Katharine Graham, newspaper publisher and a Washington power person, hasn’t always been powerful. If anything, in her earlier days ( 1962 I guess) Mrs Graham didn’t have much of a say in her household; she wasn’t even master of her own wishes, as is reflected in her ‘Personal History’, an autobiography. Here is an episode;
Phil Graham, who was to address the Washington Building Congress, received an invitation for his wife to share the head table at the function. Mr Graham sent the invitation to his assistant with a note: “Call…..and say Kay will be delighted and then tell Kay how delighted she is”. In reference to this Katharine Graham writes, “it says something both about his (Phil’s) mood and about our relationship; it also says something about the role of women those days.
“It was assumed that I would go where Phil wanted me, and in fact I assumed it, too”, says Mrs Graham..
I would really love to read this book by Katherine Graham. I wonder how she became a power person, from being so docile. I am more of a woman liberalist so i really take great pride in such people. Though the current generation is showing trends of improvement, women are still considered the weaker section in our society. Especially in India, its considered obnoxious for a wife to do better than an husband, in terms of career or salary. Men also find it equally hard to work under a woman. Once men let go of their stupid egos and chauvinism, life would be much easier for women. WOMEN WOULD REALLY WANT TO HAVE A SAY !!!
My good friend Carolina, from Kentucky, once told me how, even in the seventies, people at the university where her husband worked as a professor, would throw glances of disapproval at her whenever she went to drop her husband to work. She is a woman and what was she doing at the university, an alien domain?
Mike Mullane, a space shuttle astronaut, in his book, 'Riding Rockets', discussing the joys and frustrations of life with NASA, is quoted in a NYT book review, as saying: "By far, the greatest personal change my NASA experience had wrought was in my perception of women. I learned that they are real people with dreams and ambitions and only need the opportunity to prove themselves".
