Why Women's Groups Are Bad News.(President Bush's closing the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach: opinion)(Brief Article)

They may seem to offer a hand up, but they're only holding us back, says political consultant Kim Serafin.

* When President George W. Bush decided earlier this year to shut down the five-year-old White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach, several women's groups became incensed, saying that it showed the President's disregard for females. But it didn't bother me at all. On the contrary, I saw it as a sign of progress and an indication that the President takes women very seriously. For me, the fact that Bush appointed women like Condoleeza Rice and Karen Hughes to influential positions in the White House was more inspiring than anything that the now-defunct office could ever accomplish. You see, I believe that women need to stop thinking of themselves as a special-interest group and should start thinking of themselves as individuals who are capable of limitless success.

When the women's movement first began with the suffragettes in the 19th century, women weren't looking for special treatment--they just wanted equal opportunity. Throughout the 1960s, the objective continued to be to level the playing field to that of our male counterparts. My mother was one of the first women to graduate from her pharmaceutical college and was the first female pharmacist at the drugstore where she worked. Millions of women like her were able to make strides in a world previously dominated by men. It was their struggle that empowered them--the knowledge that they achieved greatness on their own merit, not because they received extra help.

And their efforts paid off: According to a recent survey, 59.8 million women in the United States aged l6 years and older hold jobs and makeup more than 47 percent of our labor force. Of the nearly 65 million jobs that were added between 1964 and 1997, 40 million were filled by women--who have been making huge inroads in such diverse positions as dentists, bus drivers, and industrial engineers. There are women on the United States Supreme Court and in both Houses of Congress. Women have the right to fly combat planes, we have our own professional basketball league, and we outsmart men on Survivor.

And this trend is likely to continue. Since 1986, women have been surpassing men in college enrollment. By the year 2007, it is estimated that there will be ...