Yes, Granddaughter, You Can

Joyce M. Wrenn’s Yes, Granddaughter, YOU CAN is the inspiring memoir of a woman whose career should be a source of encouragement for our youth, young women and young men alike. She succeeded in breaking through the “glass ceiling” before others even knew there was a crack. 

The definition of “glass ceiling” is: “The unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.” This term first surfaced in the mid-1980s. 

With immigrant grandparents, Wrenn’s father stressed the importance of education. In college, she chose studies like math and physics over the “liberal arts” many girls studied. Even though she married young, she continued her education and graduated, accepting her first job as a computer programmer for Bendix in 1959. Over the years, Wrenn’s career progressed as she moved back and forth across the country, working for such companies as IBM, Bank of America, American Airlines, Union Pacific RR—each move a step up the ladder—retiring as CIO in 1999. 

Wrenn hopes her story will help young people, especially women, in their quest to climb the corporate ladder in their own careers.