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Lynn Povich (born 1943) is an American journalist. She began her career as a secretary in the Paris Bureau of ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' magazine, rising to become a reporter and writer in New York in the late 1960s. In 1970, she was one of a group of women who sued the magazine for sex discrimination. Five years later, she was appointed the first woman Senior Editor in ''Newsweek's'' history. Povich is the daughter of journalist Shirley Povich and the sister of Maury Povich.


Personal life

Lynn Povich is the daughter of Ethyl and ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' sports journalist Shirley Povich. She is of
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
descent. She majored in modern European history at
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...
, and upon graduating in June 1965, left to work as a secretary in the ''Newsweeks Paris bureau. There she worked with Elizabeth Peer, ''Newsweeks'' first female foreign correspondent, who Povich would later consider " e of the great influences of my life." After a year and a half abroad, she returned to New York in November 1966 as a researcher for Newsweek and married Jeffery Young in June of next year. In March 1969, she became a junior writer.


Lawsuit

In 1970, Eleanor Holmes Norton represented 60 female employees of Newsweek (including Povich) who had filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that ''Newsweek'' had a policy of only allowing men to be reporters. The women won, and Newsweek agreed to allow women to be reporters. The day the claim was filed, ''Newsweeks cover article was "Women in Revolt", covering the feminist movement; the article was written by a woman who had been hired on a freelance basis since there were no female reporters at the magazine.


Publications

In 2005, for the 100th anniversary of the ''Washington Post'', she published a collection of Shirley Povich's sports journalism, ''All those mornings-- at the Post : the twentieth century in sports from famed Washington post writer Shirley Povich''. According to WorldCat, the book is held in 243 libraries. She also published in 2012 a book called '' The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace'' detailing the lawsuits. According to
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
, the book is held in 756 libraries. A series of interviews with her was published by the Washington Press Club Foundation in its oral history project, "Women in journalism".


Awards

* Foremother award from The National Center for Health Research, 2018 *'' The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace'' was named a top ten book on the Amelia Bloomer Book List in 2014


References


External links


LynnPovich.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Povich, Lynn 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American journalists American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish American journalists Jewish women writers Living people Vassar College alumni American women non-fiction writers 1943 births 21st-century American Jews