Women in journalism and media professions

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As journalism became a profession, women were restricted by custom and law from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. Nevertheless, women operated as editors, reporters, sports analyst and journalists even before the 1890s.^[1]

The Baroness Frederika Charlotte Riedesel's 18th century Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the American Revolution and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga is regarded as the first account of war by a woman. Her writing analyzes the relevant events, personalities of key actors and consequences of the military struggles she observed. Moreover she was personally involved in the heart of the Battles of Saratoga. She suffered the hardships of siege when she sheltered in the cellar of the Marshall House during the failed retreat of the British army.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, women began agitating for the right to work as professional journalists in North America and Europe; by many accounts, the first notable woman in political journalism was Jane Grey Swisshelm. A former correspondent for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, she persuaded President Millard Fillmore to open the gallery in congress so that she could report on congressional news.^[2] Prior to Swisshelm, Horace Greeley had employed another noteworthy woman in journalism, Margaret Fuller, who covered international news. Nellie Bly became known for her investigative reporting at the New York World. She was one of the first female journalists of her era to report by going undercover.

While many female reporters in the 1800s and early 1900s were restricted to society reporting and were expected to cover the latest in food or fashion, there were a few women who reported on subjects that were considered the domain of male reporters. One example was Ina Eloise Young (later Ina Young Kelley). In 1907, Miss Young was said to be the only female sports editor (or "sporting" editor, as it was called back then). She worked in Colorado for the Trinidad Chronicle-News, and her areas of expertise were baseball, football, and horse racing.^[3] She covered the 1908 World's Series, the only woman of her time to do so.^[4] The 2014 Status of Women in the U.S. Media reported that of more than 150 sports-related print publications and sports-related websites, 90 percent of editors were white males.^[5]

Another example of a woman in a non-traditional media profession was Jennie Irene Mix: when radio broadcasting became a national obsession in the early 1920s, she was one of the few female radio editors at a magazine: a former classical pianist and a syndicated music critic who wrote about opera and classical music in the early 1920s, Miss Mix became the radio editor at Radio Broadcast magazine, a position she held from early 1924 until her sudden death in April 1925.^[6] In talk radio, there were no women among the top 10 of Talkers magazine's "Heavy Hundred" and only two women were among the 183 sport talk radio hosts list.^[5] Women increased their presence in professional journalism, and popular representations of the "intrepid girl reporter" became popular in 20th-century films and literature, perhaps most notably in "His Girl Friday".^[7][8]

In 2014, the Women's Media Center put out their third annual Status of Women in the U.S. Media. The study is based on a number of reports about the status of women in all forms of media in the US. The study revealed that women represented 28.8 percent of speaking characters in the top grossing films of 2012. In 2013, women had 16 percent of the top executive movie jobs and of the 16 biggest paychecks for actors per film, not one of them was female actress'. The top earning actress is Angelina Jolie, who made $33 million in 2013. The two lowest ranked men on that list made that same dollar amount. Also, 36 percent of newsroom staff are women, a percentage that has remained stagnate since 1999.^[5][9][10]

Notable women in the history of journalism

See also Women journalists by name and by category

References for this section can be found on the article pages if not cited below.

A–K

• Nellie Bly, (1867-1922) (USA)
• Winifred Bonfils, (1863-1936) (USA)
• Joan Juliet Buck, first and only American woman to be editor in chief of a French magazine
• Marion Carpenter, first female National Press Photographer to cover the White House.^[11]
• Frona Eunice Wait Colburn, (1859-1946), one of only two female journalists in San Francisco in 1887, who made inroads into the male-only newsroom and rose after 36 years to become an associate editor of the Overland Monthly.
• Marie Colvin (1956-2012), war reporter, lost eye covering Sri Lanka civil war in 2001, killed by Syrian government while covering the 2012 siege of Homs in Syria.
• Katie Couric (b. 1957), first female anchor to host her own weekday network evening news broadcast, and an anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Prior to joining CBS, Couric co-anchored NBC's Today Show from 1991-2006.^[12][13]
• Evelyn Cunningham, (1916-2011) (American Civil Rights Movement journalist at The Pittsburgh Courier)^[14]
• Charlotte Curtis, (1928-1987) (USA), Named Op-Ed editor in 1974, becoming the first woman on the masthead at the New York Times.
• Nancy Dickerson, (1927-1997) (USA)
• Gloria Emerson, (1929-2004) (USA), reported from Vietnam for the New York Times.
• Margaret Fuller, (1810–1850) (USA), first full-time book reviewer in journalism^[15] and first female foreign correspondent^[16]
• Mary Garber, (1916-2008) (award-winning sportswriter and pioneering female journalist)^[17]
• Martha Gellhorn, (1908-1998)
• Barbara Gluck, covered the Vietnam War
• Mary Katherine Goddard, (1738-1816) (USA)
• Amy Goodman (b. 1957), first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award in 2008. The prize was awarded in the Swedish Parliament on December 8, 2008.^[18]
• Katharine Graham, (1917-2001), publisher of The Washington Post through the Watergate era and the publication of the Pentagon Papers
• Marguerite Higgins Hall, an American reporter and war correspondent who covered World War II, the Korean War and the war in Vietnam.
• Amira Hass, columnist and reporter for Ha'aretz
• Anne Catherine Hoof Green 18th century newspaper publisher in Maryland
• Sarah Josepha Hale, (1788-1879) (USA)
• Ayala Hasson-Nesher (b. 1961), prominent Israel journalist
• Lorena Hickok, (1893-1968), AP reporter from 1928-1933, and intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt^[19]
• Lynn Johnston, (b. 1947), first woman to win the Reuben Award (in 1985) as the top newspaper cartoonist in the U.S.^[20]

L–Z

• Flora Lewis (1922-2002), American correspondent and columnist in foreign affairs for numerous publications including the Washington Post and the New York Times. Lewis won the Overseas Press Club award for best interpretation of foreign affairs for her reporting on communism 1956 Poland.^[21]
• Lara Logan (b. 1971), chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News.
• Saadia Sehar Haidari (b. 1971), first Pakistani female video and photojournalist for Associated Press of Pakistan and Geo News
• Rachel Maddow (b. 1973), host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, first openly-gay anchor of a prime-time American news show in the United States
• Nancy Hicks Maynard, (1946-2008), first African American female reporter at The New York Times, and co-owner and co-publisher of The Oakland Tribune, and co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.^[22]
• Marie Mattingly Meloney, said in 1943 by The New York Times to be "one of the leading woman journalists of the United States."^[23]
• Marya McLaughlin (1929-1998) CBS TV first female on air reporter.^[24][25] Marya McLaughlin was one of the "pioneering women reporters who broke the gender line in broadcast news."^[26]
• Anja Niedringhaus (1965-2014), first female photojournalist to win Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Iraq War.
• Ethel L. Payne, (1911-1991) (the "first lady of the black press"; affiliated with the Chicago Defender; known for coverage of the US Civil Rights Movement, and as the first African-American commentator to join a national television network)
• Anna Politkovskaya (1958–2006), Russian journalist noted for her coverage of Russia's involvement in Chechnya and controversial assassination.
• Robin Roberts (b. 1960), African American anchor for ABC's Good Morning America. Roberts was an ESPN reporter and anchor from 1990-2005. She was the first journalist to interview President Barack Obama after his inauguration.^[27]
• Diane Sawyer (b. 1945), first female correspondent on CBS' 60 Minutes. Sawyer is well known for reporting documentaries and investigative journalism. She is the anchor of ABC's evening newscast World News. Sawyer previously co-anchored ABC's Good Morning America.^[28][29]
• Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) American media spokeswoman for the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s; columnist for New York magazine, co-founded Ms. magazine
• Pearl Stewart (b. 1950), first African American woman to edit a major national daily newspaper, the Oakland Tribune
• Ida Tarbell, (1857-1944) (USA)^[30] - muckraking journalist in early 20th century
• Helen Thomas, (1920-2013), 50 year member of White House Press Corps, first female officer of the National Press Club, first female member and president of the White House Correspondents' Association, and first female member of the Gridiron Club
• Mary Heaton Vorse, (1874-1966), 20th century labor journalist
• Homai Vyarawalla, (1913-2012), 20th century Indian photo-journalist
• Barbara Walters (b. 1929), first woman to anchor an American evening news program on a major network.
• Ida B. Wells (1862–1931), black American journalist prominent in the civil rights and women's suffrage movements.
• Eileen Welsome, won the Pulitzer Prize while with The Albuquerque Tribune for her investigative reporting on human radiation experiments on people during the Cold War.
• Janine Zacharia, Middle East correspondent for the Washington Post.

Awards and organizations

• Courage in Journalism Awards, from the International Women's Media Foundation
• UK Woman Political Journalist of the Year Award which aims 'to highlight the achievements of outstanding women role models amongst us.'^[31]
• Yayori Journalist Award, sponsored by the Women's Fund for Peace and Human Rights
• In 2002, the U.S. Postal Service honored four accomplished female journalists, Nellie Bly, Marguerite Higgins, Ethel L. Payne and Ida M. Tarbell, with the issuance of four 37-cent commemorative postage stamps.^[32]
• Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS)
• Alliance of Women Film Journalists
• Association for Women Journalists
• International Women's Media Foundation
• National Federation of Press Women

See also

• History of journalism
• Hollywood Women's Press Club
• International Association of Women in Radio and Television
• International Women's Media Foundation
• The Press Institute for Women in the Developing World
• Women in the workforce

Further research

• Library of Congress, "Two Centuries of American Women Journalists"^[33] (exhibition)
• Library of Congress, "Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II"^[34] (exhibition, 1998)
• Washington Press Club Foundation, "Women in Journalism" (oral history archives; transcripts of approximately 60 oral history interviews documenting women journalists)^[35]
• C-Span, "Women in Journalism",^[36] September, 2004 (series of oral history interviews)
• Journalism and Women Symposium^[37]
• New York State Library, Women in Journalism: Newspaper Milestones^[38] (Researched and Compiled by Bill Lucey, March 14, 2005)

Notes

References

• Tad Bartimus, Tracy Wood, Kate Webb, and Laura Palmer, War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam (2002)
• Maurine H. Beasley and Sheila J. Gibbons, Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism, 2nd ed. (2003)
• Kathleen A. Cairns, Front-Page Women Journalists, 1920-1950 (Women in the West) (2007)
• Barbara T. and Jehanne M. Gheith, An Improper Profession: Women, Gender, and Journalism in Late Imperial Russia
• Agnes Hooper Gottlieb, Women Journalists and the Municipal Housekeeping Movement, 1868-1914 (Women's Studies (Lewiston, N.Y.), V. 31.) (2001)
• Catherine Gourley, War, Women, and the News: How Female Journalists Won the Battle to Cover World War II by (2007)
• Donna L. Halper and Donald Fishman, Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting
• Gabriel Kiley, "Times Are Better than They Used To Be", St. Louis Journalism Review (on women journalists)
• Marjory Louise Lang, Women Who Made the News: Female Journalists in Canada, 1880-1945
• Jose Lanters, "Donal's "babes" (Changing the Times: Irish Women Journalists, 1969–1981) (Book Review)", Irish Literary Supplement
• Jean Marie Lutes, Front-page Girls: Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, 1880-1930 (2007)
• Marion Marzolf, Up from the Footnote: A History of Women Journalists (Communication arts books) (1977)
• Charlotte Nekola, "Worlds Unseen: Political Women Journalists and the 1930s", pp. 189–198 in Charlotte Nekola & Paula Rabinowitz, editors, Writing Red: An Anthology of American Women Writers, 1930-1940 (1987: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, New York)
• Nancy Caldwell Sorel, The Women Who Wrote the War (women wartime journalists)
• Rodger Streitmatter, Raising Her Voice: African American Women Journalists Who Changed History
• Rebecca Traister, "Ladies of the Nightly News"^[1]
• USC Annenberg School for Communication, Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC) Database.^[2]
• Nancy Whitelaw, They Wrote Their Own Headlines: American Women Journalists (World Writers) (1994)

External links

• International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF)
• The Marshall House, Schuylerville, New York