Legendary 60 Minutes journalist, Morley Safer, interviews iconic businesswoman Mary Kay Ash in 1979.
Sixteen years after Mary Kay Ash launched her company and changed the world of business by creating more opportunities for women, her story was profiled on 60 Minutes, an American television news magazine program on the CBS television network.
Longtime CBS reporter, Morley Safer, declared that “pink is the color of success at this company” in the national news story that aired in October of 1979. In a sit-down interview with Safer, our company’s founder explained why she decided to build a business by women, for women.
“My objective was just to help women, it was not to make a tremendous amount of sales,” Mary Kay Ash told Safer. “I want women to earn money commensurate with men. I want them to be paid based on what they have between their ears and their brains, not because they are male or female. But at the same time, I would like women to remain feminine because I have found that it’s an asset to be female in a man’s world.”
At the time the 60 Minutes piece aired, there were 50,000 independent sales force members across the United States, Australia and Canada. Today, Mary Kay is a top beauty brand and direct seller in nearly 40 countries worldwide and has paved the way for millions of female entrepreneurs.
“What is it that women need across America, Australia and Canada? I would have to say it’s confidence,” Mary Kay Ash said in the 60 Minutes profile. “We praise our people to success.”
And we still do. Mary Kay Ash’s values live on in the company she built, and her mission of empowering women is as important now as it has ever been.