Books offer resources for businesswomen

"We've come a long way, baby," might be a trite, Madison Avenue phrase to describe the advances of women's rights in the 20th century, but like all good advertising catchphrases, it rings true. But as social stigmas have been broken, there remains a barrier to advancement in the business world. This so-called "glass ceiling" prevents women and minorities from rising to the top of the corporate ladder.

As Sheila Wellington points out in a Dec. 7, 1998, article in Time, "Cracking the Ceiling: Barriers Frustrated Women This Century," it's still startling to realize that for the first 20 years of the century, women couldn't even vote. Wellington offers some employment statistics from the turn of the century:

"Long before this century and well into it, women without means labored hard inside the home, without vacuum cleaners or even electricity, and for pitifully low wages outside the home. In 1900, most of the 21 percent of white women who were employed found themselves confined mainly to textile and garment factories