Lynn Povich
In her bestselling 2012 book Good Girls Revolt, Lynn Povich described the 1970 lawsuit against Newsweek that enabled her to become the journal’s first female senior editor. Povich graduated from Vassar College in 1965 and began working as a secretary at Newsweek’s Paris bureau. She returned to New York in 1966 as a researcher, and was promoted to junior writer in 1969. At the time, women served as Newsweek’s support staff while men became reporters and editors. The women filed a claim with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in 1970 and won the right to become reporters, then sued again in 1972 when Newsweek failed to make significant progress. In 1975 Povich was promoted to senior editor. She became editor in chief of Working Woman in 1991, then became East Coast Managing Editor of MSNBC.com in 1996. In 2016, Good Girls Revolt was adapted as a television drama on Amazon Prime. As of 2017 Povich serves on the advisory boards of the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and the International Women’s Media Foundation.