Chicago Tribune workplace columnist is retiring

Carol Kleiman, who has been writing about workplace issues for the Chicago Tribune since 1967, is retiring. In her farewell column in today’s newspaper, she noted the evolution of her writing and the importance it had in the newspaper.

Kleiman said, “As Working Woman, which started in 1967 in the features section (long before the national magazine with that title was launched), morphed into Women at Work, appearing in the Business section, and then, more recently, became WorkLife, I also wrote two other columns, Jobs and Letters (where I became the Career Coach both in the paper and on CLTV) for the Business section, pouring my commitment to feminism and my passion for equal opportunity and dignity for all workers into them.

“I covered what was happening and also tried to empower people–women, minorities, the disabled, the elderly–who had very little positive exposure in the media. I made sure my columns and photos included a diverse population.”

The New York Times once called Kleiman “the undisputed godmother of workplace reporting.” She is a Peter Lisagor Award recipient for business journalism, and also has also received awards from the Illinois Associated Press and Illinois United Press International. Kleiman has been honored by Glamour and Mirabella magazines, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Chicago Nurses Association, Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, Mexican-American Business and Professional Women, the Girl Scouts of America and Chicago YWCA. She was the first “Today’s Chicago Woman of the Year,” one of 100 women to be commemorated with a monument in Chicago’s Loop, and was the Midwest Women’s Center 1995 Woman of Achievement.

Along with Jane Bryant Quinn, Kleiman has been one of the female business journalists of the past 40 years who has served as an inspiration to other females wanting to make a mark in the financial reporting world.