# Woman of the Year
*Woman of the Year* is a 1942 American romantic comedy directed by [George Stevens](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-stevens) and released by [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer), in which a sportswriter and a political columnist fall in love, marry, and find their careers and temperaments at odds. It was the first film to pair [Spencer Tracy](https://www.edgepedia.org/spencer-tracy) and Katharine Hepburn, who made eight more films together after it, and its screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin won an Academy Award.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31487/woman-of-the-year) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/29137-woman-of-the-year)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | New York opening 5 February 1942; 112 minutes, black and white[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR) |
| Director / producer | George Stevens; produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR) |
| Writers | Original screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin, with contributions by John Lee Mahin[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR) |
| Lead roles | Spencer Tracy as Sam Craig, a sportswriter; Katharine Hepburn as Tess Harding, an international-affairs columnist[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/29137-woman-of-the-year) |
| Screenplay price | Purchased by MGM for $100,000, at that time a record for an original screenplay[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR) |
| Awards | Academy Award for the screenplay; Hepburn nominated for her performance[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/29137-woman-of-the-year) |
| Partnership | First of nine Tracy–Hepburn films, followed by *Adam's Rib*, *Pat and Mike*, *Desk Set*, and *Guess Who's Coming to Dinner*, among others[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191530/pop-culture-101-woman-of-the-year) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and characters
Tess Harding and Sam Craig work for the same New York paper, the [Chronicle](https://www.edgepedia.org/chronicle). Tess is a nationally known political columnist who writes about international affairs; at a time when most women reporters were assigned society-page news, her strongly opinionated editorials appeared on page one.[5](https://www.storyofmovies.org/pdf/som/poa/module%204/mod%204%20ch%203%20tg_2024.pdf) Sam is a passionate baseball fan. Listening to a radio quiz program, he hears Tess miss a question about baseball and suggest the sport be abolished for the duration of the war; he voices his displeasure in his column, and the two begin a feud on the printed page.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR) • [1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31487/woman-of-the-year)
When they finally meet, they fall in love and marry, and the conflict of expectations begins: Sam comes to resent Tess's hectic professional life, which leaves little room for him.[5](https://www.storyofmovies.org/pdf/som/poa/module%204/mod%204%20ch%203%20tg_2024.pdf) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/woman-of-the-year) The strain sharpens when Tess is named "Woman of the Year".[7](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/14145) In a late plot turn, Tess tells Sam she wants a child; when he assumes she is pregnant, she reveals instead that she has adopted a young Greek war refugee named Chris, because she chairs a refugee committee.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR)
## Production
**Written for Hepburn.** According to contemporary sources, the screenplay was written especially for [Katharine Hepburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/katharine-hepburn) by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin and was purchased by MGM at her request. A *Time* article of 12 February 1942 reported the purchase price of $100,000, then a record for an original screenplay, and noted the writers' relative youth: Lardner was twenty-six and Kanin thirty-one. Hepburn chose her own leading man, Spencer Tracy, and insisted that George Stevens, who had directed her in *Alice Adams* (1935) and *Quality Street* (1937) at RKO, be borrowed for the picture.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR) *Time* added that she helped edit the script herself.[8](https://time.com/archive/6765808/the-new-pictures-feb-16-1942/)
The film was conceived to build on the comeback Hepburn had made in *[The Philadelphia Story](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-philadelphia-story-film)* after a brief career slump.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/29137-woman-of-the-year) Production ran from 27 August to 26 October 1941, with additional scenes in early December 1941.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR) The credited crew included Joseph Ruttenberg as cinematographer, Franz Waxman as composer, Frank Sullivan as editor, [Cedric Gibbons](https://www.edgepedia.org/cedric-gibbons) as art director, and Adrian for gowns.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/29137-woman-of-the-year)
**The changed ending.** The original ending of the Lardner-Kanin script had Tess take an honest interest in baseball, her husband's passion, and become more enthusiastic about the game than he was, which the biographer Anne Edwards described as implying growth and love rather than compromise.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31487/woman-of-the-year) At previews this ending tested poorly, particularly among women, and it was replaced.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191528/behind-the-camera-woman-of-the-year)
## Tracy and Hepburn
*Woman of the Year* began both the professional and the personal union of its two stars. During filming they fell in love, beginning a relationship that lasted more than 25 years, until Tracy's death in 1967.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31487/woman-of-the-year) Out of respect for his wife, whose position in Hollywood helped her charitable work for the deaf (the Tracys' son, John, was deaf), Tracy, Hepburn, and the press kept the romance out of the papers.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191528/behind-the-camera-woman-of-the-year)
Their first meeting on the set was later dramatized in Martin Scorsese's 2004 [Howard Hughes](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-hughes) film *The Aviator*, in which [Cate Blanchett](https://www.edgepedia.org/cate-blanchett) won an Oscar for playing Hepburn.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191530/pop-culture-101-woman-of-the-year) The pair made eight more films together: *Keeper of the Flame* (1942), *Without Love* (1945), *The Sea of Grass* (1947), *State of the Union* (1948), *Adam's Rib* (1949), *[Pat and Mike](https://www.edgepedia.org/pat-and-mike)* (1952), *Desk Set* (1957), and *Guess Who's Coming to Dinner* (1967).[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191530/pop-culture-101-woman-of-the-year)
## Reception and legacy
The screenplay won an Academy Award, and Hepburn received a nomination for her performance.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/29137-woman-of-the-year) Bosley Crowther's review in *The New York Times* scored 100 on Metacritic's aggregation, calling the film "as warming as a Manhattan cocktail and as juicy as a porterhouse steak"; the film's Metascore stood at 74, with no negative reviews among those counted.[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/woman-of-the-year/critic-reviews/)
Although made before the Japanese attack on [Pearl Harbor](https://www.edgepedia.org/pearl-harbor), the film was very much a World War II picture. The war made Hepburn's once iconoclastic image socially acceptable: as women went to work in factories, her mannish slacks became the fashion of necessity, and her strength and independence struck a chord with working women during the war years.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191530/pop-culture-101-woman-of-the-year)
The story had a long afterlife. Tracy and Hepburn made their only radio appearance together in a half-hour version on the Screen Guild Theatre in 1943. The film was remade as a television movie in 1976 with [Joseph Bologna](https://www.edgepedia.org/joseph-bologna) and Renee Taylor. In 1981, a Broadway musical adaptation premiered, featuring a book by Peter Stone and music by [John Kander](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-kander) and Fred Ebb; for her portrayal of Tess, Lauren Bacall earned a Tony Award, and the production stayed open for nearly two years as [Raquel Welch](https://www.edgepedia.org/raquel-welch), and afterward Debbie Reynolds, assumed the starring role. In the 1970s, McCall's Magazine created an annual Woman of the Year award, with Hepburn as its first recipient.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191530/pop-culture-101-woman-of-the-year)
## References
1. [Woman of the Year, TCM article by Mary Anne Melear (2003)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31487/woman-of-the-year)
2. [Woman of the Year, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/29137-woman-of-the-year)
3. [Woman of the Year (1942), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27562-WOMAN-OF-THE-YEAR)
4. [Pop Culture 101 – Woman of the Year, TCM article by Frank Miller (2008)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191530/pop-culture-101-woman-of-the-year)
5. [Woman of the Year (1942), The Story of Movies teacher overview](https://www.storyofmovies.org/pdf/som/poa/module%204/mod%204%20ch%203%20tg_2024.pdf)
6. [Woman of the Year streaming: where to watch online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/woman-of-the-year)
7. [Watch Woman of the Year, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/14145)
8. [The New Pictures, Feb. 16, 1942, TIME](https://time.com/archive/6765808/the-new-pictures-feb-16-1942/)
9. [Behind the Camera – Woman of the Year, TCM article by Frank Miller (2008)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/191528/behind-the-camera-woman-of-the-year)
10. [Woman of the Year critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/woman-of-the-year/critic-reviews/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1940s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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