Nancy Michaels

Abstract

Nancy came of age at the height of the women’s movement of the 1970s. Her story is not that of an activist, but she was certainly a nonconformist and her career had the most unlikely of beginnings. It typifies the “accidental” nature of the careers of women of this generation. I never met Nancy in person, only over the telephone. In her interviews, she did not sound like the high level executive that she was. We might expect her to speak in a polished and professional manner, but the culture of the company where she achieved most of her success was one that accepted, maybe even valued, fighting and cursing, a true “boys” club. She speaks very matter-of-factly, sometimes even crudely. She also has some interesting perspectives to share about what actually goes on inside the executive suite. Despite its rocky start, her career led her to the very top of the corporate hierarchy, just one chair away from the presidency of a Fortune 100 company. What she found there eventually led her to abandon her tremendous success.