Fall Kickoff: Julia Keller  

If there is one thing we can learn by paging back to the 19th century, Julia Keller claims it is this: "Women deal magnificently with change."

With this welcome affirmation, Keller launched her inspirational speech for CWIP's 2007 Fall Kickoff, drawing from lessons learned while writing her soon-to-be-released book, Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel. Amidst rapid change during the 19th century, Keller said, men could blissfully live in a world of the mind while "women lived on the ground where life actually happened."

The parallels between the era she was researching and the present age were significant for Keller. Advances have made life easier for women, but many facets of womanhood remain unchanged. Or as Keller put it, "We don't empty slop jars anymore, but it's still a dirty job."

Keller's 19th century lessons not only translate to gender relations, but to the publishing industry as well. As writer for the Chicago Tribune since 1998, Keller has seen newspapers hard-hit by change in recent years. In the face of decreased subscriptions and advertising dollars, she pointed out that, "Newspapers, all news sources, have to change, have to adapt."

Thanks to the discoveries of Charles Darwin in the 19th century, "adapt or cease to exist" is a very real credo. But unfortunately for human nature, Keller shared, "you don't change until you have to change. Change is still one of the most unsettling things a person confronts."

Keller is worried that the demand for thoughtful, in-depth feature writing, the kind of writing that earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, is going by the wayside in favor of rapid news bites. Technology has moved ahead while long-standing industries, like newspapers, are still grasping at the best way to harness that technology.

But if anything can reassure us, as Keller's speech showed, it's the knowledge that women adapted so well during the 19th century and no doubt will continue to overcome the challenges of the present. In terms of the job market, for Keller that means, "The energetic, well-prepared professional is gold."

Tamara Matthews is a freelance writer and editor, and is also Web site editor for CWIP. She can be reached at web@cwip.org.

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