Power Swap in "Woman of the Year"

"Woman of the Year" with Katharine Hepburn is probably one of my favorite movies that we have watched so far. We have not had a female character who's focus is on her work instead of her relationship. Her choice of priorities seems to be her major flaw unlike all the other female leads in the movies we have watched up to this point for this class. There is a clear power swap between the two leads that we have not witnessed yet. This has been the first film that we have watched where the man has fought for the attention of the woman instead of the other way around. I wonder how the people of the time of the films release reacted as it was not normal for that period. Women of our time attach characters like Hepburn's because of her strong personality and her willingness to do what she truly wants. This does not seem to be the case for the past and it makes me wonder why she and the producers thought a character like this would be accepted by the people of the 1940s when she as the working woman had been criticized for similar motives years before.