Final Blog Post: Katharine Graham

 Katharine Graham

Katharine Graham was born in New York City on June 16th, 1917 to her parents Agnes and Eugene Meyer. She is one of 5 siblings; Florence, Eugene III, Ruth and Elizabeth Meyer. She and her family primarily stayed between their mansion in Washington D.C and their estate in New York City. Her father was a financier from 1930-1933 and ended up buying The Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction in 1933. 

Katharine Graham went on to attend Vassar College before transferring to the University of Chicago, where she developed her love for discussing politics and liberal ideas and graduated with a Bachelor's degree. Kick starting her career, Katharine went on to work for a small newspaper in San Francisco, California where she covered a major strike for wharf workers who wanted improvements on working conditions and gain union recognition. In 1938 Katharine began working for her father at The Washington Post. Shortly after married to Phillip Graham in 1940.

Phillip Graham would go on to become publisher of the Post in 1946, after Eugene Meyer handed over the newspaper to him. Katharine wasn't hurt by this action, in her autobiography Personal History she wrote, "Far from troubling me that my father thought of my husband and not me, it pleased me. In fact, it never crossed my mind that he might have viewed me as someone to take on an important job at the paper." Katharine Graham would go on to be publisher for the Post after her husband's death in 1963.

Katharine & Phillip Graham

She held the title of publisher from 1969 to 1979 as well as holding the title of chairwoman for the board from 1973 to 1991. Katharine would also become the first ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 1972 for her title as CEO of The Washington Post. 

Being a woman in the publishing world she was often looked down on and not taken seriously by many of her male co-workers and employees. According to The Washington Post's article about Katharine Graham, they wrote, "There certainly were few female role models for her to emulate or colleagues she could look to for camaraderie. Women were all but excluded from positions of power in news organizations at the time, and held less than 20 percent of newspaper jobs overall." Due to this fact, Graham would often find herself being the only woman in the boardroom.

The Washington Post Writes 
About Nixon's Resignation

Graham would go on to publish two very risky pieces in the Post. The first one being the Pentagon Papers which exposed the United States government involvement of the Vietnam war. The other being the biggest piece she published; the Watergate Scandal. Although the Post was facing legal threats from the Nixon administration and the United States Supreme Court was reviewing the First Amendment issue. Graham decided to go ahead and publish the story anyway despite the possible risk for the paper's future. 

Despite being a woman in an incredibly man dominated industry, Katharine Graham went against the odds and made a name for herself. From being the first female CEO in the Fortune 500 to exposing President Nixon into resignation; Katharine Graham is one of the most inspiring woman in journalism and a role model for all woman in the field.