Past Events

We are pleased to welcome Vanda Krefft, author of Expect Great Things! How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women, in recognition of Women’s History Month, on Monday, March 24, at 7 pm via Zoom. Karen Heffner of Greenwich Pen Women will interview Ms. Krefft. The interview will be followed by a Q&A session.

Someone had to do it. In an era when women were supposed to marry young or, if they insisted on working, scrape by in low-paid, low-prestige jobs as teachers, nurses, and librarians, history was waiting for a woman who would stand up and say, No more. What history probably didn’t expect was that this woman would be a middle-aged, near-broke widow with two young sons to support and no work experience outside the home.

But that’s what history got: Katharine Gibbs, who had learned the hard way about the potentially calamitous risks of depending on a man financially. No more, she decided—not for her and not necessarily for any other woman. And so, in 1911, two years after her husband died in a freak accident, she started her school, which during the next five decades emerged as a major liberating force for American women. Trained as executive secretaries, they were encouraged and equipped at Gibbs to reach as high as they could dream. “Expect great things!” was both the school’s mission and motto.

Please join author Vanda Krefft and Karen Heffner of  the Greenwich Pen Women as they discuss Katharine Gibbs’s extraordinary success story, the ground-breaking careers of Gibbs graduates, and the complex process of uncovering hidden history.

This is a Zoom program, and registration is required. Click here to register.

Reserve a copy of the book from our catalog, or click here to order a copy from Athena Books.

For more information, contact Judy Sgammato at 203-637-1066 x15 or judys@perrotlibrary.org.