So that leaves it up to women to combat racism, fight for comparable wages for comparable work and lead the battle for workplace and career equality.

At the fifth "Can We Talk" National Diversity Forum at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, a panel of women convened to explore how race shapes attitudes at work concluded that women can find opportunity in office and workplace cultures that have historically blocked careers because of gender and race.

But it will not be easy.

Unintended and subtle

"Modern racism is a new melody but an old tune," said Valeria Batts, a psychologist and executive director of Visions Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting and training organization.

"You can't touch modern racism, yet we can feel it. Often it is unintended, subtle and unconscious."

Until women receive equal pay for equal work, and until workplaces have no overt and covert racism, they are going to have to gird themselves for a difficult career climb, said Melba J. Vasquez, executive director and counseling psychologist for Vasquez & Associates Mental Health Services, based in Austin, Texas.

"Persistence, persistence, persistence," she told about 200 people attending the first day of the two-day conference.

"Take risks, because if you don't take the risk, you don't develop confidence. People have to pursue their goals."

Group started in '70s

The nonprofit development organization was founded in 1977 in Cincinnati to foster career and development needs of mostly women and minority women.

This year's conference explores human issues that impact women in the workplace.

Valerie Red-Horse, chair of Red-Horse Securities, a Tarzana, Calif.-based securities brokerage/investment bank, pointed out that racism is clearly evident in American society.

Why else, she asked, would our society still have regular incidents of hate crimes?

And if exploring these issues makes people uncomfortable at work, then that's just the way it has to be, she said.

Business and the world of work have never been about popularity.

"You can't be in business to be liked," she said.

Today's lineup

The conference continues today with a 9:15 a.m. panel that includes Nancy Zimpher, president of the University of Cincinnati; Janet Reid, Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce president; Margaret Buchanan, publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer; and Susan Arnold, Procter & Gamble vice chairman for global beauty care.

E-mail jeckberg@enquirer.com