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Cathie Black Says Sexism May Have Caused Ouster

Cathie Black wonders if she would have been so harshly received if she were a man.

"If I were a guy, would I have had the pounding that I did?" Black asked in an interview with Fortune.

Black was ousted yesterday from her position as New York City Schools Chancellor after just three months on the job.

She was immediately attacked after taking the position by critics who lamented her lack of education experience.

Her brief tenure was marked by low approval ratings and a gaff in which she jokingly suggested school overcrowding should be solved with birth control.

Black tells Fortune she was 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," Black said.

The former Hearst executive seemed to make a reference to a unflattering New York Magazine cover when she complained about the media taking "the worst pictures!"

From Fortune:

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.

Black promised she would live to fight another day.