Fran Slotkin remembered as LI business leader
LEADERSHIP
Her name may not sound very familiar to many of those in Long Island's business community today, but to a generation Fran Slotkin was leader of a movement that encouraged women to reach for the top of the corporate ladder, start their own companies and demand equal pay.
Slotkin, 84, died Saturday at Olsen Rest Home in Nesconset.
In 1971, Slotkin was a founder of the Long Island Center for Business and Professional Women, which started with about a dozen people. Current president Lhea Scotto-Laub said the organization now has about 200 members. One of Slotkin's last public events as center president was introducing guest speaker Hillary RodhamClinton at the Crest Hollow in Woodbury, said her son Roger Slotkin.
Some years ago, Slotkin wrote of beginning a business.
"With a feeling of exhilaration, I took a bank loan of one thousand dollars and Lecture Consultants of Long Island was started," she wrote. "I was on my way to becoming an entrepreneur. At times, the refrigerator was empty, meals were not served on time, and somebody had to sleep in an unmade bed. The attitudes of my family and friends toward my role had to be changed, and it did not happen overnight."
But it did happen, said Ellen Cooperperson, also a pioneer in the Island's women's movement who now is president of Corporate Performance Consultants in Hauppauge. Cooperperson worries, however, that 20- and 30-somethings lack a full understanding of history. "It's important they understand history so the same mistakes are not made," Cooperperson said.
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