An Unruly Career: Phyllis Levin, Work, and Family

By Thomas H. Lee

From 1955 to 1971, an extraordinary group of women journalists were thrown together on the ninth floor of The New York Times by the combination of their talent, their ambition, and the newspaper's unwritten policies that considered women writers and editors most appropriate for the "Women's Page." Several of these women went on to achieve great success in other fields, including Phyllis Levin, whose story reflects the evolution of how women have struggled to balance career and family over the last century. In 1941, as World War II began, she was just looking for a job; by the end of the War, she had begun a career as a successful writer/editor. Her work at the Times included a major 1960 article that influenced Betty Friedan's 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique . Levin wrote about "the problem that has no name"--the unhappiness of women in 1950s American culture--before it had that name. She repeatedly left the Times because she found it difficult to manage career and family. But she kept coming back because she loved the work, and the Times kept taking her back because her work was so good. Eventually, she gave up journalism for historical biographies, including the first modern biography of Abigail Adams and a scathing portrait of Edith Bolling Wilson. She published her last book, on John Quincy Adams and slavery, in 2024, at age 103. The overall arc of Levin's unruly career is more than the story of one woman whose professional career took off in the 1940s. It is also the story of so many other smart, strong women who wanted to make their professional contributions and have a family, too. The problem with no name remains a problem, but Levin's story shows how every generation is learning from the women who came before them.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DB3M3LGN
• ISBN13: 9798333233769
• Release Date: July 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 138 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"