"Women in high level positions need to make risky decisions every day and have a friendly relationship with failure. They can't be devastated by failure."
Publishing veteran Carol Evans is a role model for working mothers, with two teen children, a 20-year marriage and a career that has brought her to the pinnacle of the publishing world as owner and
CEO of Working Mother Media. "Mothers feel responsible for everyone's happiness," she shared with me at Michael's. Carol is a first-generation modern 'liberated woman,' having worked for Gloria Steinem's Ms. Magazine in the late 1970s before moving on to McCall's and then becoming part of
the launch team of Working Mother magazine in 1979.
"I find women to be pretty fearless," Carol comments. "Women in high level positions need to make risky decisions every day and have a friendly relationship with failure. They can't be devastated by failure. Women
who get to the top tend to be risk-takers. Safe managers tend to stay in mid-management. Men have a greater chance of getting to the top without being risk-takers." There was little in Carol's childhood that
suggested she would become part of the 70s counter-culture or an aggressive and bold business executive. "It was an idyllic childhood. I was very social in high school. I did theater and a lot of volunteer work. I was
not a rebel; I even sewed my own clothes," she laughs.
"But then I started college (at Eastern Illinois) and was doing really well in my classes. But it was too easy and boring so I dropped out and back-packed with a friend who happened to be a boy. I really didn't
think about it but my dad was horrified. We traveled the country from the Grand Canyon to Washington for anti-war protests, and finally to Mexico, New York where her boyfriend became a school teacher
and she enrolled at Empire State Colleges in Rochester. "I had to work as a waitress (a 'bad waitress' she adds) at diners to pay for college. My dad was angry I left home and was living with a man without
getting married. At the time, I didn't believe in marriage, which was a damned good thing. My parents didn't realize what a good idea it was for us not to get married."
Today, she acknowledges, attitudes are very different and eventually she and her dad reconciled when she met and married
Bob Coulombe, who married Carol when she gave him an ultimatum that a continuing relationship included both marriage and children.
Carol Evans at Michael's with Jack Myers
Carol's mom passed away just three weeks before our lunch at Michael's and she advises readers of this column "if you have a living Mom, you should hug her. My mom's death was a profound experience. No
matter what your relationship, you're more connected than you think and you can't prepare for the experience." Carol's mom created a high school vocational program in restaurant management that
launched the careers of several leading Chicago chefs.
Carol has a special connection with her two children and she discreetly stood to show me a new and fashionable pink suit that her daughter had selected for her. "Two years ago, she took over my fashion choices
and my clothes have gotten a lot better. I've started wearing tighter, brighter clothes and higher heels. She has changed my life. She
spends my annual clothing budget by February," she laughs.
Carol notes the changing role of women in society and points out Working Mother's editorial has shifted to reflect the changing attitudes and needs of "Gen X" women. "Gen X moms have a greater desire
for flexibility compared to Baby Boom women. You can't assume they are working full time. Gen X moms don't feel they have to be trailblazers; they want to scale back after they have babies. The line between
working and non-working mothers is blurring, she adds.
But, she suggests, mothers are still not being prepared for having a baby. They aren't prepared for how deeply it changes everything in their life. Mothers fall so deeply in love with their babies that husbands
sometimes begin to look like a burden. She doesn't have the bandwidth to deal with him and his issues. It takes a while for new moms to wake up
and understand husbands are there for other reasons."
Work layers on an additional level of complexity and Carol is writing a book, due out on Mother's Day 2006, about the positive aspects of being a working mom and designed to help new moms through these
transitions. (For those who know she's been writing a journal for most of her life, she jokes that book will not be written until after she retires.)
After graduating college and still living in upstate New York, Carol formed her own book publishing company, selling 35,000 copies of her first book - a collection of short stories. After several subsequent books
sold only 5,000 copies each and her five-year relationship ended, she moved back to Chicago where she began working as a magazine ad sales representative in an attempt to fund her publishing venture, eventually leaving book publishing behind and moving to New York with Working Mother,
where she rose to publisher before leaving to become president of Stagebill (where she stayed for seven years). She then joined Chief Executive Magazine as publisher.
"Every year for six years, I was meeting with about 600 CEO's. I had regular meetings with about 30 CEOs and sometimes there were one or two women, but often there were none. When I found out MacDonald Publishing was selling Working Woman and Working Mother, I had a total sense of
panic. 'Oh my God,' I thought. 'Another man is going to buy it, is going to look at the business and fold the wrong magazine; he'll fold Working Mother. ' I thought, 'if these CEOs I'd been meeting with can do it, I can do it too.' I felt responsible for making sure the magazine existed for
working moms."
Carol was able to acquire the publications and closed the deal three weeks before September 11, 2001, which precipitated a dramatic business downturn. "The advertising recession had already started," she
recalls. "Women's funding groups had slammed the doors on me. They wanted sure bets. I had talked to 36 groups trying to raise capital and finally MCG Capital stepped up because they had an interest in magazines and recognized the growth opportunities in conferences, events and online. But
when 9/11 happened, it created some incredible challenges."
Since then, however, the success of Working Mother has been one of the industry's great stories. Working Mother's 100 Best Companies for Women has become a prestigious honor for companies, and the new 100 Best Companies for Women of Color is gaining equal recognition. "There's been
enormous noise about diversity," Carol points out, "but little action. "There's now a lot of research about what companies are doing and what is working. Managers are being held accountable through compensation and incentives." Mentoring and networking programs are working, Carol reports, and she is developing a web-based mentoring network. "Official mentoring networks
make a difference by creating communications among women in large corporations." Carol is also passionate about Mom's Groups that "are springing up on our website. We have special groups for moms who often feel isolated, like twins' moms. It's become a regular feature in the magazine and is now expanding online."
"The publishing and media industry is better than most in creating opportunities for working moms, for establishing pay equity, and on diversity issues," she suggests, "but it's still run by men at the
tippy top." Carol is the current president of Advertising Women of New York, is involved in several industry associations and organizations, and has come a long way from living on $35 a day as a waitress and back-packing across the country. With two kids, a successful marriage and an
amazing career, Carol truly personifies the new age working mother.
To contact Carol Evans, send an e-mail to contact@mediavillage.com
