Audition: Women Breaking Barriers and Leading the Way
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Last Friday, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Accenture hosted an event at the Paley Center for Media in New York to honor one of the world’s most recognizable women, Barbara Walters. Pat Mitchell, CEO of the Paley Center, said, “She, in many ways, defines the collective media memory of our most important television experiences.”
She explained that Walters had defined our times, covering the people, places, and events that matter.
The conversation between Mitchell and Walters was broadcast on the web to thousands of Accenture women around the globe, and covered Walters’ memories of her early days on television (for example, being asked to masquerade in a Playboy Bunny costume for the camera – as a journalist!) to ultimately becoming the first female co-anchor of network evening news, producing her own television show, and being the only journalist to have interviewed every president since Nixon.
Inspiringly, Walters said, “Every once in a while you are able to do something that you feel might make a difference.”
Auditioning: Reinventing Opportunity
Mitchell, a trailblazing women in the media herself (the first woman, first producer, and first journalist to be CEO and President of PBS, and winner of numerous awards for her work) was introduced by LaMae Allen de Jongh, Accenture’s Managing Director of U.S. Human Capital.
Allen de Jongh explained that the theme of the talk (as well as International Women’s Day this year) was about reinventing opportunity, to find ways to grow and prosper having come out of the challenging years of the global recession.
She said, “Both Barbara and Pat have brought real meaning to reinventing opportunity by what they have accomplished.”
The topic was also appropriate given the theme of Walters’ new memoir Audition. Mitchell commented, “As women, we are always auditioning.” Walters, who recently underwent open heart surgery, explained, “I have felt that in everything… in my professional life that I have always been auditioning.”
As women take on new, more powerful leadership roles, break new barriers, and smash glass ceilings, there will have to be female firsts – and these trailblazing women, are, in effect, auditioning for whatever new role they take on. Women are now being taken seriously as a force for creating and leading business, but that’s not without the bold help of the “auditioning” women who led the way.
Walters on Balance and Letting Go of Guilt
Walters was remarkably funny throughout the conversation – and it was interesting to see her in the limelight as an interviewee rather than the interviewer. One topic which she kept coming back to was guilt.
She explained that women now have so many options in their professional and personal lives, yet there will always be choices they must make. She said, “There are so many things I’ve done because I should, but not because I wanted to. I’ve tried to give up the ‘I shoulds.’”
She advised young women, “Don’t think you should have children or get married just because you should.” And women in the workforce with children should feel confident enough to ask for flex scheduling or telework schemes, she added.
Walters also said women should give up the guilt around self promotion. Men have no problem claiming the credit, she said. Yet it leaves many women feeling like “pushy cookies.”
“Just know how confident you are and that you can have a different kind of confidence,” she advised.
“There’s so much joy in working a job you love and pain in working in one you don’t love.” But, she continued, “Whatever it is, whatever you decide, I promise you will feel guilty.”
The guilt is hard to escape, she explained, because there will always be a tricky balance between work and family. But that’s no reason not to follow your dreams, advised the Walters, whose own daughter is now 40 years old.
Just remember, she said, “Do not expect balance.”
Editor’s note: All attendees received a signed copy of Barbara Walter’s new memoir Audition.
