Subject: S7-25-97     
January 2, 1998
     
Arthur levitt
Securities and Exchange Commission
450 5th Street NW
Washington DC  20549
     
     
Dear Mr. Levitt:
     
I wanted to formally submit my displeasure at the passage of S7-25-97 which 
will seriously limit women and other minorities their ability to protest 
unfair treatment.  Other professions do not have this ability to limit 
disputes with employees to arbitration.  Why should women and minorities be 
prevented their day in court  in the brokerage industry.  It is ludicrous. 
There is discrimination in this  field and the firms that condone it and 
support it should be held accountable not given the ability to avoid changing 
by gaging someone who is brave enough to stand up and say this needs to stop 
and you should fix it.  
     
I have had my license for over 5 years.  I've been and out of the brokerage 
industry over 10 years and even helped out in an office when i was in high 
school.  Throughout that time I witnessed several instances of abuse of power 
that easily could have been brought up as sexual harassment or racial 
discrimination.  Did the person affected do anything? In generally no. Usually 
they quit because did not get support to be effective sales people or realized 
they did not need to put up with that behavior to succeed in business and went 
somewhere else that appreciated them.  Sometimes they just were not good brokers
and quit for that reason.  My point in bringing this up is that in general the 
person left and the behavior continued with the next employee because it was 
viewed as intolerable and unprofessional.
     
Now that women are organizing effectively to combat the lack of respect and 
limited access to resources or unequal wages, they are now being forced to 
deal with your plan is to further limit their access.  What you should be 
doing is saying that the foul behavior that has brought these suits to bear on 
the securities industry needs to corrected and irradicated as it has no place 
in this profession.  Show some back bone and back down from supporting the 
boys ploys to keep business as usual.  Evolving as an industry is not a bad 
thing look at how effective other companies that we invest in have 
successfully removed this behavior from the ranks.   This type of message has 
to come from the top and set an example not show the world that the financial 
industry can't keep its pants up and mouth shut so we need arbitration to act 
as a buffer from reality.
     
Act responsibily and drop this rule from passage for the good of the industry.
     
     
Gail Ludwig, CFP
1131 Moorefield Hill CT
Vienna, VA  22180