ITHACA, N.Y. -- Paid maternity leave, pay equity and comparable pay for work of comparable worth -- those and other benefits that aid all working women and their families today -- are such an integral part of the U.S. workplace that we almost take them for granted.

But they might not exist at all were it not for the efforts of Cornell's Alice Hanson Cook, one of the first researchers to study the problems faced by working women. Her pioneering work has influenced generations of scholars and activists -- from unionists to public policy analysts to experts in feminist jurisprudence -- and led them to transform working women's issues into societal priorities. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Cook's birth. A faculty member at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations from the early 1950s on, she died in 1998 after making her mark as one of the top researchers in her field. A conference to honor Cook's legacy will be held on Cornell's campus starting Friday evening, Nov. 21, and running all day Saturday, Nov. 22. The Saturday presentations are free and open to the public. Most of the events are in 105 Ives Hall.

The conference, titled "Women and Unions: Still the Most Difficult Revolution?" takes its themes from Cook's seminal book, The Most Difficult Revolution: Women and Trade Unions (with Val R. Lorwin and Arlene Kaplan Daniels, Cornell University Press, 1992). The book examined how working women's experiences in Britain, Sweden, West Germany and Austria could influence and inform the progress of union women in the United States.

Women now make up nearly half of the world's labor force, noted Francine Moccio, director of the ILR School's Institute for Women and Work. "That shift has led to a growing proportion of women as union members in a range of occupations in developed and developing countries," she said. Moccio called the change a "silent revolution." The conference will look at the experiences of today's union women with the aim of broadening Cook's findings, she said. "Unions have provided women workers with opportunities to improve their working conditions and gain a voice in the workplace," said Ileen DeVault, associate professor of collective bargaining, labor law and labor history at the ILR School. But not enough women have risen to leadership positions within unions, said DeVault, and they often have had problems getting their unions to address their concerns. That contradiction will be one of the issues discussed at the conference, which may lead to more interactions among women trade unionists around the world, she said.

Cook conference participants include more than 50 women and men who are influential scholars, policy-makers and union activists in the public and private sectors, from 13 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Italy, Japan, Korea, Germany, the Philippines, Russia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Organized by Moccio, DeVault and others, the conference is sponsored by the Pierce Memorial Fund at the ILR School and the school's Institute for Women and Work. Supporters and co-sponsors include these Cornell entities: the Provost's Office; the Alice Hanson Cook Professorship of Women and Work; Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies; and the Program on Gender and Global Change, as well as these external groups: the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the New York State Legislature. For more information, contact Rhonda Clouse at 255-6693 or rlc29@cornell.edu or see this Web site: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/aliceCook100th .