By: Lucia Moses She Was First To Head Fortune 500 Company
As a business pioneer and champion of gutsy journalism, Katharine Graham was widely admired, but she particularly inspired other women.
Graham was the first woman to head a Fortune 500 company when, as a rule, women weren't supposed to have careers. She was the first woman to serve as a director of The Associated Press and the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
Her shaky start made her breakthroughs all the more remarkable. When Graham took the helm of The Washington Post in 1963, she was newly widowed and had been a passive wife that few, including herself, took seriously. She also was a mother of four. Whether it was her decisions to publish the Pentagon Papers or support the Post's Watergate coverage, she took chances when women weren't supposed to take chances.
"She was important to women in particular because she had to overcome men's expectations of her and of women in general," said Charlotte Hall, a managing editor at Newsday in Melville, N.Y.
It was pre-feminism when Graham took over at the Post, and for her few contemporaries, the shared experiences gave comfort.
For Lucy B. Crosbie, 72, who succeeded her father in 1954 as publisher of The Chronicle in Willimantic, Conn., knowing Graham on a personal basis "strengthened my resolve to do a good job, and to be businesslike and fair and hire the kinds of editors in whom I had faith and let them do their job."
Despite her social and business status in Washington, Graham remained unassuming and down to earth. Her quiet but steady courage affirmed women such as Geneva Overholser, a former editor and Post ombudsman, by showing a woman could be powerful without being arrogant.
While Graham described her childhood as lacking affection, her decisions to go against the grain echoed the life of her mother, an intellectual with an independent streak, observed Mel Elfin, a former Newsweek editor.
Graham, with Gloria Steinem's influence, embraced feminist issues, but gradually. By her own admission, she was slow to deal with problems of sexism in her staff, much less her own life. The female staffs of Newsweek and the Post gradually grew during Graham's leadership, and she encouraged them by taking them seriously.
Her influence extended beyond the publishing world. In her 1997 memoir, "Personal History," she spoke revealingly of her struggles to gain confidence and balance work and family -- themes that relate to women everywhere.
Lucia Moses (lmoses@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering business for E&P.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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