My Mom, the "Other VP"

Women still face challenges after decades of struggle

My mother lived a good long life. She left this world two years ago, at age 94. Watching Kamala Harris’ momentum towards becoming the first woman President has me thinking about how my mother be enthusiastically cheering her on, while also relating to a lot of the BS Harris has to endure.

Like for many women, the 2016 election was a crushing blow for my mom. It makes me so sad that she didn’t live long enough to see the first woman President. But she was very wise about the deep roots of sexism in this nation; she used to say, long before Obama came along: We will have a Black President before a woman. Pretty smart right?

Her wisdom came from decades of being in the business world, way ahead of her time. She broke many barriers for women in her field of advertising. In her retirement, she wrote down some of her favorite war stories. I want to share one that seems especially relevant today, given the awful sexist and racist reactions we are seeing in response to Vice President Harris daring to seek the highest office in the land.

She labeled this story: “The New VP”. In her words:

In 1975, The New York Times owned Family Circle Magazine. I was part of their advertising department covering the category known as direct response advertising and had the title of Advertising Manager of that category. I increased the sales over the years and it was a successful department. I had an ad target of 10 million dollars which we exceeded. After 19 years at the magazine, Family Circle finally appointed me the first woman vice president of sales in the magazine industry.

At a business luncheon at the Yale Club, hosted by a quasi-elite trade group, with ten people seated around the table, a woman congratulated me on the event after having read it in the  advertising column in the The New York Times that morning. One man at the table said in a snide voice, "Oh, we know how you got it". Seated next to me was Robyn Smith, president of Publishers' Clearing House and a good friend of mine. Quick as a flash she answered him: "If she did it that way, it wouldn't have taken her 19 years!" That sure shut him up. The crap you had to take even in a positive situation.

Love you and miss you mom. We are making progress, thanks for blazing the trail. You can read her obituary here.