Cathie Black: Becoming NYC Schools Chancellor ‘Was Like Having To Learn Russian In A Weekend’

Don’t feel bad for Cathie Black. The former Hearst executive may have been named to the position of New York City’s schools chancellor amid plaintive wails of “Huh?” from a mostly confused public, and her time in that position may have lasted approximately 13.5 minutes, but, hey. She tells Fortune magazine that she “feels fine.”

Fortune has an interesting (and, we think, likely correct) theory about Black’s rather unexpected appointment to her former position:

I mentioned one of my theories that could have been at play: “the glass cliff.” This is practically the reverse of the well-trodden “glass ceiling” that keeps many women from reaching the top. Ambitious women find themselves on the “glass cliff” after well-intentioned men, in pursuit of diversity goals, appoint them to positions beyond their level of competence. Women can’t say “no” to the opportunity…and then they fail, usually quite publicly.

“There may be some truth in that,” Black says, all but admitting that for a manager like her, with no professional experience in education, heading America’s largest public school system was above her capabilities. “It was like having to learn Russian in a weekend — and then give speeches in Russian and speak Russian in budget committee and City Council meetings.”

Black also surmises that being a woman may have also had an impact on the mostly negative coverage surrounding her appointment by Mayor Bloomberg. Would the press have been as hard on her has she been a man? Would New York magazine have chosen to post an unflattering picture of her as its cover image had she have been male?

Well, who knows right? Maybe, as a man with the same resume, she wouldn’t have been offered the job in the first place. Or maybe the press would have been harsher if she’d been fat, or balding, or not white, or not rich… or… or… The list goes on and on, as it always does when one engages in a game of “What if?”

But, like we said, don’t feel bad for Black! She can finally wear what she wants to. So there:

Clearly she’s disappointed, but she is also relieved — to escape the paparazzi, dress in designer clothes again, and eat at old haunts like Michael’s, the media-elite lunchtime canteen.

And basically get back to the life she enjoyed. This morning, she had breakfast at Three Guys, a diner near her Park Avenue home. When she got up to leave, she said, people clapped.

“I’m a warrior,” vows Black, who is 66 — and apparently game to move on to another major gig.

Mmm. Back in Balenciaga and it feels so good.

h/t Fortune