Women Sustaining the American Spirit

Women's History Month Program
Remarks of Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy
Washington, DC -- March 8, 2002
As prepared for delivery.


I want to begin today by telling you a story. It's about a woman named 
Jennie Quinn. Jennie never had an easy life. Her father was an alcoholic, 
who abandoned his family when Jennie was a young child. Her mother 
worked long hours to support Jennie and her brother.

But from these humble beginnings, Jennie made something of herself. 
Jennie went to high school on a scholarship, and afterwards went to 
work at the YWCA, where she worked full-time until retirement. She 
saved enough money so that she could buy a house for her and her 
mother, who lived with Jennie until the day she died.

Jennie also had a family of her own. She and her husband had one son, a 
boy named Michael. They made sure that Michael had all the benefits 
and advantages they never had growing up. 

This is an ordinary success story. It's not one exciting enough for a 
movie, or for a book. But yet the life of Jennie had the power to shape 
the lives of others.including my own. Jennie Quinn - my grandmother 
- taught me that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. 

My grandmother was a role model for me. She put family first and 
adored her son, my father. When she had a stroke in her 60s, she learned 
to walk and talk again. She was very special, and I'm lucky she was a 
part of my life.

My story is not unique. Mentors can come from a range of places - your 
home, your workplace, a church or community organization. Moreover, 
the power of a positive mentoring experience is proven. Comparisons 
between non-mentored and mentored individuals generally yield 
consistent results: individuals with mentors report greater career 
satisfaction, career commitment, career mobility, and more positive job 
attitudes than individuals without mentors.

The results of mentor/mentee pairs can be extraordinary. Some of the 
most famous examples are Socrates and Plato, Haydn and Beethoven, 
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. 
Indeed, the roots of mentoring come out of story of mythic proportions. 
Legend suggests that when Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, went off to 
fight in the Trojan War, he left behind his trusted friend and adviser, a 
man by the name of Mentor, to educate and look after his son.

But mentoring need not have extraordinary participants in order to have 
extraordinary results. That is what I want to talk about today. 
Specifically, I want to share with you stories of how ordinary women, by 
serving as mentors, have changed the lives of women in 
communications, many of whom you may know. I will talk about 
mentors specifically in three roles: the teacher, the advocate, and the role 
model. 


1. The Teacher

The teacher is one of the highest forms of mentorship. You need not 
work in a school to be one. No, I am talking about the woman who took 
time out to give advice, direction, and when needed, suggestions for 
improvement. These women perpetuate positive action. The tricks of the 
master are passed on to the next generation.

Monica Desai, one of the lawyers here, says she credits much of her 
success to a mentor she had as a summer associate in a large law firm. 
At first she was intimidated by the experience. Monica would knock 
meekly at the door of a partner, and timidly present her report to him. 
Thankfully, that all changed with the good advice of her mentor, a senior 
associate assigned to look after her that summer. Her mentor told 
Monica that she should knock on the door with authority. If she knew 
she was doing good work, she should be confident in her presentation 
and her recommendations. Now, years later, Monica says she still relies 
on advice. She says it changed how she thought about herself - both 
what her contribution is and what it can be in the future.

These types of success stories, of teachers, are not limited to those 
created by formal work programs. Another example of a teacher/mentee 
relationship is found in one of my legal interns, Kristy, and her 
grandmother. In 1959, when professional positions for women were rare, 
Kristy's grandmother became the first woman to serve as a probate 
judge in Alabama. 

Her grandmother encouraged Kristy to seek out a voice in their 
community at an early age. In kindergarten, Kristy's grandmother 
allowed her to assist in a campaign for a man running for state senate, 
and her grandmother insisted that Kristy speak up and introduce herself 
to people, instead of shying away as they handed out leaflets. The 
candidate they were supporting eventually became a U.S. Senator who 
still seeks the advice of Kristy's grandmother.


2. The Advocate

An additional role a woman mentor can play is advocate. An advocate is 
the woman who opens doors for the protg that might otherwise have 
been closed, an act that may give the mentee the opportunity to prove 
herself in ways never before possible.

Susanna Zwerling, one of the legal advisors here, shared a story about 
just that with me. When she was moving to D.C., one of her friends 
suggested she call Karen Kornbluh, who worked for Senator Kerry. "Is 
she from the West Side or go to Girl Scout camp?" Susanna asked as she 
recalled an old, old friend. That question was soon answered. Not too 
longer after Susanna's arrival in D.C., a woman approached her at a 
party and said, "How do I know you? I'm Karen Kornbluh." They had 
be girl scouts together in New York in the `70s. 

Three years later, when Susanna was looking to leave the Justice 
Department, someone asked her if she knew Karen. Karen had become 
the head of Legislative Affairs at the FCC and was looking to hire 
someone. Susanna called Karen, and while she did not go to work for 
her in the Legislative Affairs office, Karen helped Susanna get a job in 
the Mass Media Bureau. Six months later, Karen became the Deputy 
Chief of the Mass Media Bureau, and Susanna began working for her. 
Susanna said she learned much from those years - Karen brought her 
into countless projects at the Bureau.

A different advocate story comes from Anna Gomez, deputy bureau 
chief of the International Bureau. She used to work at a firm in town, 
where she ran a mentoring program for first year associates. Ironically, 
that's part of the way she got to know her own mentor Kathy Wallman. 
Kathy was impressed by a Hispanic Bar panel Anna helped pull 
together.

And, when the Cable Bureau was still new, Kathy came to the FCC to be 
its Deputy Chief. They had received a lot of hiring authority, and were 
particularly interested in recruiting Hispanic applicants. Kathy thought 
of Anna, and asked her to help get people to apply. While Kathy was at 
it, she also offered Anna a job. That's how Anna came to the FCC. 
When Kathy became Bureau Chief, she asked Anna to become her legal 
counsel. Anna went with her. And when Kathy went to the White House, 
she asked Anna to come be her Deputy Chief of Staff at the National 
Economic Council. And, of course, she went!



3. The Role Model

Finally, I want to talk about the role model. In this capacity, a mentor is 
great in not only what she says, but in what she does. The mentor 
instructs by example.

Kathy Zachem, a partner in a communications law firm, shared with me 
a story of such a role model: her grandmother. Her grandmother had 
eight children to raise. But when World War II hit, she, like other 
women, had to go to work; she took a job at a steel mill. Times were 
tough, but Kathy's grandmother made it work. After that experience - 
raising eight children and working at a steel mill - the grandmother told 
my friend, her granddaughter, that she learned she, or any other woman, 
could do anything.

A similar lesson was taught to Stacy Robinson, my mass media legal 
advisor. Stacy says that as long as she could remember, both of her 
grandmothers were working. In fact, her mother's mother owned her 
own business - a seamstress shop, where she had a number of women 
working for her. It was by seeing these examples that Stacy assumed it 
was normal for all women to be strong individuals and pursue their own 
goals and dreams. Stacy never thought the world would treat her 
differently as a woman, because she had never experienced or saw any 
such differential treatment with respect to women in her own family. If 
only all women could be so fortunate!


So to conclude, I want to encourage all of you to celebrate the lives of 
the women before us by becoming a mentor, or a mentee. You can have 
a profound influence on another woman's life just by taking a little time 
out of your day.

It's amazing how much you can gain by being a mentor. There are the 
rewards of personal and professional recognition. And beyond that, 
mentoring provides opportunities for personal growth for the both the 
mentor and mentee. It encourages the mentor to think creatively, analyze 
best practices, and continue learning. Everyone, no matter what their age 
or status, has something to teach you.

For those of you thinking about getting a mentor, don't wait for someone 
to come to you. I suggest you research potential mentors, and then ask to 
talk with them on some specific points for a set period of time. You want 
to encourage your mentor to take you under his or her wing. Also, there 
are mentoring programs you can join, like the Federal Communication 
Bar Association's mentoring program for young attorneys and lawyers. 
All you have to do is sign up.

The FCC in particular is a great place for women to learn from one 
another. In employing women, the Commission is a role model for other 
parts of the U.S. government, and indeed many businesses as well. Fifty-
two percent of FCC employees are female, compared to 45 percent 
government-wide. Thirty-eight percent of FCC supervisors are female - 
that's six percentage points higher than the number of female 
supervisors government-wide and well above the industry average.

The benefits from mentoring can extend from individuals participating 
to our organization as a whole. Because mentees typically are better 
informed and more satisfied with their careers, our organization can reap 
the benefits of better-trained staff and greater productivity. The passing 
down of insider knowledge from one person to the next creates a solid 
organizational legacy.

Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of 
thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the 
only thing that ever has." I encourage you to be a part of a group of 
women committed to mentorship. Let's make changes - and act in a way 
that would make our grandmothers proud.
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