About this item
The inspiration for the original television seriesIt was the 1960s--a time of economic boom and social strife. Young women poured into the workplace, but the "Help Wanted" ads were segregated by gender and the "Mad Men" office culture was rife with sexual stereotyping and discrimination.Lynn Povich was one of the lucky ones, landing a job at Newsweek, renowned for its cutting-edge coverage of civil rights and the "Swinging Sixties." Nora Ephron, Jane Bryant Quinn, Ellen Goodman, and Susan Brownmiller all started there as well. It was a top-notch job--for a girl--at an exciting place.But it was a dead end. Women researchers sometimes became reporters, rarely writers, and never editors. Any aspiring female journalist was told, "If you want to be a writer, go somewhere else.
About the Author
When I graduated from college, I was lucky to get a job as a secretary in the Paris bureau of Newsweek magazine. I returned to New York after a year-and-a-half and in 1970, I was one of 46 women who sued Newsweek for sex discrimination. Five years later, I was appointed the first woman Senior Editor in the magazine's history.
My book about that landmark lawsuit, THE GOOD GIRLS REVOLT,was published September 10, 2012 by PublicAffairs.
In 1991, I left Newsweek to become Editor-in-Chief of Working Woman magazine. I joined MSNBC.Com in 1996, overseeing the web content of NBC News and MSNBC Cable.
In 2005, I edited a book of columns by my father,famed Washington Post sports columnist Shirley Povich, called ALL THOSE MORNINGS...AT THE POST.
I have been honored with the prestigious Matrix Award for Exceptional Achievement in Magazines and the Exceptional Woman in Publishing Award from Women in Periodical Publishing
I was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Vassar College, where I served as Executive-in-Residence. I am married to Stephen B. Shepard, former Editor-in-Chief of Business Week and Founding Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism of the City University of New York. His book, DEADLINES AND DISRUPTION, was published the same week in September as mine. We have two children.
