It was another promise of the new economy: We'd finally move from the old rules of the old boys' network to a workplace based on merit. Just how well has that promise been kept? Find out what two successful women have to say. Edited

PHYLLIS MAGRAB
Professor of Pediatrics and Director
Child Development Center
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Washington, D.C.

I didn't enter Georgetown thinking that I would be anything but successful. I wasn't aiming for tenure. I was focused on the work and the mission: finding imaginative ways to support chronically ill children and their families. I focused on linking with the physicians who were here to achieve that goal. My training and experience have taught me that if you enter a group with the belief that you have something positive to contribute, then you have a better chance of succeeding.

When I think about the past five years in this country, I find it rather remarkable that the New Economy could have been so robust, yet so many women have been left behind. So although my colleagues accept me as an equal, leveling the playing field for mothers and their children in our society hasn't happened. We have not yet solved the problem of the poor - poor women or poor children. A large percentage of women still don't get prenatal care. Insufficient health insurance disproportionately affects women. The New Economy has not really lifted the bottom. In fact, the gap is greater than ever. I don't think it's a political issue. It's an issue of will and personal commitment on the part of both women and men.

SUSAN ARNOLD
President, Global Personal Beauty Care
Procter & Gamble Co.
Cincinnati, Ohio