for part-time financial aid, the poor sequencing of courses, the lack of support in the workplace and in institutions. These women face a double set of problems, the internal problems and barriers, and external problems and barriers. With those sets of barriers in mind, I make two recommendations. Of course, I could make many more.

I would like to see a National Commission on Adults be established which would focus on institutional barriers in the workplace and in educational institutions. Through this Commission, every procedure would be studied to see the degree to which the rules and regulations adults face. I look at the university because that is where I work; the administrators are not out to get women, but they have never been altered to the impact of procedures that have existed for years.

This National Commission could encourage women to come forth and have their problems heard throughout the Nation. Testimonies of how instructors put them down or how their bosses put them down are needed to sensitize the Nation to its "agism." We need to make age bias a central issue of our time. We need to do studies and we need to make this visible. We are all potential victims of this bias.

The second recommendation would be the establishment of Regional guidance centers throughout the country so that the ordinary woman and the extraordinary woman-which we all are-have a place to go and a place to explore what she wants to do with her life. I agree with our former speaker, counseling is not the answer. Advocacy, counseling, support, networking, and linkage, are the components necessary in the proposed centers.

To summarize; one recommendation which forms a national commission to look at institutional barriers and, two, regional guidance centers, whose women can explore their interests and capabilities. We can shift the balance from problem to possibility. We must shift the balance from problem to possibility.

Thank you.

[See appendix 2, p. 165 for Dr. Schlossberg's prepared statement.] Mr. BURTON. I would like to introduce my colleagues on the committee: Mary Rose Oakar from Ohio, Geraldine Ferraro from New York, and Shirley Chisholm from New York.

I have a question Jo and also for you, Dr. Schlossberg. You said counseling is not the answer. This is a fairly elite group testifying before us right now. For others, isn't counseling a very important thing?

Dr. SCHLOSSBERG. I am glad you asked. I am a professor and a counselor educator. I train counselors of adults and I believe in counseling. After all, that's how I live. But I define counseling as containing advocacy, as well as support. In other words, if you think of counseling just as, "I'm going to sit down with you and explore your inner-dreams," and that is just one aspect of the way I define counseling. So counseling is not enough. Yes, it is important to dare to dream and counselors can help you do that. We work with men at NASA Space Flight Center. We run a career counseling center right there. But we are concerned with much more than the individual one-to-one. We are involved with skill training, with advovacy, with changing the system. It is the way I define counseling. I don't agree that counseling is not necessary. I think the traditional view is not what adults need.

Mr. BURTON. But isn't counseling a necessary first step for a woman who is disadvantaged or somewhat disadvantaged. She has got to go somewhere to help bring it out. Without some kind of counseling, she might not be able to find herself or obtain the assistance she needs. Dr. SCHLOSSBERG. Well, I would say you need two things. You need opportunities and you need support in counseling, and I see them as twin. I see them as very integrated. To counsel you to want to be an astronaut, if there are no options, is ridiculous. So, we have got to change the system, as well as help people dare to dream. MS. OBERSTAR. I have said, Dr. Schlossberg, essentially the same thing in my written testimony. With all the educational opportunities I have had, I felt a need to attend George Washington University's New Horizons program, which helped me assess my skills and tested my aptitudes and achievements at midlife. And I found the reinforcement of my confidence and skills very helpful. I think it is important for women like me, but even more important for disadvantaged women, to have counseling. However, if industries provide counseling and national centers provide counseling, and there aren't any jobs out there, counseling becomes a useless exercise. And I feel that what we need is to have on-the-job training for existing positions.

Mr. BURTON. Like welfare recipients-they keep giving them training, but there is never a job at the end of the training.

Charlotte, you said that you spent 2 years deciding whether or not to enroll in the continuing education for women program at George Washington University. What finally made you take that step? I don't know what caused the delay, but I would like to know what made you finally say, "I'm going to do it?"

Ms. CONABLE. I think you reach a point where you feel there are no options, and somehow you have to take control of your life. And I don't think I'm a bit different from a lot of other women. I have spoken about this expereience many times, and the other women were very much like me in that it was the first step to put your hand on the telephone and call up George Washington University and say, "Can I come to your program?" Having the belief that you were worth doing something about, but it can be very frightening when you think you don't.

Mr. BURTON. Janet, you mentioned a readjustment benefits bill for widows and displaced homemakers. Without getting into the