When Women Created Television

• If I have a career in television, will I ever get to be married?
• If I have a career in television, and I marry, will I be able to have children and keep my job?
• If I have a career in television, NEVER marry, and adopt children, will I be able to keep my job in television?

When Irna Phillps began her career in radio in the 1930s, and then evolved her career into the new invention of television (that men were not interested in wasting their careers in its early days) she believed she would work until she married.  Life took many turns for Irna Phillps, who is the mother of the television soap opera, and her life took on many characteristics of a soap opera at its best!  

Irna is one of four women who pioneered television in its infancy in the late 1930s and 1940s featured in the book When Women Created Television by Jennifer Armstrong.  On Tuesday, July 27, at 3 pm Pacific join me for a FaceBook Live discussion on Hey, Boss Lady! Podcast Facebook Page of Irna and her incredible story.  

What makes Irna and the other women featured in the book so incredible is that what they faced and the questions they asked in the 1940s and 1950s, are similar to what women today might be asking.  Nowhere was the similarity clearer than in Episode 15 of Hey, Boss Lady! with Vegas PBS President, Mary Mazur. 

Mary Mazur, President, Vegas PBS

Mary began her career in television over 30 years ago.  She married early in her career at a time when there were few if any, role models to look up to for guidance, even fewer policies that supported the additional family and social responsibilities that status required, and way fewer coworkers with whom to share experiences.  In essence, Mary, like so many before her, had to departmentalize her work and family life experiences to a greater degree than her male, coupled or uncoupled, counterparts.  

An even less obvious impact especially 30 years ago, is that males were rarely confronted with considering the impact just the mere decision to marry and bear children, would have on their careers. I would venture that even today a young man graduating from college and beginning his career would not be asked, “Do you think you want to have kids?  How do you think that will impact your career choices or opportunities?”

And that unique positioning – something that started out as a potential disadvantage -- now has the greatest chance to shape the future of work than many other. From the time individuals of all persuasions are entering their careers, they are thinking, talking, and angsting about how will what I do matter.  

That questioning, thinking, and angsting is exactly what caused Mary to re-evaluate where she wanted to put her talents.  She loved media and entertainment, and she wanted her family to be positively impacted by what she produced.  She did not just want to be paid well for doing what she loved doing, she wanted the intangible payday of having a positive impact.  Taking time from her family to pursue her dreams had a price and she wanted the payback to be in positive impact.  

Vegas PBS is a unique organization deeply integrated with the educational and employment opportunities in the Vegas community.  Impacting cradle (Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street) to career opportunities (CCSD) for all is a rare opportunity in any business or career.  Yet, Mary has assumed a position that will afford her such an opportunity. 

Following the decades of positive growth led by her Vegas PBS predecessor, Tom Axtell, Mary knows it will be common for her to be compared.   She will be compared to him as a leader and she will be compared to him on results.  As Mary builds and broadens on her predecessor's success, comparison is not her focus.  Mary’s focus, as so many of the guests on Hey, Boss Lady! is on the positive impact they will impart on the future of work for all.