Gloria Feldt is a leading women's rights advocate. Honored as "Woman of the Year" by Glamour Magazine, Feldt rose from being a teen mother to eventually become the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood, which she led until last year. Her third book, Take the Lead, Lady!, a collaboration with actress Kathleen Turner, will be published in 2007.

Samantha: What was the experience of being a teen mother like for you?

Gloria: It was scary. At that age, you don't know how much you don't know, but I was also alone with my new young husband in a new city without a support system. I read everything I could get my hands on about how to take care of a baby. So I figured out the basics, but still it was a lonely and frightening path.

Samantha: What area of parenting do you feel suffers the most when you are a teen mother?

Gloria: The lack of emotional maturity is the biggest deficit a too-young mother has. It is not that hard to learn how to feed, bathe, and burp, but it is very difficult to provide mature emotional support to a developing child when you are still a child yourself. My children are great adults now in spite of my shortcomings, but I know I would have been a better mother if I had been older when they were born.

Samantha: How did being a teen mother impact your career?

Gloria: In the rural west Texas of the 1950's, women didn't have a career trajectory. My then-husband found a job in a petrochemical plant but we lived paycheck to paycheck. When I was 20 and my third child was born, a light bulb popped on in my head. I thought, "If I ever have to support these children, I would have no way-I have no employable skills. Who would hire me?" The main thing that affected my career trajectory was the birth control pill, which hit the market about then. It allowed me to think about my future and my choices in life in a way that had never before been possible for women.

I started college part time when my youngest child was four months old. And there my love of learning reemerged. I began to see there was more in the world than the narrow life I had chosen. Odessa, Texas only had a two-year college so I couldn't finish my degree for over a decade until we got an upper division college. After I volunteered at Head Start for a year, they offered me a job teaching and then creating a program for parents. In that sense, I have had three careers so far. The first as at-home wife, mother, and community volunteer; the second my 30-year career as a Planned Parenthood executive, and now getting to pursue my earliest childhood dream of being a writer.

Samantha: What path might your career have taken had you not been such a young mother?

Gloria: Being a teen mother did hinder me in profound ways. I have never caught up to my potential for education, and never had the financial resources to give my children a top-notch education or other advantages. However, I was lucky enough to find opportunities and desperate enough to be willing to take the opportunities that came to me and propelled my career beyond anything I could have imagined at 20.

Samantha: When you were at the helm of Planned Parenthood what was the most inspiring part of your work?

Gloria: Almost every day, someone still says to me, "You saved my life." It gives me goose bumps.

Samantha: Do you see women today as having more choices than their predecessors?

Gloria: Yes, thank goodness! I get very cranky with women who complain about the difficulty of having too many choices. They should try living in the stultifying air of the 1950's or before when "help wanted female" ads made clear they could aspire only to female-stereotypical jobs. Married women were often denied employment because they didn't "need" the income or were told they would be taking a job away from a man.

Samantha: If you could change one thing for mothers in this country what would it be?

Gloria: I would redesign the workplace so both women and men could use their potential to contribute to society, have a fulfilling life as parents, and earn a living. I also think people should be able to step out of and step back into the workforce without losing their ability to continue advancing on their career path. We have long lives and there is time to take little detours along the way.

Samantha: What is your hope for your own granddaughters?

Gloria: I am so happy that they grow up believing they can be whatever they want to be. Now I want them to go forth and be it. That's how they will continue to break barriers on the way to true justice for women.

Samantha: You serve as an inspiration to countless women. Are there any women that have served as your mentors or role models?

Gloria: I am grateful first to my father who told me I could "do anything my pretty little head desires." I am grateful for the Odessa Junior College civics teacher who saw my potential and invited me to join the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization that taught me much of what I would later put to use about the political process. I am grateful to feminists like Gloria Steinem, who were saying what I was thinking as a young mother. It is a huge honor to me that I now serve on the board of the new Women's Media Center with her.

Samantha: If there is one piece of advice you could give to working moms what would it be?

Gloria: Share your work with your kids daily as a gift to them. Let them be part of it because it is part of you and who you are, and kids want to know that. Oh, and breathe deeply and enjoy every moment of your life, even the challenges of balancing motherhood and work.

To learn more about Gloria Feldt visit her at www.gloriafeldt.com

Samantha Ettus is a new mother and the creator of The Experts' Guide series. Her third book, The Experts' Guide to the Baby Years, a collection of chapters from the 100 leading parenting experts, was released by Crown Books in October, 2006. You can learn more at www.expertsmedia.com Comments? Email Samantha at

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