'Washington Post' editor offers career advice to junior women

In her work, she assigns stories. In her leisure, Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Mary Hadar tells stories. And last Thursday night, the 1965 College for Women graduate told plenty of tales as keynote speaker for the annual Career Dinner for Junior Women. The three-and-a-half-hour reception was also an opportunity for the junior women to get advice from several other prominent elders. The single-sex environment provided a congenial forum for airing questions and uncertainties about the job market -- without the pressure of networking or contact-building. "If it was a bunch of men running around in business suits, it would be intimidating," College junior Amy Malerba said. "But this event was so incredible? It was just so easy to strike up a conversation." Hadar wove anecdotes from her 30-year journalism career with commentary on the changing roles of women in society. The first female managing editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Hadar attended journalism school at Columbia University after graduating from Penn. She then worked for The Baltimore Sun as a copy editor -- a job she called "not glamorous." She spent eight years editing foreign news at The Jerusalem Post before joining The Washington Post's "Style" section as a copy editor. "You are all under pressure to make a decision? to decide the rest of your lives," she joked to the women. The tone of the evening was relaxed. Tables were loosely organized around career fields, with prominent guests sprinkled at each one. Most students stressed that the evening was an eye-opening chance to inquire about several different fields. Hadar, in fact, said she had originally been a math major, switching to English only in her junior year. While Hadar conceded that her career has not been free of sexual discrimination, she stressed the advantages of being a woman in managing people. "[I am] not a threat to people," she explained. "I'm not ambitious -- I'm not out to get their jobs." And, true to her word, after her talk, Hadar made herself quite accessible. Foregoing the dessert buffet to talk with her privately, students formed lines by her table after the speech. Even fellow alumnae were eager to exchange words. Guest Karen Harrison, a reporter for The New York Post and former Penn graduate student, exchanged business cards with Hadar following the speech. Harrison emphasized the aid she received from Penn's "phenomenal" alumni network in finding jobs across the country. "Other schools hit you up for money? [Here there is] much more outreach, much more participation," she said. Many of the other guests agreed. "I feel very indebted to Penn," added Harrison's sister Joan, a 1981 College graduate who works for CBS's entertainment division. "It was really helpful to me in terms of the professional network." Thursday's reception was the ninth annual career dinner sponsored by the Trustees' Council of Penn Women. The Council also produces an on-line service available only to Penn women for networking purposes, but Council Chairperson and Trustee Elsie Sterling Howard stressed that Thursday's dinner was simply a "venue for interaction." "We provide feedback," Howard explained. "[After college], a hundred things can happen."