HEARTS AND BRAINS

She likens her new job as going from the “pros to college ball,” the latter “having more heart.”

Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer, whose past “professional” experience includes chief economist for President George Bush’s Council on Competitiveness and executive vice president of Citizens for a Sound Economy, is the new president and chief executive officer of the Independent Women’s Forum, or IWF, a group of ladies – and a man or two – listed on one Washington list as “in” this year, while the National Organization for Women was demoted to “out.”

That’s not surprising, given that the IWF leans to the right. Take this month’s annual “Take Our Daughters to Work Day,” which the IWF considers not so much a self-esteem builder as a school holiday to promote feminist myths. Fairness, whether in education or the workplace, is achievable other ways, says Mrs. Pfotenhauer.

“For years, IWF has been a beacon to women who believe that freedom, responsibility, honor and justice matter, and who don’t believe that our gender requires us to check our brains at the door.”

* John McCaslin, a nationally syndicated columnist, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or e-mail at jmccaslinl@washingtontimes.-com.

GRAPHIC: Photo, Education Secretary Rod Paige is visiting his old junior high school, renamed in his honor.