{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Women's History","slug":"new-books-in-women-s-history-4096544","podcast_index_feed_id":4096544,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NBN5185885598","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/8c1cce70-e7c0-11eb-b746-c7e42408e0c6/image/408fcda0603b5d9e2b5decf747722d4d.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":1866,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork","last_synced_at":"2026-07-20T16:17:46.820872+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-women-s-history-4096544"},"episode":{"title":"Vanda Krefft, \"Expect Great Things!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women\" (Algonquin Books, 2026)","slug":"vanda-krefft-expect-great-things-how-the-katharine-gibbs-school-revolutionized-the-american-workplace-for-women-algonquin-books-2026","published_at":"2026-04-24T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-women-s-history-4096544/vanda-krefft-expect-great-things-how-the-katharine-gibbs-school-revolutionized-the-american-workplace-for-women-algonquin-books-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-women-s-history-4096544","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3501691248.mp3?updated=1776858541","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3501691248.mp3?updated=1776858541","summary":"It’s a safe bet that most of the secretaries on the TV series Mad Men would have attended the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City. The iconic institution was in its heyday in the 1950 and '60s synonymous with supplying secretaries—always properly attired in heels, ladylike hats, and white gloves—to male executives. In Expect Great Things! Vanda Krefft turns the notion of a “Gibbs girl” on its head, showing us that while the school was getting women who could type 90 words per minute into the C-suite, its more subversive mission was to get them out of the secretarial pool to assume positions of power on the other side of the desk. And Gibbs graduates did just that, tackling the sexism of the era and paving the way for 21st-century women to succeed in any profession.Katharine Gibbs was one her own success stories. She started her school when, as a 46-year-old widow, she was left near-broke with two young sons. The school taught typing and stenography but Gibbs also hired accomplished professors from elite colleges to teach academic subjects—it was a well-rounded education that produced early feminists ready to tackle the sexism of their era. \"Expect great things!\" was her motto and her philosophy. Within a decade she’d opened schools in three elegant locations. With nostalgic period photographs throughout, Expect Great Things! takes us back to Katie Gibbs’s life and tells the stories of the women she influenced. We meet Gibbs graduates who worked for the Walt Disney, Marilyn Monroe, and Robert F. Kennedy. Others forged pathfinding roles as an Emmy-winning television star, a women’s rights advisor to four U.S. presidents, a writer of Wonder Woman comic books, the head of the Women’s Marines, a best-selling young adult author, and a U.S. Ambassador.For readers of The…","meta_description":"It’s a safe bet that most of the secretaries on the TV series Mad Men would have attended the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City. The iconic institu…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2807,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-women-s-history-4096544/episodes/vanda-krefft-expect-great-things-how-the-katharine-gibbs-school-revolutionized-the-american-workplace-for-women-algonquin-books-2026/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-women-s-history-4096544/vanda-krefft-expect-great-things-how-the-katharine-gibbs-school-revolutionized-the-american-workplace-for-women-algonquin-books-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}