Oveta Culp Hobby:
Luminary Leader of the women's movement
"...she [Hobby] wanted to succeed on merit and any game that you would let her into she would win it because she had the intellect and energy and the charm and the drive and all that stuff. And so there when you think about people that are pioneering for one kind of civil rights or another they are usually righteous or they were angry, she was none of those things. She was just task driven and she had incredibly high standards..."
-Paul Hobby, Grandson of Oveta Culp Hobby,
Personal Interview, February 5, 2015.
-Paul Hobby, Grandson of Oveta Culp Hobby,
Personal Interview, February 5, 2015.
Oveta Culp Hobby, Director of the WAC's Source: U.S. Army Photograph, 1943.
"Let's stop wailing! Let's stop talking about the things that can't be done--and do it. Let us go forward to meet the challenge. I want to hasten the day when all American women will love and glory in the sacrifices they make and will once again acclaim to the world that our love of freedom is a fierce and primitive instinct and that no veneer can long dim it's brilliance."
-Mrs. Hobby, Speech at Bureau of Public Relations, September 23, 1941.
-Mrs. Hobby, Speech at Bureau of Public Relations, September 23, 1941.
thesis
When a woman’s role was mostly seen as a homemaker, Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby demonstrated leadership, in the 1940’s and 1950’s, as she helped run the Houston Post and KPRC Radio and TV, served as the organizer and Director of Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp and was appointed the first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Mrs. Hobby's work has paved the way for all future women. Her legacy lies in her influence in shaping the role of women in our country.
"She was a leader. Leaders, by definition, demand the best of the folks they lead and she certainly did that."
-Bill Hobby, Son of Oveta Culp Hobby,
Personal Interview, February 5, 2015.
-Bill Hobby, Son of Oveta Culp Hobby,
Personal Interview, February 5, 2015.
“Women who stepped up were measured as citizens of the nation, not as women. This was a people’s war and everyone was in it.”
-National World War II Memorial
-National World War II Memorial