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Bloomberg Businessweek December 23, 2019“In situations where men say, ‘This is what I want and deserve’ and get a
yes or no, a woman’s requests are treated as demands,” Sandra Kresch, then
a 30-year-oldvicepresidentatconsultantBoozAllen& Hamilton,toldus.
“Peoplearesurprisedandask,‘Whyis shesucha hard-drivinglady?’” And
there was the male executive who said many women weren’t willing to make
the sacrifices of working extra hours or accepting the tension that comes
with being a senior manager. There were also encouraging signs of prog-
ress. “The big news is that women are making headway—slowly in the exec-
utive suite, faster at the lower rungs of middle management.”
BusinessWeek’s coverageofAfricanAmericans’movementwithincorpora-
tionsfolloweda similarfringe-to-mainstreamarc.Intheearlydays,coverage
ofblackbusinesswasscant, and the magazine was at times painfully in step
withthesegregationistthinking of the era. A December 1944 story, “Negro
ProblemWorriesCoast,”said California cities were troubled by the large num-
bersofblackworkerswho’d moved west to work in war plants and planned
tostay:“ThereareNegroes who despise their ‘ghetto’ and others who like
it—andprofitbyit,”thestory said.
Inthe 1960s,the civil rights movement and nationwide unrest
casta harshlight on the inequity of the American dream. Business
Weekchangedalongside America’s racial dialogue, publishing sto-
riesthroughoutthedecadeaboutgovernmenteffortstojump-start
blackcapitalism—seenbysomepolicymakers as a way to calm frus-
trateddemonstrators who’d taken to the streets—and profiles of
nascentblackbusinesses. The magazine’s tone remained a work in
progress:AnApril 1969 marketing story noted that “Negro-owned,
operatedAmerican Dream Soap hopes to clean up with products
aimedfortheghetto.”
BythetimeBusiness Week published a September 1973 article
aboutGeorgeE.Johnson and the success of his Chicago-based hair-
carecompany,Johnson Products (headline: “When Black Is Beautiful”),
theeditorsseemed intent on being more inclusive. Still, they were writ-
ingforanaudiencethatwasfarfromwokeabouttheblackexperi-
ence.Sowhenthey quoted Johnson, whose company made Afro
Sheen,joking,“I’dbe shaking in my boots” if more blacks began adopt-
ingthehairstylesported by singer Isaac Hayes Jr., Business Week
hadtoexplaintoits mostly white readers: “Hayes is bald.”
Change happens only so fast, however. When
a Xerox Corp. executive, A. Barry Rand, was inter-
viewed in 1988 for our cover story “The Black
Middle Class,” he was quick to note that discrim-
ination wasn’t going away. “ ‘The playing field has
not been leveled,’ argues Xerox’s Rand, who runs
a $4 billion unit with 30,000 employees. ‘America
is not color-blind. Race still matters.’ ” Rand, who
left Xerox in 1999 to become CEO of Avis and later
served as CEO of AARP before his death last year,
could have said the same today.● 1961
We stop featuring a
thermometer on the
cover to indicate the
“temperature” of
the U.S. economy.● 1965
A photo in the McGraw-Hill annual report shows
windows lit up in the shape of a 5 to celebrate our
circulation reaching 500,000.● 1966
Business Week on
hedge funds in their
earliest days: “Smart
Wall Street investors
are cutting their risk
by going into hedge
funds—a way to go both
long and short, and get
profits while protecting
their capital.”● 1968
Staff photographer P. Michael O’Sullivan, covering
demonstrations at the Democratic convention in
Chicago that August, is knocked down by cops. Police
grab exposed film from his camera and pouch.DNC: AP PHOTO. MCGRAW-HILL BUILDING: RICHARD LEVINE/ALAMY▼ 1960s