In Newsweek’s Dec. 6, 1976, cover photo, telephone installer Joyce Kelly leaned out from her perch at the top of a utility pole, loaded with the gear of her trade and wearing the face of a woman at the top of her game. The headline, in large block letters: “WOMEN AT WORK.”

I was a sophomore in college then, and my parents were thrilled at the sight of Kelly for two reasons: Dad worked for the local power company, and Kelly looked so much like me that friends and relatives called for a solid week to ask whether I’d left college. What a hoot.

The eight-page story – reported by Susan Cheever Cowley, Mary Lord and Lisa Whitman – made my spirits soar. Starting at Page 68 – yes, I have the original magazine – it began: