The year was 1973 and though equal rights for women might have been gaining traction around the country, it was slower to take hold at General Electric Corp, says author Joan A’Hearn.
It was at that time that the divorced mother of three found herself hired as the first female speech writer for the Schenectady conglomerate.
In her new book, "That’s All She Wrote," the Ballston Spa woman details her corporate life in the male-dominated world at GE, preparing speeches for people who would later vie for board Chairman Reg Jones’ spot after his resignation.
Ironically, A’Hearn never thought her career as a wordsmith was blazing a path for women to obtain positions of power. So, when a department manager approached her three years into the job to mentor young female hires, she thought his request was "hysterical."
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"It wasn’t a very glamorous job, let’s put it that way," A’Hearn said with a laugh. "It was a lot of traveling, a lot of living out of suitcases. If people thought this was a great job for a woman to have, well, they got the wrong picture."
Like many women of that era, A’Hearn struggled with trying to split her responsibilities between her career and her family; at times she thought about quitting, especially as her children got older. But because corporate America didn’t hire a lot of women outside the realm of the secretarial pool, A’Hearn said she felt she had to work harder and longer than her male counterparts to prove her worth. Playing the "mommy card" was out of the question, she said.
A’Hearn said while some of the younger men she worked with felt she was in direct competition with them, she actually encountered more prejudice from other women. Some secretaries made her life "difficult," rumors circulated about her sleeping her way to the top, and the wife of one of her colleagues confronted her about "losing her femininity."
"She asked me how it felt to be one of the guys. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open saying, ‘I have know idea what you’re talking about,’" A’Hearn said.
Despite those annoyances, A’Hearn was exhilarated by her work. She liked the camaraderie that existed with many of her male colleagues and became privy to sensitive conversations that could affect the direction of GE.
In addition, A’Hearn believed the words she wrote had far-reaching effects, especially a speech she prepared suggesting the energy crisis had become such a volatile issue that it demanded "cabinet-level attention."
"Although it probably would have happened anyway, my ego is big enough to accommodate taking at least partial credit for establishing the Department of Energy," she wrote in the book.
Eventually A’Hearn’s speech-writing days came to an end when the new chairman of GE, Jack Welch, took the helm. It was then the author says saw the company at its ugliest, as employees feared losing their jobs.
"The air in the building changed; it just kind of got sucked out of the room," she said.
A’Hearn said not every moment of her 19 year career was enjoyable, but she still considered it to be a "fine ride."
Looking back she now sees she was breaking ground ,but at the time it "wasn’t a big deal."
"All I really cared about was being accepted as a writer, not a pathfinder," she said.
Visit www.joanahearn.com for further details about Joan A’Hearn’s book, "That’s All She Wrote."
