Out & About
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They are soccer and softball coaches, hula dancers, Parent Teacher Association presidents, foundation founders, and nonprofit board members. They are also leading executives in the advertising industry, managing campaigns for Nestle, General Motors, Toyota, and IBM.
The Advertising Working Mothers of 2006 were honored yesterday by the professional association Advertising Women of New York and Working Mother magazine.The 20 women on the dais included “young power moms”Michelle Bottomley, Samantha Muchmore, and Karla Swinton; “established moms” Deirdre Bigley, Beth Fidoten, Alison Lord, Candace Matthews, Marjorie Schussel, Donna Speciale, and Linda Yaccarino, and “trailblazers” with children over the age of 18 Shelley Diamond, Fay Ferguson, Helshi Lockwood, Lynne Veil, and Carol McDonald.
The winners hail from firms across the nation, “to make the point that this is not a New York phenomenon,” the president of the association, Carol Evans, who is also the chief executive of Working Mother Media, said.
Balancing career and family “isn’t easy, but it’s a challenge we’ve chosen,” a senior vice president at Foote, Cone & Belding, Ms. Muchmore, said.
“At least our kids know what we do,” the general manager of OgilvyOne Consulting, Ms. Bottomley, said, mentioning in particular her Six Flags account.
The trailblazing Ms. McDonald gave a sense of how far women have come with the story of her first interview. It was the early 1970s and she was a single mother of three children, two still in diapers.
“The interview was an hour and a half. An hour and 10 minutes was about what would happen if the kids got sick … all to make sure I would be at work every day. Ten minutes was on my qualifications. At the end, the interviewer, a woman, asked me if I was on the pill.”
More than 575 guests, including sons and daughters, peers, and bosses, were in attendance, helping to raise $35,000 for the association’s scholarships and mentoring programs.
“To all the kids here: You are the reason your mommies won,” Ms. Evans said. In May, she is publishing a book on working mothers, “This Is How We Do It” (Hudson Street Press).
Advertising Women of New York has 1,200 members. The luncheons are popular because they offer camaraderie and inspiration, members told me yesterday.
The next big to-do, on March 15, honors the president and chief executive of the Advertising Council – the industry spearhead of public service announcements – Peggy Conlon, who will receive the Advertising Woman of the Year award.
