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About the Author, Karma Kitaj,
Ph.D.
In publishing a book about
high-achieving women, Karma Kitaj (pronounced “Key-Tie”) has tied
together a long-standing love of books with a family emphasis on lifelong
learning. As a teenager, Karma devoured Great Books – Dostoevsky, Proust,
Kafka. Her mother, an English teacher, grilled her on grammar so she could
place first in state English competitions. Her research chemist father
volunteered every day at the medical school after retirement, learning
organic chemistry after a career in inorganic chemistry.
Karma got a masters degree in social work in
1970 and developed a practice as a psychotherapist, specializing in
helping bright women who limited themselves.
In the mid-1980s, when she was just turning 40, Karma returned to school
to complete her Ph.D., responding to her elderly Viennese grandmother’s
insistent question: “When are you going to finish your studies?”
For her doctoral thesis, Karma interviewed 50 women who had an alcoholic
parent, being struck with their resiliency despite obstacles. She was
intrigued with studying more about resiliency, so she parlayed her
interviewing skills, her facility for listening, and her love for the
written word into a new project.
Women who had achieved in careers before the women’s liberation movement
seemed to be likely candidates for being resilient. Wellesley College
Centers for Women appointed Karma as Visiting Research Scholar and offered
the stimulation of a network of scholars. While at Wellesley, she
completed the interviews and analyses of 26 high-achieving artists and
scientists that led to this book.
After meeting these exemplary women, Karma found
her own attitude toward work and life changing. The women’s stories
inspired and challenged her. In a sense, they became her mentors. No longer
was Karma content to be complacent. The people she labeled “The Women Who
Could…and Did” became a life force, stimulating her to achieve, to
learn, to take new risks. Karma started her own publishing company, Huckle
Hill Press, and is publishing inspirational books for and about women.
Read an excerpt of
Women Who Could…and Did now.
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