Women have made significant advances in journalism over the past two centuries. In the 18th-19th centuries, some women inherited and ran businesses when their husbands died. In the 19th century, women wrote about social and political causes like abolition and suffrage. Their writing style was conversational and sentimental. As more women became literate, the number of female readers and journalists grew. While progress has been made, women still face some challenges in fields like sports journalism and as foreign correspondents.

1. By: Brittany Klein and Kimberly Ross

2. 18th and 19th Century:
 Women worked alongside their
fathers and husbands and often later
inherited and ran business on their
own.
 Women who took over business were
widows, deserted wives or
impoverished daughters who used
journalism to support families.

3. 19th Century:
Women wrote about social and
political causes.
Involvement in abolition,
temperance and suffrage
campaigns inspired many to
begin periodicals, about these
subjects.

4.  Style-conversational, passionate,
sentimental and scolding.
 Because women were writing, more
women readers became important
during an era when rising literacy, a
growing middle class, and
industrialization changed the
patterns of women lives.

5.  New York Daily World 1894 “women
pages” paper provided women’s
interests, increased the number of
women reading newspapers and
providing career opportunities for
female Journalists.
 Women first romance – advice
column by Marie Manning.

6. 19th Century:
 Women’s Magazines- printed/ promoted
women’s education and financial
independence and fashion magazine.
20th Century:
 Magazines focused on issues that affected
the well-being of women and children,
including public health standards,
education, tenement living conditions and
child labor.

7.  Stunt Reporters posed as homeless girls, sweatshop
workers, or hospital patients revealing dark facts
about urban life in prose filled with emotion or out of
rage.
 Ex: “Nellie Bly” whose real name was Elizabeth
Cochrane was known for going undercover and
reporting on factory working conditions, the treatment
of women in jail, the recruitment of prostitutes, and
life in an insane asylum.

8.  Jazz Age - Women were hired to cover
sensational crimes. They were called “Front
Page Girls.”
 Between 1900 and 1930, the number of
women in journalism grew from 2,000 to
nearly 15,000.
 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt advanced the
careers of women in journalism in the 1930s
and 1940s, by declaring that her news
conferences could be covered only by women.

9.  World War 2 provided more opportunities
for female journalists. 127 female
journalists credentialed to cover World
War II.
 Anne O’Hare - famous for her interviews
with Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and
Churchill.
 Mary Marvin Beckinridge - Beckinridge
made the first radio news broadcast by a
woman on CBS.

10.  When men returned home females journalists lost
their jobs or were demoted.
 Following the War most women who remained on air
appeared in their own entertainment shows.
 Women still were not given a fair chance for jobs in
this field however and even as late as 1970 the
argument was made that women were not suitable
for broadcasting.
 In 1970, NBC President Reuven Frank even made the
argument that “audiences are less prepared to
accept news from a woman’s voice than from a
man’s.”

11.  Marguerite Higgins
 Pauline Frederick
 Marlene Sanders

12.  During the 1960s and 70s white female
journalists were able to make strides in the
field of journalism however, African American
women were still denied rights in this field.
 Many women worked for the African American
Press in the 19th and early 20th centuries since
they weren’t entitled to work for other
“white” newspapers.

13.  Marvel Cooke
 Charlayne Hunter Gault

14.  Most people were against the mass circulation of
women’s magazines. In fact they labeled them
demeaning to women because of their coverage
including: food, fashion, family, and furnishings.
 Yet, many women’s magazines attempted to survive
by covering social issues that were not covered by
other media outlets.
 Women choose to covered other issues that were
hushed about in the past including childcare,
poverty, birth control, abortion, and the women’s
movement, that turned into “style sessions”.

15.  Eliza Holbrook Nicholson
 Eleanor “Cissy” Patterson

16.  Katharine Graham
 Barbara Walters

17.  Collective efforts were certainly necessary and as
women went on to take on more noteworthy stories
they also reformed the meaning of journalism
changing it to also include women’s issues and
concerns.
 In the early 1990s after declining newspaper
readership by women they went on to make a
comeback. In 1993 Barbara Walters who had
previously made history for earning an equal salary
compared to her male counterparts had still served
as a top earner. She continued to do interviews on
sensational stories.

18.  Today, journalism schools produce more female
graduates than male graduates – 70 percent of j-
school students are females, in fact.
 The highest paid TV anchor is a female, Katie
Couric.
 In the developed countries, the percentage of
women journalists ranges from 30%-40%.
 Some obstacles still remain to gender equality,
men still dominate the top ranks of media.

19.  In sports journalism, women are making more
and more progress however they sometimes
struggle to get athletes and fans to take them
seriously.
 Foreign correspondence is another challenge for
females. Ex: On one hand, females sometimes
enjoy more access than men do. Yet, on the
other hand reporting overseas can be dangerous
for women in some cases.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y52WGJq4xK
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