By Jim Scott and Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — One day after her departure from the Bloomberg Administration, Cathie Black told Fortune magazine that her forced exit may have been the result of sexism.
"If I were a guy, would I have had the pounding that I did?" Black asked in an interview with the magazine.
"And the worst pictures!" she continued, obviously referencing unflattering portrait's printed in New York magazine and the Daily News, among others.
Black, 66, was a polarizing figure during her three short months as schools chancellor. The former Hearst Magazine executive was roundly booed at public appearances, caused a firestorm Downtown with a poorly-received joke about birth control, and watched four of her deputy chancellors quit.
Black admitted in the interview that she had been in over her head.
"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," she told Fortune.
Earlier Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg had defended Cathie Black on his radio show, a day after accepting the embattled former chools chancellor's resignation.
"She's a phenomenally competent woman," Bloomberg said during hhis weekly appearance on the John Gambling radio show Friday.
Bloomberg had a hard time answering what what went wrong during Black's time as chancellor, chastising reporters Thursday who asked about it for looking toward the past, instead of the future.
Asked again on Friday to diagnose Black's failed term, Bloomberg said simply, "It's hard to pin that down."
Bloomberg has tried to put some of the blame for Black's failed term on the media, introducing the subject on Thursday and reiterating it on Friday, saying, "Cathie and I had a conversation yesterday and the story had really become about her and not about the kids."
Black's appointment was roundly panned by critics because of her lack of education experience and exclusive experience attending and sending her kids to elite private schools. Her resignation Thursday was applauded by parents, teachers and politicians who opposed her appointment from the onset.
"It’s been clear for months now that, like the Titanic, this ship has been sinking with more than 1 million school children on board," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said Thursday.
Black never appeared to gain a foothold on the job after replacing Joel Klein as the city's top education official in January. Making matters worse, her dismal approval rating — down to 17 percent, according to a NY1-Marist Poll released on Monday — was becoming a liability for the mayor's increasingly tarnished legacy.
Bloomberg has appointed Deputy Mayor for Education and veteran public school educator Dennis Walcott as the new schools chancellor. Walcott takes over the job during a tumultuous time with the city facing harsh budget cuts and with the mayor's office engaged in a fierce battle with the teacher's union over the "first in, last out" firing policy.
"I think Dennis really has the skills to get us through this," the mayor said Friday.
His appointment is subject to getting a waiver from the State Education Department. NYS Education Department Commissioner David Steiner — who granted Black's waiver over opposition — also announced he was stepping down on Thursday.
