Snow, sleet, and hail were not enough to stop the excited crowd at this year’s Working Mothers of the Year Awards ceremony, held on Thursday, February 25 at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. The awards were hosted by AWNY & Working Mother magazine, and sponsored by WEtv and Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI). Twenty of the nation’s most inspiring working mothers were honored this year, with their children, husbands, family, co-workers and friends looking on.
AWNY President Mary Morgan kicked off the event with a quote by Volitaire – “I hate women because they always know where things are.” The women being honored, she commented, not always know where things are, but they know where they want to be and how to get them there. These “smart, savvy moms” know how to get the job done. Joan Sheradin LaBarge, VP, Group Publisher for Working Mother magazine and our host for the afternoon, took over from there. Despite the foul weather, Joan got everyone’s spirits up by encouraging the crowd to stand up and cheer while the honorees and their sons & daughters made their way onto the stage.
The program honored three categories of mothers – “Trailblazer Moms,” pioneers of working mothers whose oldest child is 18 years or older, “Established Moms,” strong role models whose oldest child is between 7 and 17 years, and “New To Motherhood Moms,” who, with an oldest child of 6 years or younger, have excelled at finding balance in their lives.
After introducing the moms, the session opened for questions, tips & advice, starting with the Trailblazer Moms. Terry Dukes, Managing Director of Corporate Communications at Euro RSCG New York, kicked off the Q&A session by telling the crowd how being a mom has changed since she began motherhood in the 1970s. Ms. Dukes commented that it’s easier to be a working mom now with services like childcare businesses available. “It’s okay to work at home and it’s okay to do home at work – it’s the only way you can make it happen!” she said. Ms. Dukes also commented that today in the workplace “it’s okay to be from Venus – and the Martians are adjusting pretty well!”
Next up were Sharon Driscoll, VP Demand Generation, Systems & Technology Group at IBM, and Kimberly Kadlec, Worldwide Vice President, Global Marketing Group at Johnson & Johnson. When asked what the scariest & best thing is about being a mom to teenagers, both agreed that it is the same thing – letting them go. “You can have it all as long as you’re willing to share it,” Ms. Kadlec said.
Xiomara Wiley, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Sales at Universal Studios Hollywood, and Laura Hernandez, Executive Director of Diversity Marketing at AT&T, were asked what has helped them most in the past 20 years to succeed as working mothers. Both agreed that their supportive husband have been invaluable – and that technological advances, like cell phones, haven’t hurt either!
Moving on to the Established Moms, Janet Cerrato, Executive Vice President & Director of Local Broadcast for Zenith Media, and Angie Seger, Senior Marketing Manager for Whirlpool Corporation, were asked for their most valuable tip as working moms. Ms. Cerrato’s advice was to able to adapt to change and keep on your toes, while Ms. Seger encouraged the moms in the audience not to forget to make time for the things that they love to do. Darielle Ruderman, Senior Product Director for ADVAIR at GlaxoSmithKline, told the audience lessons she learned from her children: from her gymnast daughter Lindsay she’s learned that after a fall you have to think about finishing strong or you’ll fall again, from her Star Wars aficionado son Ethan she’s learned that we must all learn to communicate together to “defeat the Dark Side,” and from her basketball pro Rachel she’s learned that as a leader, sometimes it’s good to share the glory to improve the team even if you have a clear shot.
The New To Motherhood Moms had a lot to say about the difficulties and rewards of being a working mother. Carolyn Dubi, Senior Vice President & Director of Print at Initiative, said you have to learn to “wing it and make it work.” Holly Miodek, Contact Activation Supervisor at Starcom USA, and Leslie Tucker, Print Group Director at The Richards Group, warned new moms that they would have to “get over the guilt” – both for leaving their children at daycare and for leaving work early to go home to be with their kids.
Carrie Frolich, Managing Director of Digital Media at Mediaedge:cia, and Kelly Foster, Senior Partner of Print at GroupM, were then asked to give advice to the women in the audience who were thinking about becoming mothers in the future. Ms. Frolich commented that there is no true “perfect time” to become a mom, but when things that were once barriers stop being barriers that’s the time to start. Ms. Foster may have said it best when she said, “It’s a challenge, but it’s the best thing in the world.”
Mary Morgan wrapped up the exciting afternoon by commenting that the audience learned much about being working mothers at the exciting awards ceremony, from veterans to moms who were just starting their journey as mothers in the workplace. The consensus rang true: being a working mother is hard work, but completely worth it.