She began her career as a secretary in the Paris Bureau of Newsweek magazine, rising to become a reporter and writer in New York in the late 1960s.

[3] She majored in modern European history at Vassar College,[4] and upon graduating in June 1965, left to work as a secretary in the Newsweek's Paris bureau.

There she worked with Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek's first female foreign correspondent, who Povich would later consider "[o]ne of the great influences of my life.

[9] She also published in 2012 a book called The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace detailing the lawsuits.

[11] A series of interviews with her was published by the Washington Press Club Foundation in its oral history project, "Women in journalism".