REMARKS OF
COMMISSIONER SUSAN NESS
BEFORE THE ANNUAL MEETING OF
AMERICAN WOMEN IN RADIO AND TELEVISION
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
AUGUST 28, 2000

Women in Media: Why so few at the Top?


Thank you, Nancy.  It is a pleasure to be with you once again.  I have enjoyed 
working with AWRT over the past six years.  Your efforts have made a difference 
for countless women as they pursue careers in broadcasting, cable, and the new 
media.
 
Just a few weeks ago, I had the occasion to applaud another event: the awarding 
by President Clinton of the Presidential Medal of Freedom - our country's highest 
civilian honor -- to Mildred Jeffrey.  

How many of you have ever heard of Millie Jeffrey?  Not many.

Millie is an extraordinary 89 year old woman.  A petite woman - under 5 feet tall 
- but a giant in the fight for civil rights and equal rights for women.

Why do I begin by mentioning Millie?  Because her achievement celebrates the 
progress of women over the past three decades.  

And because her lack of name recognition - despite a lifetime of achievement - 
illustrates how far we still have to go to increase the visibility, and the impact, of 
women leaders in our country.   

That lack of name recognition applies to many women who have risen to the top 
of their professions. They are woefully few in number; they rarely are featured as 
keynote speakers at trade association meetings; and they rarely leap to the lips 
of those seeking CEO's to run major companies.

Today's edition of Broadcasting & Cable Magazine says it all: It profiles the top 
25 media conglomerates in the United States. Not one is headed by a woman.  
Not one.  

Of course, Broadcasting & Cable Magazine says it all by saying nothing about 
the absence of women in that cover story.

Why are so few women at the top --- and more importantly, what can each of us 
do to change that?  

AWRT has done a terrific job of providing the tools, contacts and support to help 
entry level and mid-management level women. But we need new strategies to 
break through and expand the playing field for women at the top. 

Statistics

At my request, Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg School at the 
University of Pennsylvania compiled some statistics, and they are troubling 
indeed. Her preliminary research focuses on media and telecommunications - 
industries that hold enormous sway over what we think and do in America.

A sampling of the numbers:  

While women represent 46% of the workforce, 

? Women comprise a mere 5% of top executives of communications 
corporations - that is, positions of Executive Vice President and above. 

? Women hold only 9% of the Board seats of media companies.  

? Women occupy only 16% of the board seats of media trade associations and 
only one in ten of the board seats of telecom trade associations.  Two of the 
three most powerful media trade associations - the NCTA and the 
Newspaper Association of America -- have no women board members at all.

? And women are totally absent from super-panels and plenary keynotes at 
major industry conferences. The NAB featured none.  The NCTA had only 
one - and she moderated one of three super-panels.  No women had major 
speaking roles at the CTIA or CTA, or Supercom 2000, sponsored by USTA 
and TIA.

It's hard to believe that it is three decades after the resurgence of the women's 
movement.

But how about high tech companies? Surely we do better there, since the dot- 
com companies were formed well after the women's movement. Right?  

Wrong!  Women fared no better here.  Our preliminary research shows that of 
Fortune Magazine's top 20 dot-com companies, only 4% of the board members 
are women.  And only 6% of the executives with "clout" (which Catalyst defines 
as those with executive vice president titles and above) were women.

Moreover, studies reinforce our concern that women of color have had an even 
tougher time getting ahead than women as a whole.

That's the bad news.  The good news is that women are finally waking up to 
these realities and are doing something about it. 


Women's Agenda

After six years of serving as a member of the FCC and enduring frustration over 
the absence of top women in all of the industries we oversee, I recently 
convened a group of extraordinary women to come up with a game plan. 

These CEOs, executive headhunters, academics and others all deeply felt the 
need for action.  They identified the root causes for the lack of women at the top, 
and proposed concrete steps to increase those numbers.  

The reasons "why" range from ingrained and sometimes subtle attitudinal 
problems in the workplace, to industry consolidation, to women's lack of self 
confidence or willingness to take risks.  

Cultural attitudes are pervasive.  For example, pollster Celinda Lake, in a survey 
on women in business, politics and power, found that 62% of men felt very 
comfortable with a woman CEO of a clothing company, but only 55% of men felt 
very comfortable with a female CEO of a high tech company. 

Consolidation is a problem.  When AOL and Time Warner announced their 
merger, not one of the twenty key executives in the future leadership lineup is a 
woman.

Why does a lack of women at the top matter?  Because we intuitively know - and 
studies have demonstrated - that when there is a critical mass of women in key 
decision making positions within companies or on boards, good things happen.  It 
attracts other talented women to join. When there is a critical mass of women, 
their voices are heard and not ignored.  

Action Plan

We found that women executives needed a way to talk confidentially with other 
women CEOs -to seek advice or commiserate. If it is lonely at the top, it is even 
more so for female CEO's.    So we'll create a network.

We found that headhunters would be delighted to have lists of women 
executives.    So we'll circulate them.

We found the need for sympathetic CEO's as mentors who are willing to promote 
women as their successors.   So we'll find them and connect them.

And let's make sure everybody knows what other groups are doing.  That's 
another exciting thing.  Like flowers after a desert rainfall, efforts have blossomed 
on many fronts to reverse the paucity of women at the helm.

What are these groups doing?  Creating access to capital, establishing training 
programs, obtaining an Executive Order on government procurement, and 
publishing books and articles. These are but some of the ways that women are 
taking charge to increase the number of women in charge. 

Some examples:

? Springboard 2000 was formed to showcase women entrepreneurs and their 
investment proposals before an audience of venture capitalists. Led by Kay 
Koplovitz, Springboard has held two venture capital fairs, with extraordinary 
success.  The vast majority of featured companies secured venture capital.  
To ensure success, Springboard chose the best from hundreds of proposals 
and offered presentation training to those wishing to hone their skills.

? Broadcast Leadership Training: AWRT's Diane Sutter and her colleagues 
at the NAB Education Foundation established and raised full funding for a 
"CEO college" to train up-and-coming women and minority broadcasters on 
the fine art of running communications properties.  The first class convenes 
this September.  

? The Executive Order on Women Small Business Owners.  On May 22nd, 
President Clinton issued an executive order, encouraging all departments and 
agencies of the federal government to achieve a goal of 5% of procurement 
contracts going to women-owned small businesses. 

? Gail Evans, Executive Vice President of CNN, just published a book entitled: 
Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman.  She observes that women need to 
learn the rules of the game to get to the top, and offers practical tips on how 
to get there.

? Edie Hillier has assembled a group of leading women in radio to publicize the 
lack of women at the top and to provide invaluable networking and training.

? Finally, the FCC recently collected ownership data from broadcast companies 
which, for the first time in decades, includes information on the number of 
female owners.  


What Each of Us Can Do

What can each of us do to increase the number of women at the top?  Plenty.  

? Make sure that women's names are mentioned for top spots - the ricochet 
effect. The more often they are named, the more likely they will be sought.  

? Let your trade associations know that you want to see more women on their 
boards and keynoting their conventions.

? Be supportive of other women both in networking and in purchasing goods 
and services.

? As investors, insist that the companies you invest in have a good record on 
women's employment, especially in top management. Examine their 
corporate cultures to determine how hospitable they are to women.  

? Let the media know how bad the numbers are. 

? And encourage media companies to reflect seriously on the attitudes and 
policies within their organizations that may contribute to that result.  

CONCLUSION

We are in an era of remarkable change.  The digital revolution and new 
competition are compelling companies to reinvent themselves to remain relevant 
in the new economy.  This is a golden opportunity for women to make a 
difference -- and to take their long overdue place in the executive suites.  

But only with the support of each and every one of us - women helping women - 
will we all succeed. 

Thank you.