Read Online What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power by Marianne Schnall - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marianne Schnall
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upwanting to know how women like my grandmother and so many others survived, and what I learned was, they were blessed with determination. They were blessed with courage. They were blessed with resiliency and perseverance. They’re the ones who blessed me to have the seat at the table that I have today.
MS : Why is there such inequality of representation and diversity in the media, and why is this important? How do those low numbers and lack of diversity affect both the political debate and consciousness?
DB : Well, as I tell my students at Georgetown, “Visibility is viability.” If you’re not visible in society and you’re not out there, people don’t know you exist. Think about where we are today—you’ve got Dianne Feinstein now heading up Intelligence, Barbara Mikulski on Appropriations, Patty Murray on the Budget Committee, Mary Landrieu on the Small Business Committee, and there are probably more that I’m not remembering right now. But I’ll tell you this: when you look at the fact that all these women are in all these key, remarkable positions, and yet you turn on TV and you see John McCain and Lindsey Graham, you want to scream. . . . Why are there no women? Because often we don’t push ourselves to go out there. I’m serious. It’s not only because we’ve got young men who don’t know how to reach women; we also have a culture where women still don’t self-promote. You know what I do once or twice a month, because I have this attitude like, who cares? I just call CNN: “What Sunday do you need me?” I do! I will pick up the phone and say, “Which Sunday do you need me? Because I’m in D.C. all week.” And I don’t just call one person—I call four or five. And I harass them sometimes, if I’m in the mood. I go out there every week, because it’s important to go out there. I have to tell you the truth: it’s not easy to do that . . . but it’s worth it because I can get out there. I can talk about gay marriage. I can talk about immigration. I couldtalk about guns. I could talk about the budget. I could talk about 2016, and those are my topics. And if they need me for the foreign policy stuff on Syria, Cypress, and all the other topics, I would have been ready for that, too. When I push, I push. You’ve got to self-promote, and I know that’s hard for some women and some of them simply don’t like to do it, but think about John McCain and Lindsey Graham—they will self-promote in a nanosecond. Joe Biden used to self-promote. Dick Durbin self-promotes. Chuck Schumer self-promotes. It’s all self-promotion. That’s all it is.
MS : I have also seen studies saying that sometimes the reason why women aren’t self-promoting is that they don’t think they’re qualified enough. This self-doubt is so subliminal—again, probably programmed into us as girls to make us doubt what we know—that it may be holding us back. I think there was some statistic that only 3 percent of women are in the top clout positions in the media. Isn’t it also the responsibility on the part of the media to make sure that they’re reaching out to women, too?
DB : There’s no question that it’s a two-way street. I think we have to do self-promotion, but we’ve also got to find those who are in charge of the media and stress upon them the fact that there needs to be more diversity in the newsroom. As I’ve said, I’ve been involved with CNN now for over eleven years; I’ve been with ABC for about seven years. I can tell you that based on my relationship with those producers, I go to [them], and I say, “Okay, I’m not available, so have you talked to Maria Cordona? Have you found out what Hillary Rosen thinks?” The other problem is we have some women who don’t do that, who don’t recommend other women. When I was up for a renewal, I didn’t just speak up for myself. Of course I did, but I also asked, “Well, what about Maria, what about Anna, and what about Hillary?” Just because I’m
MS : Why is there such inequality of representation and diversity in the media, and why is this important? How do those low numbers and lack of diversity affect both the political debate and consciousness?
DB : Well, as I tell my students at Georgetown, “Visibility is viability.” If you’re not visible in society and you’re not out there, people don’t know you exist. Think about where we are today—you’ve got Dianne Feinstein now heading up Intelligence, Barbara Mikulski on Appropriations, Patty Murray on the Budget Committee, Mary Landrieu on the Small Business Committee, and there are probably more that I’m not remembering right now. But I’ll tell you this: when you look at the fact that all these women are in all these key, remarkable positions, and yet you turn on TV and you see John McCain and Lindsey Graham, you want to scream. . . . Why are there no women? Because often we don’t push ourselves to go out there. I’m serious. It’s not only because we’ve got young men who don’t know how to reach women; we also have a culture where women still don’t self-promote. You know what I do once or twice a month, because I have this attitude like, who cares? I just call CNN: “What Sunday do you need me?” I do! I will pick up the phone and say, “Which Sunday do you need me? Because I’m in D.C. all week.” And I don’t just call one person—I call four or five. And I harass them sometimes, if I’m in the mood. I go out there every week, because it’s important to go out there. I have to tell you the truth: it’s not easy to do that . . . but it’s worth it because I can get out there. I can talk about gay marriage. I can talk about immigration. I couldtalk about guns. I could talk about the budget. I could talk about 2016, and those are my topics. And if they need me for the foreign policy stuff on Syria, Cypress, and all the other topics, I would have been ready for that, too. When I push, I push. You’ve got to self-promote, and I know that’s hard for some women and some of them simply don’t like to do it, but think about John McCain and Lindsey Graham—they will self-promote in a nanosecond. Joe Biden used to self-promote. Dick Durbin self-promotes. Chuck Schumer self-promotes. It’s all self-promotion. That’s all it is.
MS : I have also seen studies saying that sometimes the reason why women aren’t self-promoting is that they don’t think they’re qualified enough. This self-doubt is so subliminal—again, probably programmed into us as girls to make us doubt what we know—that it may be holding us back. I think there was some statistic that only 3 percent of women are in the top clout positions in the media. Isn’t it also the responsibility on the part of the media to make sure that they’re reaching out to women, too?
DB : There’s no question that it’s a two-way street. I think we have to do self-promotion, but we’ve also got to find those who are in charge of the media and stress upon them the fact that there needs to be more diversity in the newsroom. As I’ve said, I’ve been involved with CNN now for over eleven years; I’ve been with ABC for about seven years. I can tell you that based on my relationship with those producers, I go to [them], and I say, “Okay, I’m not available, so have you talked to Maria Cordona? Have you found out what Hillary Rosen thinks?” The other problem is we have some women who don’t do that, who don’t recommend other women. When I was up for a renewal, I didn’t just speak up for myself. Of course I did, but I also asked, “Well, what about Maria, what about Anna, and what about Hillary?” Just because I’m
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