Female faculty and students are having an increasing impact on the nation’s workforce.

Women represent 43.8 percent of ISU students, according to Iowa State’s 2006-2007 Fact Book. Many of these women are making the choice to prepare themselves to enter the working world.

“Because I am a woman entering the labor force, of course I support it, but I think that you can balance a family and a career,” said Meghan Jensen, senior in psychology.

Heidi Hartmann will give the lecture “Women in the Labor Force,” at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

Hartmann is the president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and a research professor at George Washington University.

She founded the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in 1987 and is co-editor of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.

At Iowa State, numerous women have made the decision to enter the workplace, including Alison Morris, assistant professor of psychology.

“There was never a question whether or not I wanted to [enter the workforce], because it’s something I have always wanted to do anyway,” Morris said.

As an assistant professor, Morris teaches courses such as Brain and Behavior, the Psychology of Language and Cognitive Neuropsychology, in addition to her research in the area of language and word recognition.

“My job is such that I get to do what I enjoy, and I am very lucky for that,” Morris said.

Morris said although she is not married, it wasn’t a tradeoff for being in the workforce.

“Life just happens to me, I don’t really plan it one way or the other,” Morris said.

As for the proverbial “glass ceiling,” a barrier that some women are said to face when competing with men in the workplace, Morris said she has not experienced discrimination at this point.

“I don’t want to dwell on that, and if I have to work harder [to get a position], I will,” Morris said.

She said equality based on sex is much better now than it was 20 years ago for women in academia.

“Regardless [of sex,] I think it is important that people are in a field that they find interesting and enjoy,” Morris said.

For more information on the lecture, visit the Web site at www.lectures.iastate.edu. All are encouraged to attend the event.