Lincoln High School Students Get Inspiring Visit From Judge Midge Rendell
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Federal Judge Midge Rendell educated students at Abraham Lincoln High School on Monday about the obstacles and triumphs of women achieving their career goals during an event tied to Women's History Month.
The Federal Judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and former First Lady when Ed Rendell was mayor and governor, told the students they should look to do something that "feeds their passion."
"While you're going through your daily grind, there may be something else that you love," Rendell said. "Maybe it's music, art, or contributing to something in the community."
She also advised them to find a mentor and conduct themselves in a manner that earns respect. She even attributed a song that her son wrote while on tour with a rock band.
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"He was upset with one of the other band members who was acting out, so he wrote a song," Rendell told the students. "The main lyric was 'the things you do, determine who you are.'"
Judge Rendell counseled them, "everything you do everyday, good and bad, becomes who you are."
"And you can't take it away," she told them. "It's part of you."
Judge Rendell also held a followup Q-and-A with the students - as wide-ranging as her interests are, including whether she experienced discrimination at work, because she was a woman. No, she says, not at her previous law firm, where she spent 21 years. She was one of only two women when she joined the 40 men in the firm in 1973. Now, there are 800 lawyers there. But, she says, opposing counsel in a few early cases were subtle in their jibes.
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"There was one case where I was opposing a man from a law firm," she said, "and he kept calling me 'honey.'"
Rather than get mad, she used humor.
'I just started calling him 'Buster,'" Rendell said. "After a while, it got old, and he stopped calling me 'honey.'"
Another question centered on the current "polarization" in a divided Republican vs. Democratic Congress. Rendell says her perspective is "no better than anyone elses," but she remembers previous leaders in Congress found a way to find middle ground.
"My husband used to say 'they would snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.'"
