When Harvard Business Review was established in 1922, it went without saying that managers — who were seen as the magazine’s core readership — were men. The notion that significant numbers of women might hold higher-status roles in business, or might be readers of the magazine, seemed unthinkable. Starting in the 1950s, however, the magazine began paying attention to the growing role that women were playing in management due to shifts in the law, corporate policies, and social norms. Today HBR writes for readers of all genders, and it regularly publishes articles that address such management concerns as gender bias and discrimination, work-life balance, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

While researching our 2021 book, Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work, we took a careful look at how HBR has covered women and business over the years. This article, which is adapted from a Harvard Business School case study that we wrote on the topic, traces the ways in which the magazine’s approach has evolved. In the 1950s, articles mainly discussed whether female managers would ever be fully accepted and, on one occasion, how wives should help advance their husbands’ careers; in recent years, it has included in-depth explorations of such questions as why women still get promoted less than men and what forms of subtle discrimination they still face.

[ 1953–1964 ]

In 1953 HBR took up, for the first time, the topic of women in business. For...

Read Full Story: https://hbr.org/2022/09/how-hbr-has-covered-women-and-business