Expect Great Things!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women

by Vanda Krefft

A fun and fascinating social history of the famed Katharine Gibbs School, which from the 1910s to the 1960s, trained women for executive secretary positions but surreptitiously was instilling the self-confidence and strategic know-how necessary for them to claim equality, power, and authority in the wider world. 
 
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 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 120 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, paving the way for 21st-century women to succeed in any profession they choose.

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 Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Howard Hughes, Walt Disney, Marilyn Monroe. 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 Barbizon and Come Fly the World, Expect Great Things! reveals the seismic impact the Katharine Gibbs school had on the American workplace—and on women’s opportunities today.


 
 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Biography, Business, Audiobook, Historical

320 pages, Hardcover

Published March 4, 2025

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Katherine Gibbs (b. 1865), lived in comfortable circumstances until her husband died in 1909 and left the family destitute. Katherine had no skills, so she enrolled in a secretarial studies course where she learned typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, business practices, etc. Better yet, Katherine learned to teach those subjects, and in 1911, Katherine opened her first secretarial school.


Katherine Gibbs

Eventually, branches of the 'Katherine Gibbs School of Secretarial and Executive Training for Educated Women' opened in Rhode Island, Boston, New York City and New Jersey.


Katherine Gibbs School in Boston


Students at the Katherine Gibbs School

In addition to teaching secretarial skills, the Katherine Gibbs schools had courses in art and music appreciation, English literature and composition, psychology, sociology, economics, contemporary civilization, and world government. The curriculum also included lessons in personal grooming, elocution, and fashion sense. As a result, Katherine Gibbs' graduates were in high demand as secretaries, and many 'climbed the ladder' in a world where "men still held tight to high-paid, high-prestige occupations."


Typical 'Gibbs girl' with a hat and white gloves

Gibbs' plan to give women a boost was simple. She'd give employers women who were better than men: speedier typists, flawless stenographers, tidy organizers, and well-groomed, nicely dressed, gracious hostesses. In addition, 'Gibbs girls' would stealthily learn all about the organization, observe leadership, gain new skills, make new contacts, earn a decent living, and move up in the world....striking out on their own if necessary.



Krefft includes mini-biographies of 'Gibbs girls' who succeeded in a variety of professions. I'll give some examples.

◈ Katherine Towle: Towle got a degree from UC Berkeley, then graduated from the Gibbs school in 1923. After being employed by the Berkeley admissions department for three years, Katherine was denied admission to the school's PhD program because she was a woman. So Towle got a job as resident dean at the elite Ransom and Bridges school in Piedmont, California and soon became headmistress. Then in 1943, Towle joined the Women’s Reserve of the U.S. Marine Corps and was eventually promoted to Colonel.


Katherine Towle

◈ Mary Sutton Ramsdell: Ramsdell had a turbulent life before she graduated from the Gibbs school in the 1920s. Ramsdell then put her education to good use in Boston - at a home for unwed mothers. This was really a private detention center, and Mary was dismayed by the fact that women who 'fell from virtue' were penalized, but the men involved weren't punished. So Mary became a Massachusetts State Policewoman with a badge and gun, and she handled crimes involving women. Mary hauled in men who seduced underage girls; tracked down sexual predators reported to the police by teachers, ministers, nurses, and child protection agencies; went after negligent parents, etc. Mary had a twenty-year career where she was an advocate for women and a respected leader in the law enforcement community.


Mary Sutton Ramsdell

◈ Mary Goodrich : Goodrich was an aviation reporter and columnist who earned the first woman's pilot's license in Connecticut. In the early 1930s, Goodrich was appointed director of the Betsy Ross Corps, a group of female pilots ready to assist in national defense during emergencies. Mary lost her pilot's license in 1933 for faulty depth perception, after which she enrolled in the Gibbs school. This led to a job as a publicist and then a position with the Walt Disney Studio. Hired as a secretary, Goodrich was soon scouting out story ideas, writing summaries of the plot and characters, and doing background research on costumes, landscapes, and buildings. Krefft notes, "Mary's time at Disney would always remain a prized memory."


Women working at the Walt Disney Studio

Other Gibbs school graduates with distinguished careers include:

◈ Lenna Wilson - who became a New Hampshire State Representative in the 1920s;


Lenna Wilson

◈ Natalie Stark - who volunteered with the Sacco and Vanzetti defense team and later - while living in the Philippines - lobbied for United States aid to starving Chinese farmers;


Natalie Stark

◈ Lillian Lorraine - who flew domestic missions for the Army Air Forces during WWII;


Lillian Lorraine

◈ Loretta Swit - who became an award winning actress (she played 'Hot Lips' Houlihan in M*A*S*H);


Loretta Swit as 'Hot Lips' Houlihan

◈ Loudell Insley - who worked for Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy; and more.


Loudell Insley with Ted Kennedy

In addition to discussing the Gibbs schools, Krefft writes about society pressuring women to be 'stay at home wives and mothers', which would leave the good paying jobs for men.



Women were welcome to work as nurses and teachers, but for much of the 20th century, it was almost impossible for females to become lawyers, doctors, engineers, scientists, and so on. The Gibbs schools played a part in remedying that situation, so kudos to them.

This book, which contains a fine synopsis of women's professional advancement - along with many photographs - is an excellent addition to women's history. Highly recommended.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Eliza Foss, who does a fine job. I also had access to a digital copy of the book.

Thanks to Netgalley, Vanda Krefft, and Algonquin Books for copy of the book.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated this book, found it overall well done, and am proud that I got through it, though it was a struggle at times and often felt never-ending. It recounts the worthwhile history of the secretarial and business adminstration skills schools for women established by Katharine Gibbs in 1911 and that ran until 2011. The story of how, and why, Gibbs reinvented herself and came up with the idea and plan for launching such an innovative venture in the early 1900s to create employment opportunities for women in need of financial independence is really fascinating, impressive, and well worth reading. The book does a great job illustrating how the school advanced women’s economic security and upward mobility during a time when many of them, like Gibbs herself had been, were dependent on men (fathers, spouses, etc.) and thus the all-too-brittle safety net of human mortality and especially fallibility.


Unfortunately, Gibbs herself dies fairly early on in this tale, so the majority of the book consists of chronological or thematic chapters recounting (sometimes briefly and sometimes at length) the achievements of Gibbs students and graduates over the years. While it’s true these women went on to pursue some interesting and rewarding careers, especially given the times, the relentless recitation of one anecdotal success story after another can start to feel a little redundant and overwhelming, especially since the stories often shared some similarities and were recounted in a bit of a formulaic manner. I found myself starting to get a tad desensitized and numb. (The majority of students were white, born in the USA, and of upper or middle class socioeconomic status.) My other primary criticism of the book is that it is rather unswervingly praiseful of the Gibbs schools and thus reads a bit like hagiography. The overall effect was that of a college admissions brochure, and I would have preferred something a bit more nuanced and critical. Nonetheless, the book offers a comprehensive and focused history of an institution that played an important role in the advancement and empowerment of a specific and already somewhat (relatively) privileged population of women.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vanda Krefft is a journalist and film historian. Her 2025 book Expect Great Things! is an interesting broad dive (not a deep dive, I'll get into that) into the famed but now-defunct Katharine Gibbs School that ran in some form from 1911-2013 across a variety of campuses in the Northeastern US and Midwestern. The Gibbs School was essentially a secretarial training program aimed at high school and college graduate women that, after graduated, would allow them to get their foot in the door at white collar organizations or with affluent people in need of a personal bookkeeper/secretary/assistant, so they could work their way up from there or at least support themselves financially.

Krefft provides a few chapters of biographical detail on founder Katharine Gibbs (1863-1934), a well-to-do woman who found herself unexpectedly widowed and in financial straits in midlife and established a school modeled off her teenage boarding school experiences. Krefft later highlights dozens of women who attended Gibbs Schools and provides a few sentences, paragraphs, or occasionally sections about their experience at the school and how their careers and lives unfolded. I listened to the audiobook version and couldn't keep track of this enormous cast of characters given their fleeting presence; I wished Krefft had gone for depth over breadth here, though she clearly did an enormous amount of research. I also wished that Krefft had referred to these women by their last names instead of their first names, which I felt infantilized them and undermined their accomplishments (just think about how rarely men in nonfiction books are referred to by their first names).

Further reading: career women in the 20th century
The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free by Paulina Bren - as Krefft frequently references the Barbizon (as well as her most recent book, She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street)
The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II by Katherine Sharp Landdeck (Krefft references one of the WASPs)
Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am by Julia Cooke

My statistics:
Book 187 for 2025
Book 2113 cumulatively

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the digital copy of this audiobook; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Expect Great Things is the latest in a long line of books about women in history that were looked over despite their accomplishments because most histories until the past few decades was written by white men. I had never heard of the Katharine Gibbs School, yet when I got immersed into the book I realized that I should have known about the founder because she really did change the world of academics and jobs for women.

Katharine Gibbs was a woman who was left a widow with two small children and almost penniless. She vowed that she would one day prepare other women so they did not end up like her. And she did. The Katharine Gibbs School that she founded taught women life skills and work skills that previously had been the prevue of men. For the most part, men were secretaries to important people, but Gibbs school changed all of that. Women secretaries revolutionized the workforce in the United States.

We as a society need to keep reading and writing about women’s history and bringing these stories to light. I am so glad I got to know Katharine Gibbs and all the women that went on to successful careers with VIPs.

This book was narrated by Eliza Foss, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever listened to something else with her, but I would definitely listen to something Foss narrated again. She has a great voice for audio!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a history of the Katharine Gibbs School, once the preeminent business prep school for women. While it seems like the majority of the curriculum was built around creating maximally efficient secretaries, the book's goal is to demonstrate how many women rose above those limitations to break into male spaces and achievement. Beginning with the story of Gibbs herself, it eventually becomes a series of profiles of successful graduates. For some, outcomes were not great; not by any fault of their Gibbs education, but broader societal challenges facing women. In all, the book frames the Gibbs School as a mostly progressive option for women in a world of limitations, and its downfall due more to predatory investors than societal shifts.
The audio was good. The narration is straightforward and direct, which feels right for a relatively low-drama historical topic. It's a niche 20th-century history topic that I think some patrons at my library might pick up, but probably not one with enormously wide appeal.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book because I always love a history book about something I don’t know. I knew that the Katherine Gibbs school was a technical school, but I didn’t realize what the school once was. Reading this book, you see how confident this school made its graduates, really cool guest speakers, classes, and it just really seems like the admin made it fun to go here, and the women who graduated had such a confidence in them. Makes you wonder if a for-profit technical school could get to a level like this again. I loved seeing how this school shaped women, especially with stories of different women who attended.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great dive into a topic that I had no prior knowledge on but I now believe paved the way for women in the workforce. They walked so the Women's Rights movement could run and shape what we know today. I listened to the audiobook and I truly enjoyed the readers tone and delivery. The author had a great style and portrayed each topic in a fluid way. Very easy to follow along.

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the pantheon of American educational institutions that shaped the 20th century, few have been as influential yet as overlooked as the Katharine Gibbs School. Vanda Krefft's meticulously researched "Expect Great Things!" offers a compelling corrective to this historical oversight, revealing how an institution often dismissed as merely a "finishing school for secretaries" quietly revolutionized women's access to the professional world.

Krefft, whose previous work includes the acclaimed biography "The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox," brings the same narrative flair and scholarly rigor to this social history. Through vibrant storytelling and carefully excavated personal accounts, she illuminates how generations of "Gibbs girls" used their white gloves and impeccable typing skills as Trojan horses to infiltrate the male-dominated business world.

From Personal Tragedy to Educational Revolution

The book begins with Katharine Gibbs's own remarkable story. In 1909, at age 46, this comfortable middle-class wife suddenly found herself widowed when her husband William died after falling from the mast of his sailboat. The tragedy revealed an even more devastating truth: despite their comfortable lifestyle, William had left no will and virtually no money. Worse still, under Rhode Island law, Katharine had to petition the court for guardianship of her own children.

This shattering experience transformed the previously conventional Katharine into a determined entrepreneur. As Krefft writes with characteristic insight: "No longer willing to stand next to power, spending her time on busywork like arranging private railroad cars and limousines, she vowed to change her life."

In 1911, Katharine purchased a nondescript secretarial school in Providence, borrowed money from wealthy friends, and began crafting an educational model that would do far more than teach typing. Her vision? To equip young women not just with office skills but with cultural sophistication, strategic thinking, and unshakable confidence—tools they could use to climb far beyond the secretarial pool.

Beyond Typing: The Gibbs Curriculum

One of the book's greatest strengths is Krefft's detailed exploration of the Gibbs curriculum. Far from simply drilling students on stenography, the school offered what amounted to a compressed liberal arts education alongside vocational training. Distinguished professors from Harvard, Columbia, and MIT taught literature, economics, philosophy, and art appreciation.

The standards were brutally high—typing had to be perfect, not a single error allowed; shorthand had to be captured at 120 words per minute; grooming and poise were scrutinized relentlessly. Yet these standards served a purpose beyond mere perfectionism. As Krefft notes, "Meeting these unforgiving, grueling demands bred strength into the bone. It showed young women who thought they couldn't that they could excel—and if at this task, then likely at any other on which they set their sights."

Tales of Extraordinary Graduates

The heart of the book lies in the stories of Gibbs graduates who leveraged their training to extraordinary effect. Some highlights include:

- Katherine Towle, who rose to become a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and the first female head of the Women Marines

- Joye Hummel, the first woman to write Wonder Woman comics

- Clare Ferraro, who became president of Viking Books

- Loretta Swit, the Emmy-winning actress known for her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on MAS*H

- Emily Pike, who became a powerful Republican political strategist

- Jean Drewes, who served as social secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor

What emerges is a fascinating tapestry of women who used their Gibbs training—particularly their ability to navigate male power structures while maintaining their own authority—to forge paths in fields from publishing to politics, from entertainment to the military.

Historical Context and Cultural Impact

Krefft excels at situating the Gibbs phenomenon within the broader currents of 20th-century American history. She shows how the school filled a crucial gap for ambitious women at a time when professional schools remained largely closed to them:

"For much of the twentieth century, the name 'Katharine Gibbs' had been synonymous with women's empowerment. The school had tapped a large, hidden reservoir of female ambition that had nowhere else to go, blocked as it was by minuscule quotas or male-only admissions policies at professional schools and hemmed in by social norms that demanded marriage and motherhood."

Particularly illuminating is Krefft's analysis of how Gibbs graduates navigated the contradictory messages of different eras—from the "New Woman" of the 1920s to the enforced domesticity of the 1950s to the women's liberation movement of the 1960s.

Strengths and Weaknesses

What Shines:

- Rich primary sources: Krefft draws on yearbooks, school brochures, personal correspondence, and interviews with alumnae to create a vivid portrait of Gibbs life across decades.

- Balanced perspective: While celebrating Gibbs's achievements, Krefft acknowledges its limitations, including its limited racial diversity and its sometimes rigid adherence to traditional femininity.

- Engaging narratives: The personal stories of graduates bring theoretical points about gender and opportunity to life.

- Historical context: Krefft deftly weaves in the broader societal forces that shaped both the school and its students.

Areas for Improvement:

- Structure: Occasionally, the chronological organization is interrupted by thematic chapters, which can make the timeline difficult to follow.

- Geographic scope: While the New York and Boston schools receive ample attention, the Chicago and Montclair branches remain somewhat underdeveloped.

- Class analysis: Though Krefft acknowledges that Gibbs primarily served middle and upper-class women, a deeper examination of class dynamics would have strengthened the analysis.

- Cultural criticism: The book sometimes accepts the Gibbs philosophy at face value without fully interrogating its alignment with respectability politics.

A Timely Reassessment

"Expect Great Things!" arrives at a moment when questions about women's education, professional advancement, and the meaning of success continue to evolve. The Gibbs story offers a nuanced case study in how women have navigated systems not designed for them.

What makes this book particularly valuable is Krefft's recognition that progress isn't always linear or ideologically pure. The Gibbs approach—working within existing power structures while gradually expanding women's roles—was neither as radical as later feminist movements nor as accepting of the status quo as it might have appeared. As Krefft writes:

"What those feminists who pilloried Alan Baker at the New York Gibbs school in 1970 didn't appreciate was that Gibbs graduates had helped lay the foundation for their theoretical arguments. Women were equal? As an idea alone, that wasn't going to sell, not to men who were used to dealing only with men in authority. But Gibbs women showed they could run everything from an executive office to an entire company or government agency."

Final Assessment

"Expect Great Things!" deserves high praise for recovering a significant but underappreciated chapter in American women's history. Through meticulous research and engaging prose, Krefft demonstrates how the Katharine Gibbs School functioned as both a reflection of its time and a catalyst for change.

The book's greatest achievement lies in its nuanced understanding of how progress often happens: not through dramatic upheaval but through strategic persistence. The Gibbs graduates who "infiltrated, worked hard, and earned respect" may not have smashed patriarchal structures, but they widened the cracks enough for future generations to break through.

For readers interested in the history of women's education, professional development, or American social change, "Expect Great Things!" offers both enlightening analysis and captivating human stories. Krefft has produced a valuable contribution to our understanding of how institutions shape lives—and how determined individuals can reshape institutions.

[Sarah Poling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listening to the audio book, the narrator has a perfect voice, tone, and inflection for reading aloud. The book is very thorough sharing the life of Katharine Gibbs from Galena, IL birth, through schooling in NY for high school, singleness through her 20's and then marriage later in life, two sons, a husband who died and left her no provisions, and her response to recognizing that all women in her time, needed opportunity to become self supporting, not out of a feminist push, but just to be prepared for anything life brought on.

Her mindset is that of what modern thinkers would say is a "growth mindset" as well as showing courage, resilience, ingenuity, common sense, and intentional choices that suit her goals, not the cultural expectations of her era.

Expect Great Things if read and reviewed with wonder, and seeking the mindset of how to be successful in life when your perspective and ideas are different from the social norm, is a great inspiration. She empowers all women with the shared perspective that "anything is possible for those WILLING TO WORK HARD." We are lucky to have this life story to inspire young and older women alike that they can do anything if they are willing to work at it.

After learning about the way the school was created, who taught there, and how many locations there were, you continue to learn how the students at the Gibbs schools use their skills throughout huge events in history, and with connections to vital government offices, red cross, etc. So many layers of experience and perspectives brought in through the explanation of how Gibbs girls used their skills. Famous women who you may have heard of, or maybe have never heard of, but you hear how women had huge impacts on the government, companies, presidents, etc. And you learn about women who themselves went into politics serving at local, state, and national levels!

Thankful to netgalley for the opportunity to read/listen to an advance copy of the book, I suspect it will have an impact on me as I mentor young women and encourage them..

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Themes: Women Kicking Butt!, Unknown Histories Brought to Life, Gripping Non-Fiction

If you only read 1 Non-Fiction book this month, read this one! March is ‘Women’s History Month’ and this one packs a ton of amazing stories about kick-ass women into very readable chapters. Krefft’s voice throughout the book is knowledgeable and genuine, being a history nerd is not required (but if you are, you’ll doubly love this book!). Read it. Loved it. 100% Recommending it!!

[Reading with Cats · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this one but it just didn’t hold my interest.

[Dodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of Expect Great Things! chronicled the difficulties of Katharine Gibbs. It reminded me of a Jane Austen novel (specifically Sense and Sensibility). As a destitute widow, she must figure out how to provide for her two sons and herself. Gibbs works hard, and she's plucky. Vanda Krefft tells the story of Gibbs starting a school to train women and then relates accounts of successful graduates.

[Lindsay pinkcowlandreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who else decides to read book by looking at the cover and reading only the main part of the title? Well, I can tell you that this girl does sometimes and sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes it’s rather surprising.

In the case of expect great things, I was expecting a book about women working in some kind of war effort, and what I got was the history of the Katherine Gibbs school that educated women in the role of executive secretary and revolutionized women women’s role in the workplace during the 50s and 60s.

This was an interesting lesson filled with history about the school specifically and it’s founders, Katharine Gibbs and stories about the actual students and their successes and the role the Gibbs school took within the workplace culture of the time.

Narrator Eliza Foss does a great job narrating this non-fiction and giving it a lot of energy and zest. Some of the book felt a little dry, but the narration was easy enough to listen to that it made you to continue on.

Overall, this was not what I expected, but it was very interesting learning about this school, since I do work in this field, so it was pretty neat to hear where standards were made, and the impressive height that some people were able to climb during the peak years of the Katherine Gibbs school.

This is a review of the audiobook.

[france · Rating 5 out of 5]

[welcome to my too-cool-for-school challenge, my reading spree on the topic of education systems (and their respective psychosocial impact on their students) all over the world.]

Haven’t picked up a book for this challenge for so long. And technically, I decided to read Expect Great Things primarily because I’m always interested in very niche perspectives on specific historical eras as well as learning more about how other people design their career paths. It’s really great to hear about the impact of “ordinary” people largely undocumented by our history books, and how they quietly laid down the foundation for generations to come. Well, I did get that. But I also got a female-centric lens on education (tech-voc education, in this case). Definitely merits a place in my too-cool-for-school challenge.

I’m a proud and content 21st century woman, and you’d never hear me say I wish I were born in another era. But as I got swept up in the pages detailing the comings and goings at the Katie Gibbs campuses, I must say I couldn’t help but wish I’d get transported back as a student at the NYC campus—staying at the Barbizon Hotel; attending Lillian Gilbreth’s course on efficiency, Frances Church Salmon and Lavinia Koelsch’s class on personal style / self-presentation, William Marston’s Business Psychology, and more; attending galas at the Biltmore Hotel; watching Broadway; and most of all, building friendships with the strong, ambitious, independent women around me who all chose to go to Gibbs for a reason. This kind of education truly sparked a quiet revolution from the inside, reprogramming the minds of women to stubbornly make their marks in an era that was adamant to erase them.

One of the most enlightening moments in the book was learning that even at liberal arts women’s colleges as late as 1955, education was promoted solely as a stepping stone to marriage, rather than a springboard to a variety of opportunities. Hard to believe that was only 75 years ago.

Truly, Katie Gibbs was a pioneering institution. It was practical in the sense that Gibbs equipped women with essential, marketable skills (of that era) so they’d never have to worry about employability — but also in how it gave them the cultural capital to navigate the world they were entering and access spaces previously closed to them. It evolved, adapted with the changing landscape but at its core was an ethos made for that era: that to make your own rules, you need to learn how to play the game.

[Carole Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It provided a pathway to independence for decades of women

During the first half of the 20th century women were generally neither expected nor encouraged to seek a career outside of the home. Those who wanted, or needed, to work had fairly limited (and relatively low paying) options...teachers, nurses, store clerks, office typists and the like. Even those women fortunate enough to attend college often found that, once they had graduated, no one was looking to hire a woman with a degree in their field of study. What then could a woman who wanted, and in many cases needed, more than what was available? A woman named Katharine Gibbs found herself one of those women in need of a way to make a good living; although she was raised in a well-to-do family and seemed destined for a life of comfort (provided first by her father and later by a husband), through no fault of her own when she was in her forties suddenly found herself a widow with young children and no way to support herself or them. She would create a business, a school which would give bright and eager young women the opportunity to learn both the practical skills needed to be executive secretaries (hitherto the realm predominantly of men) as well as furthering their education in classical studies and social graces in order to become the best candidates for any job available. In doing so, Katharine was also training these women to literally infiltrate the corridors of power across the country and move into leadership roles therein, executive secretaries who would become executives. Long before NOW and the ERA, women who obtained their degree from the Katharine Gibbs school paved the way for women to climb the ladder of success, ensure their own financial security whether they chose to marry or not, and create pathways for women in later years to follow. From the world of business to government, the military to the entertainment world and beyond, "Gibbs Girls" made their mark on the world for many decades. They didn't kick down doors or shatter glass ceilings....in their time, such forceful attempts would have been met with too much pushback to succeed...but they advanced step by step, showing determination and earning respect as they made their way in the world. The Katharine Gibbs School is gone today, but without the 50,000 or so women who graduated from it's program today's generation of intelligent and ambitious young women would find their own road to success a much harder one to travel.
Having been raised in the Northeast where it began I was certainly familiar with the existence of the Katharine Gibbs School, although it was already waning in popularity and reputation when I was pursuing my own education. In all honesty, I think that I dismissed it as some sort of secretarial school where women who weren't heading to college could learn to type and take shorthand (my apologies to Gibbs girls everywhere!). Reading this book revealed just how much I had underestimated what the institution did and what its graduates accomplished over the years. Yes, the students certainly did learn to type and take dictation and all of that, but (a) they were trained to do it to the highest possible standard, faster and more accurate than any other, and (b) they were educated and refined until their confidence in their own abilities and the image they presented to the world was similarly the best. Teachers and guest lecturers from nearby Ivy League schools furthered their education, with courses ranging from psychology (to be better able to handle their bosses and those who interacted with their bosses with grace and skill) to art history and world affairs, a Gibbs Girl could mix in whatever company was required and reflect well on the person or enterprise for whom they worked. Author Vanda Krefft details the life of Katharine Gibbs herself, her background and how she found herself revolutionizing the role of women in the working world against the backdrop of the ever-changing times in which she lived and developed her business. She also introduces the reader to many of the women who passed through the doors of the school and led fulfilling and at times adventurous lives, crossing paths with titans of industry, luminaries of the world and more (I'll drop just a few names...Howard Hughes, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Elsa Maxwell and Charles Lindbergh) and being witnesses to important moments in history, Expect Great Things! is a delightful read, and I found it an eyeopening look at an institution that I didn't know nearly as well as I thought I did. For those who enjoyed reading books like Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures and Julie Satow's When Women Ran Fifth Avenue or who were fans of Mad Men or Selfridge's, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Expect Great Things! and put it at the very top of your TBR pile. Many thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for allowing me early access to this gem of a book, and my gratitude to author Vanda Krefft for bringing to life the many women who defied the expectations of their time and showed that they, and others like them, could do anything they set their mind to do.

[David Schecter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fascinating journey about women striving to improve their position in the American workforce

What surprised me the most about Vanda Krefft's latest nonfiction work, EXPECT GREAT THINGS!, was how so much of the book wasn’t the story about Katharine Gibbs’ school for women. Instead, it focused on many of the students who studied there, and how the school’s teachings influenced them when they joined the workforce. The book also takes a wider view of the world of the 20th century, examining how these young women helped change the course of history by affecting the workforce, as well as how the changing times influenced the school’s teachings, which again influenced the students in new ways.

While the first quarter of of the book tells the story of Katharine Gibbs and the events that shaped her and led to her formation of the school, the majority of the book traces a wide variety of female students who entered the workforce after the grueling education they received from the school. While the first few mini-biographies temporarily took me out of the flow of the book, I quickly realized that these personal tales were really what the book was about. It's about the changing roles of women through the last century in response to forces and events in the United States and around the world. The lessons learned in one era did not necessarily apply to the next era, so the school had to keep changing in order to keep their graduates in the best positions to enter the job market and pursue their dreams or to try to escape their present plights. How to teach them to act in a man's world was just as important -- if not more so -- than teaching them typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, or other skills that were necessary for doing the actual job. What was a chronological series of biographies was actually a history of America as seen through the lives of intelligent, motivated women from different walks of life.

Given all the societal weight against women in the male-dominated workforce, it was only through these women’s perseverance and the lessons they learned during their time at the Gibbs School that prepared them for what must have been a harrowing, pressure-filled, and ongoing battle to earn a decent living doing jobs their female predecessors could rarely if ever have hoped to have held. Quite a few of the women profiled could have their own biographies written about them, and maybe one of these days, movies or biographies will be made about some of these trailblazers. A few of the Gibbs students grew to be famous and influential, but the majority toiled mostly in silence, perhaps eventually recognized by their state, or at least their hometown or community.

What really stood out for me was the tremendous amount of research Krefft did in order to bring all these women to life, if only for the few pages each was profiled in. The detail with which so many things are described is quite impressive, almost as if you're reading a visually oriented screenplay. A look at the “Notes” section at the end of the book reveals just how much investigative work the author had to do to present these mostly forgotten female "heroes" as actual human beings rather than just statistics in a history book. However, statistics are important when tracing something like women's employment through the last century, and Krefft provides plenty some of that as well. This adds context to the particular tales she's telling as she leads the reader from the early 1900s up to nearly the present time.

Although it can sometimes feel a little daunting to keep going back to the beginning of the next woman’s journey as she left the school in search of her place in the "real world," as you continue through the book, you realize you're receiving a well-told history lesson of the women's movement as seen through the lens of the labor force. And when you've finished the book, you’ll have much better insights into the long, hard struggle females have had trying to get a piece of the pie that has primarily been served to men.

Photos illustrate this book extremely well, adding to the visual approach that Krefft's text displays. This is an extraordinarily descriptive, important book about the nature and place of women in America during most of the previous century.

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katharine Gibbs had the fortune of being born into a well-to-do family, as well as marrying a man who gave her a pleasant financially stable life. She also had the misfortune of twice becoming poor after her father died without leaving a will, and her husband died without leaving a will. That was it for her! No more was she going to depend on a man for financial stability, and she was going to help other women become financially secure on their own, too. Not only that, but she was going to turn other women into executive secretaries, who would always be on the lookout for advancement and outstanding achievements of their own.

She accomplished her dream by starting a school that was a combination of a secretarial school, a liberal arts college and a finishing school. Her women would not only be able to flawlessly write, type and take shorthand, but also be highly knowledgeable in the arts, social sciences and rules of etiquette. In addition, they would wear hats, heels and white gloves. Their living quarters would be luxurious, their social events would be dazzling, their classes demanding and challenging. Many of their students had already graduated from prestigious women's colleges, but now needed direction on getting a job.

While the "Gibbs girls" had some difficulties finding jobs during certain time periods, such as during the depression, most other times there were unlimited job offers, such as when men were off to war; or during the 1950s, when most women bought the belief that being wives and mothers were the only jobs a woman should have. Not only were executive secretary jobs found, but other fabulous jobs in publishing, politics, entertainment, the military, etc. Many graduates obviously bought Katharine Gibbs dream of reaching for the highest star possible. This book is filled with one success story after another. I had to read the stories in installments, however, because reading one after another started seeming a bit tedious. Yet all were interesting and impressive.

(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher.)

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the ARC!

I'll admit, I initially picked this book up based on the cover of the glamorous women and their wide hats among the back-drop of the big city. I had never heard of the Katharine Gibbs School before this book, and I'm so glad I took the time to listen to this audiobook.

Expect Great Things! begins with the story of Katharine Gibbs, a widow with two children left nearly penniless when her husband died. She made it her mission to teach young women the necessary skills to ensure they could stand on their own two feet and make a living without relying on a man or anyone else lest the same misfortune happen to them.

What followed Katharine's story were the stories of many notable Gibbs' graduates who went on to take their Gibbs education and make a name for themselves in the predominantly male workforce. While their secretarial skills got them into the offices of the most hire-powered men, these women ultimately went on to forge their own careers working alongside people like Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and as the head of the Women's Marines, a writer of Wonder Women comics, a presidential advisor, and a U.S. Ambassador to name a few. As a huge fan of M*A*S*H it was really cool to hear Loretta Swit's story too!

I love narrative non-fiction books, especially ones that focus on lesser known, but incredibly important parts of history. Many people my age have never heard of the Katharine Gibbs School, and the thought of a secretarial school may sound laughable in the 21st century, but it played a huge role in educating women and giving them freedom to earn their own money and work in the areas where decisions were being made, often subversively becoming decision-makers themselves.

[Krys Pawlus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Behind Every Great Man Was a Gibbs Girl!

I had a vague recollection of the Katherine Gibbs School as merely a secretarial school. Until I read Expect Great Things!, I had no idea that it was much more. The secretarial training the women received actual prepared them to be leaders, although not usually by title or position. Not only were they trained in secretarial skills, they received a well-rounded education in liberal arts, diplomacy, management and societal skills. They, unlike most women of that time, were given an opportunity for a career, not just a job. The vision of Katherine Gibbs to train women as future leaders was extraordinary considering the national culture after the turn of the 20th century. Women's roles were narrowly defined as wives and homemakers. They were only accepted in the workplace as teachers, nurses, or menial service workers. The author engagingly presents the school's philosophy and history through the stories of a number of individual graduates. She brings them to life through their successes and disappointments as they maneuvered through a male-dominated workplace and society. Fortunately, the lives of these women were documented, albeit limitedly, through letters, diaries, archives, and various records. I'm sure many more women achieved professional success because of their time at Gibbs but they disappeared without a trace, at least publicly. After all, it was a man's world and there was not much interest in documenting the success of women. expect Great Things was very engaging and I found myself thinking that we could use a modern version of the Katherine Gibbs School that could give women a more well-rounded education than many universities.

[Angelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katharine Gibbs was 46 years old when her husband died and left her with nothing. Because he left no will, she had to go to court to get guardianship of her children. This was the last straw in a long line of life ruining events she’d endured because of the men in her life. Her father died without leaving a will, and her brothers sold the house and property out from under her and her sister.

She finally decided to take her life into her hands. She established the Katharine Gibbs School in the 1910s to help women take control of their own destinies. The school was the most elite business training school in the world for young women for 50 years. Gibbs girls were known to be knowledgeable, professional and proficient in any task they took on. They were also fashionable, polite and well-versed in a series of topics from history to art to business.

While it may have looked like a secretarial school on the outside, Mrs. Gibbs was teaching much more than typing and shorthand. She was preparing her students to compete for corporate jobs way above secretary. She created a revolution in the business world and helped countless women achieve goals that were way above anyone would have given them an opportunity for otherwise.

Ms. Krefft’s book is history that reads like a novel. It’s well researched and draws you right into the time period of the story. Expect Great Things is a fine tribute to a woman whose quiet revolution changed the world of women for the better. I’m glad she’s finally getting her due.

I received an advance copy of this book from Net Galley and am happy to leave this 5-star review.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(ALC provided by NetGalley). This was a really great, comprehensive history of the Katharine Gibbs School. This is a part of history I never knew about, and the author did a fabulous job pulling together so many stories of the women who graduated from and/or were connected to the school. This was a very empowering read and it’s a good reminder that without strong women in the past, we wouldn’t be where we are today. This book kept my attention the entire time and there were not “slow” parts in my opinion. I was really shocked to learn that the school only closed down officially in 2011.


One major criticism is the lack of acknowledgement that this book is written about white women who attended the school and white women in history in general. There were only 3-4 brief parts that acknowledged racism and racial differences during the time periods discussed in the book. In my opinion, there should have been a very clear disclaimer at the beginning of the book and also a clear definition of “women” (I.e. white women) as it is used in this book. If this was better explained and acknowledged in the book, it would have been an easy 5/5 stars!

I highly recommend this read to everyone as it was very well done and an important piece of women’s history in the US.

The narrator was fabulous and the absolute perfect pick for this book. They had a very strong voice and fit very well with the contents of the story.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this fascinating history of the Katharine Gibbs School and the women it taught, readers discover how a secretarial school taught women self-confidence and strategic knowledge that allowed women to take up public spaces and jobs in the wider world. Following the school’s development from its foundation in the 1910s through the 1960s, Vanda Krefft highlights how the school used its image to subversively transform the role of the secretary into a position with power and pave the way for future generations of working women. The school’s founder Katharine Gibbs, a self-made woman in her own right who transformed society’s assigned role into a position of power, is a fascinating woman whose contributions to women’s working lives has gone unnoticed and underappreciated until now. Immersive, engaging, and a fascinating insight into social history and women’s history, this book is a must-read for women historians, labor historians, and social historians for its brilliant engagement with and reading of primary and secondary documents. Easy to read and deeply accessible, this book is well-written and very insightful, and its conclusions are deeply relevant to modern conversations about women’s work and access to public spaces, showing the deep connections between the present day and history.

Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the advance copy.

[Diane Vallere · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books like this!

We often get the stories of famous women who achieved great things. This book is a love letter to the not-famous (mostly) women who pushed the envelope (sometimes literally) and strived for a higher standard than they may believed was possible for them. A variety of struggles paved the path to the door of the Katharine Gibbs School, but in case after case, these women's eyes were opened to the possibilities available to them.

I agree with the book's description: if you liked The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free and/or Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am, you'll love this too. Fans of Lynn Peril's books may enjoy it as well.

Inspirational, insightful, and entertaining!

I received an ARC of this book. Opinions are my own.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard of Katharine Gibbs School and knew it was a secretarial school, but that was pretty much it. After reading this book, I realise how oversimplified my impression was, as Katharine Gibbs School was so much more. The book primarily focuses on the stories of dozens of graduates and how their education helped them to transformed not only the workplace, but to shift the whole perception of women as a work-capable part of society.

In the early 20th century, when women were expected to marry young rather than pursue careers, first women to challenge these norms had to overcome so many obstacles. It’s difficult to imagine how many different sexist stereotypes they encountered daily, but thanks to their effort, persistence and dedication, the world was gradually changing.

That said, it may be an exaggeration to credit the Katharine Gibbs School alone for this progress. Even the book says that many graduates hadn’t worked a single day (still marrying instead). Then, there were also other women, who did a great impact, while not getting their education at Gibbs. Thought, when viewed as a collection of success stories, I admit that this book is uplifting and inspiring, which makes it a nice read overall.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of a well narrated audiobook!

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about women’s history we never learned in school. This one covers some of the many women who went to the Katharine Gibbs school. It starts with Katharine’s history and how she started the school. It was advertised as a secretarial school but taught so much more. They taught women to stay strong when things didn’t work out and to not be afraid to move on. It taught them to have confidence in themselves. The book goes on to name many of the women who went through the school over the years, including actress Loretta Swit. One story was particularly interesting to me because I learned part of that story in another book on women’s history. This one was a pilot who went on to help ferry new planes to their destinations. The women were considered civilians and it was many years before their efforts were acknowledged by the military.
I had heard of the Katharine Gibbons school but had no idea of its impact on women’s history. A lot of influential women came from there.
I read this as an audiobook and thought the narrator did an excellent job.
I received this book as a free ARC and am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katharine Gibbs is a happy homemaker with a loving husband and two small sons. In 1909 her husband died and Katharine was left with nothing. Her husband had no will and in those days everything belonged to the man. She had no home, no furniture, and could even lose custody of her sons if she couldn't provide for them. That was when Katharine decided to start The Katharine Gibb's school for women. Women were't big in the work force but times were changing as men were going off to war, and there was a need for good secretaries. Her school was very strict and trained women to be excellent secretaries but they also taught them that they could go far if they followed the things taught at school. The school lasted until 1968 and did indeed turn out a large number of very successful women who began as secretaries but rose to much higher positions. I gave this book 4.6 stars. It is an interesting read.

[Teresa S · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

Expect Great Things! by Hachette Audio was very interesting. It is a history of the Katherine Gibbs School for Women. It was the prevailing school for women in the 1920s – 1960s. Their main mission was to provide a way for women to lead independent lives. Most women were expected to be secretaries. But their plan was for many to be much more. They had to adapt with the times during the depression where they taught the girls to be smart shoppers and to adapt to the items that are available. You might recognize a few names. But most of them are not common names. It was interesting to hear about many women that did important things in history and many have been unrecognized.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Reeca Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few historical fiction novels that mention The Katherine Gibbs school but I have never known the full story. And this is a great book about why she started this school and how she achieved great success AND the achievements of the graduates.

Y’all…the women who went before us were super heroes!

This author has done some amazing research. She has captured the best of the best and she has done a fabulous job with this information. I learned so much in this book. And these women…talk about strength, character and courage in a time of unbelievable hardship. They changed the laws and expectations!

This is narrated by Eliza Foss. She did a great job. Very matter of fact and great pacing.

Need a true story about changing your stars…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this audiobook from the publisher for a honest review.

[AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoyed the Mad Men series or the film, Mona Lisa Smile, this is right up your alley! I had never heard of Katharine Gibbs but after reading about the impact of just a few women she set up to be a success in the world, I’m so thankful for her as a woman. I think some read into stories like this as not providing enough for women but I think the book does a great job of explaining what it was like for career women in the 1920s-60s, especially. It was very much preparing women to be skilled enough to replace a man even if the opportunities would never arise. More so, they were taught loopholes to get as close to the top as possible. In most cases, at this time, getting close WAS the win! It was almost unheard of and not heavily accepted to be more than a housewife if that’s what you wanted so reading of the incredible achievements many of these women reached just filled me with gratitude for the skills they were taught through Gibbs school and how effective they truly were in applying their education to propel them.

[Gemutlichkeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this! While I had known about the broader social things happening during this era, I was completely unfamiliar with this training school that wound up providing instruction and job placement opportunities for ~50K women over its time. The book quickly tells the story of how the school came to be (which was informative - I did not know that men who died intestate put their widows in need of petitioning the state to keep their own kids), it was also very well laid out and produced. The book includes brief biographies of many individual students who attended the school (complete with small photos) and what happened to them. It is a very engaging read right up until one of the ending chapters, where it slogged slightly. Highly recommended!