Woman of the Year is the first teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. It established their screen personas; Tracy, the patient ordinary man with conservative leanings and Hepburn, the intellectual, feminist liberal. They argue in all of their movies but always love each other dearly. They would go on to play variations of these roles for 8 more films until 1968's Guess Whose Coming to Dinner.

In Woman of the Year, Tracy is a sports writer for the same news service where Hepburn is a political journalist. They fall in love but it is made very clear early on that they are complete opposites. He takes her to a daytime baseball game that she does not at all understand. "Are all these people unemployed?" She asks Tracy as they enter the stadium. Later, Tracy attends a party at Hepburn's apartment. Everyone is foreign to which Hepburn can speak to but Tracy cannot. Tracy makes fun of a turban wearing man that would never make it onto the screen in these politically correct times.

Even with their apparent differences they get married. On their honeymoon they get interrupted by Hepburn's friend who has just gotten off a ship from Nazi occupied Europe. To make a point, Tracy invites his friends over. They eventually consummate their marriage.

Hepburn plays a feminist in obvious and subtle ways here. She gives a speech at an awards banquet for a fellow feminist. Tracy accidentally walks in and is completely uncomfortable. Even more, is that Hepburn and Tracy exchange sex roles in several scenes. Before they get married, Hepburn makes it obvious that she is willing to have sex with Tracy but it is he who says no. In another scene, Tracy is wearing a new hat and wants a compliment from Hepburn about it, but she is to busy working. In that same scene she is wearing pants and a suit jacket that is very man-ish. When they get married he has a woman as his best man and later in the movie she was hoping he could be her bridesmaid.

The movie has some funny moments that time has partially diminished. Near the end, Hepburn is trying to prove to Tracy that she can be a regular wife but ends up making a disaster of the kitchen. The routine has been done on so many sitcoms that it seems like a tired scene. However, it is funny to watch the upper crust Hepburn slowly come unglued.

Although this is a team up movie by two great stars, this is Hepburn's movie. She has great dramatic scenes, such as when she has just won the Woman of the Year award but then finds that she is anything but at the orphanage. She has the kitchen scene as well as the baseball scene to demonstrate her comedic talents. She even speaks more foreign languages here than Meryl Streep. It is her character that does the changing when she learns the lesson that, "Success is no fun unless you share it with someone."

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