Katherine Graham

Katherine Graham

Name

Institution

Date

The outcomes of a child are in most cases determined by the type of their social background. The social class background of the particular child determines the ability of the same person to adjust to various situations in the future life. It also depicts whether the child will be successful in their education life and the labor market in later days. The social class background also shows when and whom the child will marry and their possibility to create families that are stable in the marriages. All these results depend on the amount the family is willing and able to invest in the life of their children. There are various forms of family capital that lead to a child’s future life. One of them is the social capital that refers to the kind of relationship that exists between the children, their parents, and other members of the society.

Katharine Meyer Graham is a woman of substance little known to many people. The journalists, however, who existed at her time in the United States of America and other parts of the world know her better. She was born back in the year 1917 on June 16 in New York City. She was the fourth born child of a family of five children to Eugene Meyer and Agnes Elizabeth Meyer. During her early life, Mrs. Graham missed the love and company of her father. He was always distant with her but eventually came to appreciate her and think of her as the favorite of his children. The mother, on the other hand, was hardly perturbed by her children. In 1917, Agnes joined her husband in Washington, and they left their four little children in New York for a period of four years. Mrs. Graham’s younger brother was furious about this when he later in life what their parents had done to them (Davis, 1979).  

Mrs. Graham and her other siblings eventually moved to Washington to join their parents after the long separation. They, however, saw them only on particular formal occasions. The family rarely had time to spend together and discuss on social issues such as sex, money or their religion. The children only went out with their mother each at a time. There were occasions when they were required to make appointments to meet with their mother for the drive when she was so occupied. The mother was only concerned with her career and ignored her children. She would spend most of her time giving speeches to women groups and writing books to adorn the influential men in society but no time for her children (Graham, 1997).

Mrs. Graham’s childhood lacked any great memories due to the negligence of her parents most especially her mother. In her adulthood, she bonded more with the father may be because of their common interest in the area of journalism and media. The issue of her mother distancing from her made her feel independent. “Somewhat to my surprise, given that I thought of myself during this period as unsophisticated, unworldly and fairly unopinionated, I seem to have been full of independent appraisals of the paper and what it was printing.” (Graham, 1997). It was at this moment at school that she learned to be on her own and fight for her rights. She started championing her leadership skills early when she became the president of her senior class in Madeira. At Vassar, she was voted in to the Daisy Chain. It was after her graduation that she finally made up her mind to join the field of journalism. She would still work at her father’ Washington Post on school breaks. Her father and the people she interacted with in school were her mentors during her adulthood and career life. She was, however, still the insecure child to her mother.