I’m One of the Lucky Few

Jennifer Mirsky Strikes the #IWD2022 Pose on International Women’s Day

I'm one of the lucky few. My gender hasn't been an impediment, it's been an asset.

My first boss in television, Leslie Clark — unsolicited — wrote me a glowing recommendation, telling Bill Moyers that she often took my edit suggestions as her own.

Another, Gail Pellett, demonstrated every day what it means to be a fierce force of nature.

Yet another, Megan Cogswell, became my mentor and lifelong friend. She taught me many valuable lessons, including how to be a powerful woman in charge. She explained that each woman has her unique style of establishing command, whether it be humor or something else.

Following graduate school at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), I worked for years in women's lifestyle, primarily at iVillage.com, the now defunct #1 community site for women. Many of my digital colleagues were women as were the print editors with whom we collaborated. The audience was female too, although my dirty little secret was listing Esquire as a favorite. (Turns out I wasn't alone. I believe the readership was 40% female.)

Was it all sunshine and roses? Of course not.

Occasionally, I'd find myself in meetings saying something brilliant (!) only to have it echoed by a man in the room who was then complimented for his idea.

But I wasn't passed over or deprived of opportunities as my bosses had been. That plum travel assignment to China in the 70s could have been mine.

I never took it for granted that I was one of the lucky few. Nor did I fail to appreciate all that my powerful female role models did to open doors for me and lift me up. I am who I am today because of them.

#BreakTheBias #IWD2022 InternationalWomensDay.com

Photograph cropped from a group photograph by Brett Deutsch of Deutsch Photography.