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Jo:ao Konner - , .

'I found it hard to combine career and familyt -

, For the first time in the 75-year history of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, its dean is a woman. Joan Konner is a veteran broadcast journalist, alumna 'and, since 19£8, a university trustee. Konner, 57, brings 25 years' experiehce as a news writer, reporter and award­winning documentary producer for NBC-TV and WNI;:T-TV, New York.

Decisive moments i

was just choosing another, difficult life, and possibly a more rewarding life, but not necessarily: -Since 1983 she had been executive producer for public television

programs in partnership with Bill Moyers. Konner, a native of Paterson, N.J., who now lives in New York, is divorced; she has .two daughters. In an interview with writer Darlene Gavron Stevens, Konner tells how she resolved the conflicting demands of career and farnily and solidified her career in journalism. .

I think what was on my mind at the time was how hard I was finding it [combining career and family]. Friedan was saying, "You're frustrated at home; you shouldn't

NEW YORK-;-I call myself . neither aD. early bloomer nor a late bloomer. I was a middle bloomer. I liked to write. Right after graduating C9llege _[in...19.5J..

ATom-Sarah Lawrence- College], when I was a full-time housewife and mother, I began.writing poetry and essays and submitted articles on community events to our small local weekly. I also became the publicist for the League of Women Voters in Fair Lawn, N.J. Sitting down at the typewriter felt like coming home.

. Writing ,poetry is something you do late at night, early in the morning or when the children nap. The first time I had a half-day free was when my younger daughter, Cathie/ was in nursery school apd my oldest, Rosemary, was in 1 st grade. I used to clean the house and make sure it was finished by 9: 15 in the morning, then sit down and .write until 11 :45. I had that little two-hour block of time every single day for a year and a half.

It soon .became apparent to me that poetry was not going to be my long-term calling. I was interested in \ what was going on in the world and in my community, and I recognized that putting my writing talent to-use in journalism made sense. I returned to school when the children were 6 and 8 years old. My husband was very supportive; and I received my master's degree in journalism at. Columbia University in 1961.

It was unusual to be a woman - journalist at that time. After

graduation, when I took a full-time job at the Bergen Record in

• Hackensack, N.J., it was corisidered deviant behavior. On the other hand,

~ there \'VaS a lot of respect for .and

have to stay at home; go out into the world." I was out there. I was saying,

have a commitment to those "It's hard out here as well." In so children. The commitmen.t changes saying, I think the column had a at different stages of\ life. My more discouraging tone to wO!llen domestic life and professionallif~ , _..,.,,_than-I -weuld take today, because I

_deveLoped.sequentiaIlyby-accident. actually believe you can do both if . This was not a plan. I, was with my you are realistic about it c~~n for the ?rst fi,:,e years of I thought there ~as a fantasy therr lives. I ~on t say. It can t be component in Friedan's message. But done othelWlse. CertainlX many it was a very important message and women today are ~~agmg both of I don't think I gave it its due. I think these accounts,but It IS very hard, the issues she surfaced were much an~ one does have to make . more important than I recognized at

• adjustments fo~ the .o~er. Tho~" the time. There was only partial view peop~e ~ho believe m haymg I~ all to the window women had on the ?

are kidding themselves a little bIt. world and she was really lifting the . ~en I went to work, I didn't do shade. I would applaud her book It m the context young women are today much more than I did at the doing it today. I knew I w~ted to time. work on a newspaper; to wnte, to get . out into the world but I didn't think I was working on the Record when about it in such te~s as "career," a pr?ducer at [~T-:nJ Channel "progression" or "ambition" that you 13, m New York CIty mVlted me to hear today. I wanted to have a job I be a.guest .reporter for a New Jersey was interested in doing. That was public affatrs program. ~r ,my third that. When I got out of school I ~ppearan~, he ask~ me if I d be looked only at tI1e newspaper that mterested m produ~g another . was the best in our region, because I ~ro~. at the. statIon. And I satd, wanted to be available, to home. I That s mter~tmg, but what does a wasn't in the job marketplace for the ~roducer ~o: . He told me best job I could find at the time. The producer' IS Ju~t another n~e for family determined where, and the broadcast repo~g. At the tIme . family was the hub of my wheel. [1 ?6?] I w~ earnmg $90 a w~k and .

this Job patd $125 a week and It At the rBergen] ~ecord, I s~ . sounded like a challenge. It was still

o~t as a feature wnter and w<?m~ s. on territory close to home and I had p~e t:eporter an~. moved rapIdly mto been reporting for two years so I editonal-page wntmg and column 'd ' ' writing. When a job opened up on sat yes. the editorial page, I went for it As my career progressed, there because it was one of the few were opportunities that I didn't even daytime jobs at the paper. I consider, because they would have submitted sample editorials for a conflicted with my home couple of weeks and I got the job. responsibilities. I remember I had

I was actua1ly a reporter-at-large in been at NBC two months wh.en th~ mv twice-a-week column. It was an head of the local news operatIon satd

\ unusual kind of column because I to me, "Joan, they're looking for an would ick an to ic J relt like , anchorwoman up in Boston. I

C w S Chicago Tribune, Sunday, October 2, 1988

'As my career progressed, there we~e opportunities that I didn't even consider, because they would have conflicted with · my home responsibilities.'

(we were) two nice people who creating a more hospitable ~ .• probably shouldn't have been environment for me to functJon m. married. Life got to a point where As a documentary producer at the children were mature enough for NBC I had an opportJrnity to report us to take a natural course, which on ~ost of the major social ~d was we sliouldn't be together . cultural changes that were taking anymore. IfI had never gone to place in the late"'60s an~ the '70~: work, I don't thii1k it would have the increase of drug use m the nuddle 'ended differently. I now have a long- class women's liberation, gay tenn relationship with someone who Iiberittion, the changing roles of men is in this business and we're not . and women. I'm pleased with that . married because we choose not to be. . body of work _ . \. . ._

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Section 6 3 /

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did on the subject of death, which , had not been treated on television

before. And one of my last documentaries at NBC, about radioactive waste, was an example of reporting way in advance of its time. I'm very proud of the body of work

. I've done as executive producer for Bill Moyers, especially the most recent series, "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth," maybe because

. it's the last "baby." The response we're getting to the series is that the human spirit does exist and needs to be touched. l had j;ust undertaken the . . '

partnership with Bill Moyers [m 1986] when the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism search committee called to meet with me. I imagine [it was because] the leaders of the jOijffialism school were . acquainted with what I was domg professionally, and felt there was a record of accomplishment and I was a woman, so they turned to me. I met with them because I was interested in the future of the school, and thought it would be a useful . exchange. But I said up front that even if they would consider me for- . dean, I didn't know if I could accept.

As a Columbia University thIstee, I was very· aware of the internal, philosophical debate of what the future of the school was. When finally they offered the job to ~e,. a few fact6rs weighed on my mmd. m making the decision. qne was how important that school IS to journalism" So many people at the Y'

school, including me, felt. the school was exceptional ?~use It ~!1d been a . trade school, trammg practJtJoners.

But I understood that the ' marketplace has changed, as well as the nature of the problems reporters have to report on, and realized there was a need to bring in some of the expertise being taught in classrooms outside the journalism school. Basically, by choosing ~e, the . administration was commg down m favor of a practitioner. I felt it was the right thing to do to say yes.

. It· was very hard to say goodbye to being a working joumalist, but I chose~the academic world because i

the school was in nceed o{ leadersJ:lip: ". :+felt-that~Mlat=l ·Qi&llrjow·~an,snr-::..::::J

, Hackensack, N.J., it was consIdered m~ ~OO:~:~k"ooioom:' It"wasvan head o~,the local n~ws oIX;ration said . deviant behavior. On the other hand, \ unusual kind of column, because I to me, Joan, theX re looking for an

\... , :. th~re waS a lot of respect for .and would ruck any topic I felt like anchorwoman up m Bo~ton. I . - mmresr::n:wt:::lliJ;j;hg:.parf~~g' i wMif't"(foifig'UpinIDtf~~eedOO-.'Y9u;....¥c.u:n be heal )g..~ -:.- niine and wome~,with o!d~r <:hi1ctren. ~ pieces; I'was in my late 20s and was fi:om them." And I said, "nat's an

I, . '. Jhey would ask,. ~!lt IS It like? ; too inexperienced to hold a lot of awfullo?g coJ:llI!l~~ from. my ., How are you managmg your opinions. I was the only woman husband, forget It. My mmd-set was \f . - home?"; "po you really have to columnist at the time at the paper, such that.I. neve~ saw (su~? offe~] as r - work full tIme?" and I was doing a kind of subjective opportumtIes; I Just sald, I can t

As it happens, I was working six reporting. ~vel for work n~~, I have young days a week, and reporting to work I think I always brought an children at home. at 7 am. Some women were openly individual perspective to the column, . I didn't think, "What will tha~ critical of me, even though my and because I'm a woman, you could mean to my later development m children were in school full time. As call that a woman's perspective. I life?" My thoughts were on doing

. - =' it turns out, the children wert: fine . certainly took up women's issues at something I was intereste<! in doing and they are fint:; wonderful! m fact. the time. I remember reviewing Betty and that was managea?le m ~e I had good, outsIde help while the Friedan's book "The Feminine context of my whole life, not Just my ~hildren we~ young; ~ sai~ at the Mystique" when it came out. prof~ional life. There was no

_ tIme th~t I did not think It could. be I'm absolutely certain I would not conflict about that.

\.~ '. , : do~e WlthO~t good h~lp, and I still .write the same column today. I wrote I think I've always operated from a . - believe that IS a very Important that if women thought they were domestic center. It's where my

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_ component of a smooth management going to go out into the marketplace stability rests. My career was not a . of home and career. and find the satisfaction and factor in my divorce. I was married

This maybe a conservative. fulfillment they were not finding in . at age 18, divorced 20 years later and 'statement from a woman of my ag~,their domestic lives, they'd better I have been single since then. The but I think if you have children, you think twice. I wrote that it was a breakup of the family occurred after

very, very difficult undertaking to try my older daughter went to college. to manage the domestic account and My husband was very supportive and the professional account .together, encouraging at moments when I was that, in fact, there is no reason why discouraged; he always felt it was women shouldn't do this, but they good for me and our family life that should do it realistically. I said that it I was working.

Our difficulties had nothing to do with that. It's hard to convey that our marital difficulties started eVen -before we had children. We were two very young people who didn't really know ourselves very well. There wasn't an explosive or troublesome environment in the household, but

. ~r.m r~lation~hip with sotpe<>ne who · liberation, the changing roTt;S of men . ~~~'~h~~~d:n!ri~:d'b:t~se " IS m ~s busmess and we re not " and women, I'm pleased WIth that . the school was in n~. o( !~get:Sl.rip: ' ~

, ~amed because we choose not to be . . bO<lY_~(~o~ .. ::., ..L... ~ .... -:~ --i..felt-thatwhat"l did~injournaJisro= ~ __ ~,.; .~;;<. ~'- ~ .' . ~- . - ,- ' --;~~~r ne.wnn&fi~:':· Wa§'sometfi:illgTooUlOsfiare With~~ ~ . . [ill 1965], I was the only wom~ in particularly broadcasting, which I've younger people coming into the . ,r •

the newsroom. They used to hire one been working in for the last 25, years, profession. woman to work in the newsroom, reflect a very narrow slice of reality, I reco~ that I have been a

. and when everybody somehow such that to some degree they have mentor to the young women around developed some reason that she lost contact with their audience. me. That's not a new undemll<:ing for ' wasn't any good anymore, t;hey , People's lives ~d 1J?,oughts have . . me. Young women today approach ~ould ~et the next woman m. Its much more dimensIOn than teleVIsIon their jobs !is though top positions are mte~~g there ~as enough news reflects back to them. possible for their future simply by

! senSItIVIty at the tIme to allow one In terms of my own work, I've seeing me there. woman m the newsroom. always tried to explore a larger The doors have opened wider for

I sUIVived, I guess because No.1, I agenda than I've seen covered on a women in journalism [approximately had a less abrasive personality, and · regular basis in the broadcast. 63 percent of journalism students in No. 2 I had an outside domestic life" operations. When I was working on college mCl$ter's prqgrams natio~wide so no~e of that [sexual] tension could headline [major] stories, I always are female, according to educatIon arise. For the small minority of men , \ tried to get at an angle of approach . department statistics] but not wide . who were verbal about their hostility that J?Crhaps addressed a different . enough. There are very, very few or their attitude about women I questIon than the one that was' bemg woinen in decision-making positions would answer them politely, but they addressed in what is called the hard in joumalisqI. didn't really get under my skin. I've news story. When I was 'young~r, I I I don't have any advice, other than, always felt camaraderie with womeq had,less access [to <:overmg maj9r "It's tough." Journalism is a very and with men. I felt the world was a stones] than men did, but I don t tough field. tough place for a lot of guys, too. think I'd have been happy in any

. f be f case, jpst being at the cepter of what . The mcrease 0 num rs 0 women I label "the power beat." Even if it mto the ~orkforce helped us all. I had been open to me at the time, I w!lS making my 'Yay ~n my own, don't know that that is where I ' WIthout really seemg It that way. The uld ha finall been satisfied. wave [of the women's move~ent] wo . ve y was coming along and suddenly there I was very proud of a program I was ,a current in which you got carried. We were all beneficiaries of 'each others' efforts. The)! were a beneficiary because I was there and doing well and received well. The push that was coming from people who were thinking from the perspective of the whole was, in fact,