Women in journalism and media professions
Encyclopedia
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 journalist
s even before the 1890s
.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, women began agitating for the right to work as professional journalists in North America and Europe; Nellie Bly
was the most noted of these turn-of-the-century reporters.
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
".
References for this section can be found on the article pages if not cited below.
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
became a profession
Professionalization
Professionalization is the social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." This process tends to involve establishing acceptable qualifications, a professional body or association to oversee the conduct of members...
, women were restricted by custom and law from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
within the profession. Nevertheless, women operated as editors
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, reporters, sports analyst and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s even before the 1890s
1890s
The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" - because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion - and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no...
.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, women began agitating for the right to work as professional journalists in North America and Europe; Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was the pen name of American pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from...
was the most noted of these turn-of-the-century reporters.
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
His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur...
".
Notable women in the history of journalism
See also Women journalists by name and by categoryReferences for this section can be found on the article pages if not cited below.
A–K
- Nellie BlyNellie BlyNellie Bly was the pen name of American pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from...
, 1867-1922 (USA) - Marion CarpenterMarion CarpenterMarion A. Carpenter, also known as Marion Anderson , was the first woman national press photographer to cover Washington, D.C. and the White House, and to travel with a US President. She broke the gender role stereotype in the 1940s but left Washington in 1949 after her second marriage.After...
, first female National Press Photographer to cover the White House. - Katie CouricKatie CouricKatherine Anne "Katie" Couric is an American journalist and author. She serves as Special Correspondent for ABC News, contributing to ABC World News, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, This Week and primetime news specials...
(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. - Evelyn CunninghamEvelyn CunninghamEvelyn Cunningham was an American journalist and aide to Nelson Rockefeller. Cunningham covered the early civil rights movement and was a reporter and editor for the Pittsburgh Courier...
, 1916-2011 (American Civil Rights Movement journalist at The Pittsburgh Courier) - Margaret FullerMargaret FullerSarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, 1810–1850 (USA), first full-time book reviewer in journalism and first female foreign correspondent - Mary GarberMary GarberMary Ellen Garber was an American sportswriter, who was a pioneer among women sportswriters. She received over 40 writing awards and numerous honors in a sports-writing career that spanned seven decades, the most prestigious of which was the 2005 Associated Press Sports Editors Red Smith Award...
, 1916-2008 (award-winning sportswriter and pioneering female journalist) - Martha GellhornMartha GellhornMartha Gellhorn was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist, considered by The London Daily Telegraph amongst others to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. She reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career...
, 1908-1998 - Mary Katherine GoddardMary Katherine GoddardMary Katherine Goddard was an early American publisher and the first American postmistress. She was the first to print the Declaration of Independence with the names of the signatories....
, 1738-1816 (USA) - Amy GoodmanAmy GoodmanAmy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
(b. 1957), first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood AwardRight Livelihood AwardThe Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...
in 2008. The prize was awarded in the Swedish Parliament on December 8, 2008.. - Katharine GrahamKatharine GrahamKatharine Meyer Graham was an American publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon...
, 1917-2001, publisher of The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
through the Watergate era and the publication of the Pentagon PapersPentagon PapersThe Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967... - Marguerite Higgins Hall, an American reporter and war correspondent who covered World War II, the Korean War and the war in Vietnam.
- Anne Catherine Hoof GreenAnne Catherine Hoof GreenAnne Catherine Hoof Green was a printer and publisher.-Biography:Anne Hoof was most likely born in the Netherlands around 1720. She emigrated to America and lived in Annapolis, Maryland. She married Jonas Green of Boston in 1738 and had fourteen children, with six surviving infancy.Green's paper...
- 18th century newspaper publisher in Maryland - Sarah Josepha HaleSarah Josepha HaleSarah Josepha Buell Hale was an American writer and an influential editor. She is the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb"...
, 1788-1879 (USA) - Ayala Hasson-NesherAyala Hasson-NesherAyala Hasson-Nesher is an Israeli television personality and journalist, and one of the major political commentators of Israeli public channel 1 ....
(b. 1961), prominent Israel journalist - Lorena HickokLorena HickokLorena Alice Hickok was an American journalist and confidante of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her relationship with Roosevelt has been the subject of research.-Early life:...
, 1893-1968, AP reporter from 1928-1933, and intimate friend of Eleanor RooseveltEleanor RooseveltAnna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
L–Z
- Lara LoganLara LoganLara Logan is a South African television and radio journalist, and war correspondent. She is the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, and a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes.-Personal life:...
(b. 1971), chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
. - Nancy Hicks MaynardNancy Hicks MaynardNancy Alene Hicks Maynard was an American publisher, journalist, former owner of The Oakland Tribune, and co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education...
, 1946-2008, first African American female reporter at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, and co-owner and co-publisher of The Oakland TribuneThe Oakland TribuneThe Oakland Tribune is a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, by the Bay Area News Group , a subsidiary of MediaNews Group...
, and co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. - Marie Mattingly MeloneyMarie Mattingly MeloneyMarie Mattingly Meloney , who used Mrs. William B. Meloney as her professional and social name, was "one of the leading woman journalists of the United States," a magazine editor and a socialite who in the 1920s organized a fund drive to buy radium for Marie Curie and began a movement for better...
, said in 1943 by The New York Times to be "one of the leading woman journalists of the United States." - Ethel L. PayneEthel L. PayneEthel L. Payne was an African American journalist. Known as the "First Lady of the Black Press", she was a columnist, lecturer, and free-lance writer. She combined advocacy with journalism as she reported on the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s...
, 1911-1991 (the "first lady of the black press"; affiliated with the Chicago DefenderChicago DefenderThe Chicago Defender is a Chicago based newspaper founded in 1905 by an African American for primarily African American readers.In just three years from 1919–1922 the Defender also attracted the writing talents of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks....
; known for coverage of the US Civil Rights Movement, and as the first African-American commentator to join a national television network) - Anna PolitkovskayaAnna PolitkovskayaAnna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
(1958–2006), Russian journalist noted for her coverage of Russia's involvement in Chechnya and controversial assassination. - Robin RobertsRobin Roberts (newscaster)Robin René Roberts is an American television broadcaster. Roberts is the co-anchor of ABC's morning show Good Morning America-Early life:...
(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. - Diane SawyerDiane SawyerLila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....
(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. - Pearl StewartPearl StewartPearl Stewart was the editor of the Oakland Tribune for one year beginning December 1992, the first African-American woman editor of a metropolitan daily newspaper. Said to be "well known for her dogged reporting," she was hired by David Burgin, who took a seven-month absence...
(b.1950), first African American woman to edit a major national daily newspaper, the Oakland Tribune - Ida Tarbell, 1857-1944 (USA) - muckraking journalist in early 20th century
- Mary Heaton VorseMary Heaton VorseMary Heaton Vorse or Mary Heaton Vorse O'Brien was an American journalist, labor activist, and novelist. Vorse was outspoken and active in peace and social justice causes, such as women's suffrage, civil rights, pacifism , socialism, child labor, infant mortality, labor disputes, and affordable...
, 1874-1966 - 20th century labor journalist - Barbara WaltersBarbara WaltersBarbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
(b.1929), first woman to anchor an American evening news program on a major network. - Ida B. WellsIda B. WellsIda Bell Wells-Barnett was an African American journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who...
(1862–1931), black American journalist prominent in the civil rights and women's suffrage movements. - Eileen WelsomeEileen WelsomeEileen Welsome is an American journalist. She received a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1994 while a reporter for The Albuquerque Tribune. She was awarded the prize for her articles about the government's human radiation experiments conducted on unwilling and unknowing Americans during...
, won the Pulitzer Prize while with The Albuquerque Tribune for her investigative reporting on human radiation experiments on people during the Cold War. - Janine ZachariaJanine ZachariaJanine Sherri Zacharia is an American journalist. She was appointed as the Middle East correspondent for the Washington Post in December 2009. She previously worked as a reporter for Reuters in Israel, the Washington bureau chief for The Jerusalem Post and a diplomatic reporter for Bloomberg News...
, 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.'
- 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 BlyNellie BlyNellie Bly was the pen name of American pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from...
, Marguerite HigginsMarguerite HigginsMarguerite Higgins Hall was an American reporter and war correspondent. Higgins covered World War II, the Korean War and the war in Vietnam, and in the process advanced the cause of equal access for female war correspondents.Higgins was born in Hong Kong while her father, Lawrence Higgins, was...
, Ethel L. PayneEthel L. PayneEthel L. Payne was an African American journalist. Known as the "First Lady of the Black Press", she was a columnist, lecturer, and free-lance writer. She combined advocacy with journalism as she reported on the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s...
and Ida M. TarbellIda M. TarbellIda Minerva Tarbell was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism". She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies...
, with the issuance of four 37-cent commemorative postage stamps.
- Association for Women Journalists
- International Women's Media FoundationInternational Women's Media FoundationThe International Women’s Media Foundation , located in Washington, DC, is a network of thousands of left-wing women journalists working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created groundbreaking programs to help women in the media develop practical solutions...
- Alliance of Women Film JournalistsAlliance of Women Film JournalistsThe Alliance of Women Film Journalists is a group of female journalists based out of New York, United States that was founded in 2006. The AWFJ is composed of 45 professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media, dedicated to supporting...
- National Federation of Press WomenNational Federation of Press WomenThe National Federation of Press Women, , founded in 1937, is a US-based organization for men and women in electronic, broadcast and print journalism....
See also
- Women in the workforceWomen in the workforceUntil modern industrialized times, legal and cultural practices, combined with the inertia of longstanding religious and educational traditions, had restricted women's entry and participation in the workforce. Economic dependency upon men, and consequently the poor socio-economic status of women...
- History of journalismHistory of journalismThe history of journalism, or the development of the gathering and transmitting of news, spans the growth of technology and trade, marked by the advent of specialized techniques for gathering and disseminating information on a regular basis that has caused, as one history of journalism surmises,...
- International Women's Media FoundationInternational Women's Media FoundationThe International Women’s Media Foundation , located in Washington, DC, is a network of thousands of left-wing women journalists working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created groundbreaking programs to help women in the media develop practical solutions...
- Hollywood Women's Press Club
- International Association of Women in Radio and TelevisionInternational Association of Women in Radio and TelevisionThe International Association of Women in Radio and Television is a women's organization involved in the broadcasting industry.-History:IAWRT was founded in 1949 and held the first conference of its own in 1951....
- The Press Institute for Women in the Developing WorldThe Press Institute for Women in the Developing WorldThe Global Press Institute, formerly the Press Institute for Women in the Developing World, is an international nonprofit and citizen journalism initiative. GPI was founded on the belief that journalism is an empowering tool that can bring voice, strength and light to issues that are hidden and...
Further research
- Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, "Two Centuries of American Women Journalists" (exhibition) - Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, "Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II" (exhibition, 1998) - Washington Press Club Foundation, "Women in Journalism" (oral history archives; transcripts of approximately 60 oral history interviews documenting women journalists; available at http://npc.press.org/wpforal/ohhome.htm)
- C-Span, "Women in Journalism", September, 2004 (series of oral history interviews)
- Journalism and Women Symposium
- New York State Library, Women in Journalism: Newspaper Milestones (Researched and Compiled by Bill Lucey, March 14, 2005)