ITHACA, N.Y. -- Has America's obsession with sex taken the place of the cold war? Are the current debate and media coverage of sexual politics in the workplace and on Capitol Hill a diversion or a progression for working women and men?

The Ford Foundation and the Institute for Women and Work in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University are sponsoring a symposium to address that topic on Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Carnegie Endowment Center for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C.

The news media are invited to attend the symposium, which will feature these participants:

• Betty Friedan, distinguished visiting professor at Cornell and director of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations' New Paradigm Program, designed to help create new public policy and workplace initiatives to address the needs of people at work.
• Susan Bianchi-Sand, executive director, National Committee on Pay Equity.
• Karen Nussbaum, director, AFL-CIO's Working Women's Department.
• Marcia Gillespie, editor in chief, Ms. magazine.
• Eleanor Clift, contributing editor, Newsweek.
• Steven Slon, editor in chief, Success magazine.
• Francine Moccio, director, Cornell Institute for Women and Work, moderator.

Future symposia to be offered by the Ford Foundation and Cornell Institute for Women and Work will focus on topics such as new roles for men in work and family life, outsourcing, flextime and the income gap. The goal of the series is to begin a dialogue to shift conventional thinking beyond gender politics and to address the needs of people at work, in their homes, family and society.

For more information, contact Julie Crotty at the Cornell Institute for Women and Work at (212) 340-2882 or jmc32@cornell.edu.