Women grads leap toward glass ceiling

To get an idea of how women will fare in tomorrow's workplace, look no further than the college classroom.

Some figures from the US census bureau:

*70 percent of the 1.4 million female high school graduates in 1997 went to college, compared with 64 percent of the 1.3 million male high school graduates.

*More than half (50.6 percent) of all bachelor's degree holders in 1998 were female. And among people aged 20 to 29 - future business leaders - women held more than 54 percent of bachelor's degrees.

With more women going to college, they'll gain stronger bargaining power and broader career choices when they enter the work force, predicts John Challenger, CEO of international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Look for women to gain ground in growth fields, he says, such as the typically male-dominated high-tech professions: database administrators, computer-support specialists, and computer engineers.