Why Women Leave Journalism

52 - Newspaper Research Journal • Vol. 28, No. 3 • Summer 2007

Women Leave JournalismFor Better Pay, Work Conditionsby Tracy Everbach and Craig Flournoy

Women leave full-time news jobs because of a lackof opportunity, low salaries, lack of mentors,inflexible work schedules and differing perspectiveson news from male-oriented newsrooms.

__________________________________________

Since the 1980s, women have composed a majority of undergraduatestudents in university journalism and mass communication programs, and theirnumbers are growing. In their most recent survey of journalism and masscommunication college students, Becker and his co-authors reported that nearlytwo-thirds of undergraduates and master’s students are women.1 Yet the ratioof women to men working in professional newsrooms remains the reverse ofcollege classrooms. The American Society of Newspaper Editors reported in its2005 annual survey that only 37 percent of newsroom employees are women.2

The most recent American Journalist Survey also reported that one-third of full-time journalists are women, a percentage that has remained the same since theearly 1980s.3 The same survey noted that women constitute the majority ofjournalists with fewer than five years of work experience—54.2 percent.4 This isthe first time in the ongoing survey that women have outnumbered men in thatcategory. Obviously, something is driving women from newsrooms.

Therefore, the research question was: Why do some women who studyjournalism in college later decide to leave full-time newsroom jobs?

Various studies have documented factors that could be driving women outof the journalism workforce, including low pay, family concerns, unusual andirregular working hours and a glass ceiling in newsrooms.5 Other research hasshown that male and female journalists define journalism differently but that in

Everbach is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and the MaybornInstitute of Journalism at the University of North Texas. Flournoy is an assistant

professor in the Division of Journalism at Southern Methodist University.

Everbach and Flournoy: Women Leave Journalism for Better Pay - 53

most newsrooms, men construct hierarchical and bureaucratic structures toenforce their definition of news.6 Women’s journalistic work goals sometimesconflict with masculine ideals of important journalism7 and female journalistsoften feel pressure to prove themselves as “one of the men,” even though theymay have different social and personal concerns than do men and differentdefinitions of what is news.8

It is crucial that both journalism educators and newsroom managers under-stand why women leave newsrooms so they can find ways to retain them. Thetrend of female students dominating journalism programs shows few signs ofdiminishing. In 2004, women received 65.4 percent of journalism bachelor’sdegrees, the highest percentage since the end of World War II.9 But many femalejournalism graduates eventually forsake the profession. Professors must under-stand why women leave newsroom jobs so they can help their students succeedas journalists.

Therefore, the reasons behind female journalists’ exits from newsroomswere studied by talking to the sources—the women who left.

Women’s Journalistic Standpoint

During the second wave of feminism in the 1970s, women believed andwere told that they could have successful careers and families, as many men do.By the 1990s, many women were questioning this premise, saying women haddifferent concerns and responsibilities than did men. During the third wave offeminism, cultural feminists maintained women were a separate cultural groupfrom men, with different values and practices. Women have their own “stand-point” in a patriarchal society that emphasizes male needs, desires and accom-plishments.10 In the male-dominated world of journalism, women’s needs oftenconflict with the demands of the newsroom.

Newsrooms have hierarchical and bureaucratic structures constructedhistorically by male desires, needs and definitions of news.11 Female journalistshave reported different conceptions and constructions of news than have men,a phenomenon Van Zoonen calls a “gendered nature of journalism.”12 Femaleand male journalists perceive journalism differently; that is, they considerdifferent topics, angles, sources and ethics to be important. For example, so-called “masculine” journalism focuses on politics, crime, finance, education andupbringing, while “feminine” journalism involves human interest, consumernews, culture and social policy.13 Achievement in many journalism jobs isdefined by production, which sometimes conflicts with women’s ethical com-mitments to serve their audiences and personal responsibilities at home. Womenhave long struggled to show their commitment to their jobs while also doingmeaningful work, goals that sometimes conflict with masculine ideals ofimportant journalism.14 Female journalists also perceive newsrooms as male-biased workplaces, as Walsh-Childers, Chance and Herzog showed in a surveyof 277 female reporters, editors and graphic artists at 120 small, medium and


large newspapers.15 One in four of the women said discrimination was asignificant or very serious problem.

Method

The researchers conducted individual, in-depth, standardized-questioninterviews16 with 17 women who had worked full-time in journalism aftercollege and subsequently decided to leave their jobs. The interview method waschosen because it provides rich detail and description. Although only 17 womenwere interviewed, the sample members’ demographics varied greatly. Theirjournalism experience ranged from one year to 30 years, and their years of birthranged from 1949 to 1982. Thirteen of the women were Caucasian, four wereAsian and one was black. Nine were married and eight were unmarried. Ninehad children and eight did not (although the married women not always werethe same women who had children). The women lived throughout the UnitedStates.17 Because of the diversity of the sample chosen, 17 in-depth interviewssubstantiated enough data for a clear picture of women who left journalism jobs.

In telephone interviews of one hour to two hours during 2004 and 2005, therespondents were asked a consistent list of questions. Many of the respondentstalked about subjects beyond the set of questions, and follow-up questionsbased on these topics were asked. Most questions sparked discussion—a“conversation with a purpose”—as described by Lindlof.18

Interview subjects were located through snowball sampling, which waschosen because it provided a wide cross-section of women.19 The women werepromised anonymity in compliance with human subjects approval from theUniversity of North Texas Institutional Review Board and the Southern Meth-odist University Institutional Review Board. To protect their identities, respon-dents were coded FJ1 through FJ17 (Female Journalist 1 through FemaleJournalist 17).

After completing the interviews, characteristics of each respondent wereidentified and the data were analyzed. Transcripts of the interviews wereexamined and patterns and themes were identified, employing inductivereasoning to find answers to the research question.20

Results

Several respondents expressed passion for journalism but said they weredisappointed by newsroom cultures that failed to accommodate their needs anddesires. They said they enjoyed journalism as a career but the hours anddemands of the newsroom did not fit well within their lives.

“It’s very difficult to lead a balanced life in the newspaper business,especially in a competitive market,” said FJ2.21 “You were supposed to give yourblood to the news, and after 10 years of that, it took its toll.” A cultural shift in


newsrooms allowing flexibility in work schedules might help retain morewomen, but managers resist such changes with “a subtle, dismissive attitude,more than anything else, that I think finally pushes women out the door.”22

FJ9 said newspaper work hours became incompatible with her familyresponsibilities.23 “It was an intolerable work environment. I had a 2-year-oldchild who I rarely saw because he was in day care.”24 When FJ9’s father offeredher a job in the family business with more stable hours, she accepted.

FJ4 left the newsroom because she wanted to have a child:

The intensity I used in my job, I didn’t think it was compatible with having afamily. Whatever my vision was of being a wife and mother wasn’t compatiblewith my vision of being a newspaper reporter. I think of the types of women innewsrooms, and there weren’t a lot who were happily married and hadchildren.25

FJ16 left to stay home with young children.

There are days when I think I’ve got the best of all possible worlds because I getto make my own schedule and do what I want to do. However, when you decideyou want to ramp down your professional life in favor of family, you don’t havethe same challenges.26

Indeed, several women said their new professional roles did not ignite thesame passion they felt for journalism. FJ13 said that while her newspapercompany was skimpy on resources and pay, the higher-paying advertisingagency where she now works is “too fake, too commercial” compared withjournalism.27 FJ13 said she might eventually return to a newsroom. FJ7 said theculture of her newsroom made her nervous—the “unpredictability of it, the longhours, not knowing each day what you’re getting into.”28 She now works incorporate public relations, which is more predictable, but “I don’t know that Ihave a passion for this the way that I hoped to have.”29

FJ11 reported that she became disillusioned with newspapers after recog-nizing managers singled out reporters, most of them male, anointing them“golden boys” and giving them choice assignments.

Many of the editors are men and it’s the human condition to relate to people whoare most like you. The only people the top editor would come out into thenewsroom to talk to about sports and other stuff like that were the onesconsidered the good reporters because they were brash and had bravado. Myreaction to that is that the reporters with brash and bravado were the ones Itrusted the least.30


Now a city spokeswoman, FJ11 said public relations “is not something I ampassionate about. But journalism careers are not conducive to having a balancedor family life.”31

Some respondents said newsroom demands were unreasonable. FJ2 saidmost newspaper managers look down upon reporters and editors who chooseto put their families first. “And usually, that’s women.”32 Her current part-timejob in public relations allows her to have a more balanced life with her child.“Now I see all kinds of things that people do. I always wondered what peopledid during the day.”33 After a decade in newsrooms she became “jaded.”34

FJ8 said the grind of newspaper reporting was depressing. “I had no life. AllI did was work.”35 After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, she heard peoplesaying, “He died doing what he loved.” It was then, she said, that “I realized Iwas not doing that.”36 FJ17 said that after 10 years in newsrooms . . .

I realized that in journalism you spend a lot of time watching what other peopledo and writing about it. You don’t do anything yourself. I just got tired ofwatching the world go by.37

She took a pay cut to become a teacher.Other respondents, especially those in big cities with high costs of living,

said low journalism salaries drove them out of newsrooms. They said their paydid not match the work they were doing, and they could not afford the kind oflives they wanted. FJ12, the primary breadwinner in a family of five, calledjournalism “the last legalized form of slavery”38 because of its high demands andlow pay. She said she earns a much higher salary in public relations andadvertising than in journalism. FJ13 found newspaper salaries insulting andnow receives higher pay in advertising.39

The guy emptying my garbage can was making the same amount I was. I wentto school, and I was educating a whole population of people, and I was makingas much as my garbage man.40

FJ6 changed her career from journalism to advertising because of the salarydifference.41

People can barely make a living. As an advertising copywriter I am making atleast 30 percent more than I made as a journalist, doing basically the samething.42

Some respondents said the fact that male co-workers often earned highersalaries contributed to their disillusionment with journalism, including FJ8,now a journalism professor. At one job, she discovered that a male colleague inthe same position earned $10,000 a year more than she.43 FJ5, a former radio


reporter and now a lawyer, said she “was so disappointed by the treatment ofwomen in journalism and the pay.”44 She said discrepancies will not changeuntil women own and operate media companies. FJ9 said her employers “didn’tpay you enough to live well in southern California. You couldn’t afford to buya house or have a child.”45 She said she saw many women leave the businessbecause “just like men, we didn’t want to stay here and eat dirt for the rest of ourlives.”46

FJ9 also noted financial concerns are amajor reason women with children leavenewspapers:

Kids cost money, journalism jobs pay youcrap, and for the same economic reasons asmen, we want to make more money and workfewer hours.47

FJ4 said she became discouraged whenshe realized young male journalists had ad-vantages over female journalists.

A lot of the young female reporters were low-balled. Young male reporters were consis-tently offered better jobs and pay than youngwomen. Maybe because the bosses saw themas an investment—they knew a lot of womenwould leave.48

Several respondents recounted incidentsof discrimination and sexism from both maleand female managers. FJ1 said managerspushed her to use her looks and her racialbackground to advance rather than her talentand intelligence.

Many of my friends in journalism have achieved success because the first doorsthat opened for them were purely based on connections and not merit.49

FJ6, who worked in the male-dominated realm of business reporting, saidmost colleagues’ attitudes about the job were competitive, which “seems to mevery male.”50 Men tended to be dismissive of women in the industry. “I used todeal with these white guys in chinos and they used to talk really slowly to me,”although she holds two degrees from Harvard.51

FJ8 pointed out that the content of newspapers reflects the . . .

The womenin this studyperceivedthat theywere part ofa subordinateclass at themale-dominatednewsorganizationswhere theyworked.


typical newspaper reporter and editor—white, middle-aged, middle-class men.It skews the worldview. Go to children and family coverage. They don’tunderstand issues; they only react as opposed to examining poverty, drugaddiction and all the things that lead to abuse. It’s not all neat and tied up; it’smessy and complicated. The public is not getting an accurate reflection ofwhat’s going on.52

Some respondents said an emphasis on male news values prevented themfrom reporting news they believed was important. FJ14 said she becamediscouraged because she wanted to change the world through her reporting andrealized that would not happen. As an Asian American, she wanted to explainthe Vietnamese community in depth to newspaper readers, but quickly learned,

I was never going to write the kinds of stories I wanted. They weren’t interestedin in-depth psychological stories; they were interested in quick-hit gangstories.53

FJ8 noted that women generally see more detail and complexity in storiesthan men.

There is less nuance in the news, and women are very good at nuance and grayareas. I think it becomes more cut and dry with men, particularly white, middle-class suburban men.54

FJ3 said bluntly: “Men love to talk about themselves and other men.”55

Mentoring, or the lack thereof, was a problem for several of the respondents.FJ17 noted that at her newspaper,

I saw young, hungry women and nobody was there to help them. I felt I had toprove myself all over again. As a young woman, that could push you out. I thinkit might be easier for young men.56

FJ9 said women who worked at the higher levels at her newspaper did nothelp their counterparts in lower positions. She attributed this to behaviorlearned on elementary school playgrounds, where more popular girls shunnedless popular ones. “Alpha females have not helped lesser-ranking females. Theyoppress them.”57 Noted FJ15,

Women are really abysmal mentors of other women. I don’t know what is goingon there. Women need to take a role in mentoring other women.58


Discussion and Recommendations

This study sought to uncover some reasons—why women who graduatedwith degrees in journalism eventually left full-time journalism jobs. It providesa window into the experiences and observations of 17 women who excelled injournalism school but found the real world of journalism discouraging. Thewomen in this study perceived that they were part of a subordinate class at themale-dominated news organizations where they worked. The reasons weremany—lack of opportunity, low salary, lack of mentors, unwillingness bymanagement to offer flexible work schedules. The women reported managersdid not recognize their perspectives as significant or important to the organiza-tion. The patriarchal aspects of newsrooms did little to encourage them oraccommodate their needs, wants or desires. This was particularly discouragingfor young journalists who entered the profession with high expectations.Women who had decided to go into journalism in college to change the worldfound they could not change the male-oriented culture of most newsrooms.

Several of the women said the work was no longer meaningful, in partbecause their definitions of news differed from those of male managers, similarto Van Zoonen’s “gendered nature of news” concept. Other women reportededitors and managers did not support the types of stories they wanted to writebecause they saw news from a “male” perspective. Several reported editorswanted them to write reactive stories rather than looking in-depth into issuesthey felt were important. They also felt male editors did not allow them to reportnews from a women’s perspective that might allow different approaches thantraditional news values dictate. Paula Skidmore has noted a “structured in-equality” in the news process in which “women journalists are made to feel thattheir concerns…are not what is required of a true news professional.”59

Certainly some male journalists encounter similar problems, but youngmen are not leaving the business in the same numbers as young women. Somemarried women might have more flexibility than unmarried women to leavejobs, especially if their husbands or partners have well-paying jobs. The unmar-ried women in this study expressed particular exasperation at the lack ofrespect, encouragement and compensation they received on the job. They leftnewsrooms for positions that offered better pay, more flexible schedules andgreater respect.

The results here could be interpreted as a warning to news organizations asthey face shrinking profits and decreasing readership. If newspapers want toappeal to a broader audience and stay healthy financially, they must changetheir business strategies. One way to do this is to appeal to more female readers.Female journalists might have a better understanding of what it takes to reachthese readers. For this reason alone, newspapers need to do a better job ofpersuading women to stay in newsrooms.

The problems cited by the women interviewed here can be addressed bynews organizations. In the 21st century, companies can provide arrangements


like job sharing, part-time work, telecommuting and on-site day care to accom-modate families. They can provide equitable pay and mentoring programs.They can allow women freedom to write about topics they think are interestingand important. These changes will not be easy. They will require newsroommanagers to rethink many of their fundamental approaches. But these changesare necessary if newspaper companies want to retain women in newsrooms,according to the results of the interviews.

In addition, it is essential that journalism educators inform female studentsof problems they may face in newsrooms so they can help prepare theirstudents. With knowledge, female students can arm themselves to face poten-tial obstacles and male students can better understand the needs of femalecolleagues. The researchers’ classrooms have employed new curriculum ele-ments, including information on sex discrimination and the masculine naturesof many newsrooms. They have also introduced strategies on salary andpromotion negotiation, suggested young women seek out mentors and pro-vided information on balancing family and work responsibilities.

This study has limitations. First, 17 subjects is a relatively small studysample, and it is possible the women in this study are simply a group ofdisgruntled journalists. However, the researchers are confident the themesexpressed by the women ring true among female journalists. Second, the poolof respondents could have been more diverse. The interview subjects wereprimarily Caucasian, four were Asian and one was black. None was Hispanicor Native American. In the future, researchers could cast a wider net and obtaina larger sample by employing a survey method. Third, this study looked onlyat women who had quit full-time jobs in newsrooms, not at women who stayedin newsrooms; the latter group could provide different perspectives.

Still, these results echo the discouragement women journalists reported inthe 1996 Walsh-Childers et al. study on discrimination.

Taken together, the costs of lost or burned-out employees, wasted talent, lostreaders, and, in some cases, the legal fees and other costs associated with sexdiscrimination lawsuits must be formidable. As newsroom budgets tighten, itseems increasingly obvious that sex discrimination is a cost newspapers can nolonger afford.60

Results suggest that many newsroom managers have yet to grasp theimpact of sex discrimination.

Notes1. Lee B. Becker, Tudor Vlad, Amy Jo Coffey and Maria Tucker, “Enrollment Growth Rate

Slows; Field’s Focus on Undergraduate Education at Odds with University Setting,” Journalism andMass Communication Educator 60, no. 3 (fall 2005): 286-314.

2. “ASNE annual survey, 2005” ASNE.org, <http://www.asne.org> (16 April 2005).


3. David Weaver et al., “The American Journalist Survey,”Poynter.org, 2003, <http://www.poynter.org> (18 July 2005).

4. Weaver et al., “The American Journalist Survey.”5. Regarding pay, a 1996 survey found that nearly half of female journalists reported lower

salaries than male journalists with equivalent jobs. See Kim Walsh-Childers, Jean Chance andKristin Herzog, “Women journalists report discrimination in newsrooms,” Newspaper ResearchJournal 17, no. 3/4 (summer/fall 1996): 86-88. As for family concerns, research by the NewspaperAssociation of America supports the premise that the journalism workplace “is not conducive to agood work/family balance.” See Mary Arnold Hemlinger and Cynthia C. Linton, “Women inNewspapers 2002: Still Fighting an Uphill Battle,” Media Management Center at NorthwesternUniversity (Evanston, Ill.: Media Management Center, 2002), 27. Regarding the glass ceiling,statistics published in 2005 showed that men occupy 65.2 percent of all supervisory positions at dailynewspapers, 78.7 percent of news directors at U.S. television stations and 75.3 percent of newsdirectors at radio stations. See “ASNE annual survey, 2005,” and Bob Papper, “Running in Place:Minorities and women in television see little change, while minorities fare worse in radio,” Radio-Television News Directors Association Communicator, July/August 2005, 28.

6. Linda Steiner, “Newsroom Accounts of Power at Work,” in News, Gender and Power, eds.Cynthia Carter, Gill Branston and Stuart Allen (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), 146-159;Lisbet Van Zoonen, “One of the Girls? The Changing Gender of Journalism,” in News, Gender andPower, eds. Cynthia Carter, Gill Branston and Stuart Allen (London and New York: Routledge,1998), 36.

7. Steiner, “Newsroom Accounts of Power at Work,” 158; Van Zoonen, “One of the Girls?” 36-37.

8. Paula Skidmore, “Gender and the Agenda,” in News, Gender and Power, eds. Cynthia Carter,Gill Branston and Stuart Allen (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), 207-209.

9. Lee B. Becker, Tudor Vlad, Heidi Hennink-Kaminski and Amy Jo Coffey, “2003-2004Enrollment Report: Growth in Field Keeps Up with Trend,” Journalism & Mass Communication Editor59, no. 3 (fall 2004): 289.

10. Josephine Donovan, Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions of American Feminism (NewYork: Continuum, 1992), 187-190.

11. Steiner, “Newsroom Accounts of Power at Work,” 146-159.12. Van Zoonen, “One of the Girls?” 36.13. Van Zoonen, “One of the Girls?” 36.14. Steiner, “Newsroom Accounts of Power at Work,” 158; Van Zoonen, “One of the Girls?” 36-

37.15. Walsh-Childers, Chance and Herzog, “Women Journalists Report Discrimination in

Newsrooms,” 68-87.16. Thomas R. Lindlof, Qualitative Communication Research Methods (Thousand Oaks, Calif.:

Sage Publications, 1995), 163-196.17. The interview subjects lived in the following cities: New York; Deptford, N.J.; Deerfield

Beach, Fla.; Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Carrollton, Texas; Lakewood, Colo.; Phoenix; Burbank, Calif.;and South Pasadena, Calif.

18. Lindlof Qualitative Communication Research Methods, 164.19. Lindlof, Qualitative Communication Research Methods, 127-128.20. Lindlof, Qualitative Communication Research Methods, 197-243.21. Female Journalist 2, interview by author, 8 Feb. 2005. Born 1973, Caucasian, married, one

child. Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She workedfor 10 years as a reporter at the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va., USA Today, the News-Press inFort Meyers, Fla., and the South Florida Sun Sentinel. At the time of study, she worked part-time forthe Sun Sentinel.

22. Female Journalist 2, interview by author, 8 Feb. 2005.


23. Female Journalist 9, interview by author, 20 June 2005. A single mother of two, she was bornin 1960 and is Chinese-American. Bachelor’s degree in environmental biology from the Universityof California at Berkeley and master’s degree from the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Sheworked as an intern at the San Jose Mercury News and as a reporter for the Oakland Tribune and OrangeCounty Register. At the time of study, she worked in her family’s business, architecture and propertymanagement.

24. Female Journalist 9, interview by author, 20 June 2005.25. Female Journalist 4, interview by author, 8 January 2005. Born in 1972, is Caucasian and

married with one child. Bachelor’s degree in interpersonal communication from University ofCalifornia-Santa Barbara and master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University. She workedfor the UC-Santa Barbara newspaper and radio station in college and interned at the Syracuse Herald-Journal during graduate school. She worked at The Los Angeles Times, two community newspapersin California and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. At the time of study, she worked in publicrelations for a Catholic university in southern California.

26. Female Journalist 16, interview by author, 22 June 2005. Born in 1965, Caucasian andmarried with two children. Bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin.She worked as a reporter for college newspaper, The Daily Texan, and interned at the HoustonChronicle. She worked as a reporter for the Amarillo Globe News, Texas Lawyer in Dallas and Legal Timesin Washington, D.C. She also worked for a public relations firm representing lawyers. At the timeof study was a full-time mother doing freelance public relations work in Dallas.

27. Female Journalist 13, interview by author, 4 January 2005. Born in 1979, Caucasian andsingle with no children. Bachelor’s degree in communication from Carroll College in Waukesha,Wisc. During college and after graduation, worked as an editorial assistant for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. She later moved to Texas and worked as a reporter for D/FW Community Newspapers. Atthe time of study, she worked in advertising in Chicago.

28. Female Journalist 7, interview by author, 7 January 2005. Born in 1977, Caucasian, single,no children. Bachelor’s degrees in communication and political science from Northwestern Univer-sity and master’s degree in journalism from Medill School of Journalism. Interned at the Courier andPress in Evansville, Ind., and worked as a reporter for the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot-Ledger inWashington, D.C., bureau. At the time of study, she worked in public relations for Pepsico inChicago.

29. Female Journalist 7, interview by author, 7 January 2005.30. Female Journalist 11, interview by author, 11 June 2005. Born in 1962, Caucasian, married

with one child. Bachelor’s degree in English from Colorado College and master’s degree from theUniversity of Missouri-Columbia’s Missouri School of Journalism. She worked in computer-assisted reporting at USA Today, as a reporter in Pullman, Wash., for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinelin Colorado and the Denver Post. At the time of study, she was a public information officer for thecity of Lakewood, Colo.

31. Female Journalist 11, interview by author, 11 June 2005.32. Female Journalist 2, interview by author, 8 Feb. 2005.33. Female Journalist 2, interview by author, 8 Feb. 2005.34. Female Journalist 2, interview by author, 8 Feb. 2005.35. Female Journalist 8, interview by author, 5 January 2005. Born in 1967, Caucasian, single,

no children. Bachelor’s degree in communication from Villanova University and master’s degree injournalism through the Casey Journalism Fellowship at the University of Maryland. She worked forher college newspaper, then in entertainment public relations. Later she worked as a stringer forPhildelphia Inquirer, a reporter for the Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina, Daytona Beach NewsJournal, the Orlando Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post. At the time of study she worked as a journalismprofessor in Deptford, N.J.

36. Female Journalist 8, interview by author, 5 January 2005.


37. Female Journalist 17, interview by author, 24 June 2005. Born in 1964, African American,married and two children. Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware, where sheworked for her college newspaper and radio station. She was a traffic and overnight reporter for aradio station in Philadelphia, reporter for the Des Moines Register in Iowa and a reporter for The DallasMorning News. She then worked as a schoolteacher in Dallas. At the time of the study, she was aschool district administrator in Carrollton, Texas.

38. Female Journalist 12, interview by author, 3 January 2005. Born in 1960, Caucasian, married,one child and two stepchildren. Bachelor’s degree in English/medieval literature from VanderbiltUniversity. She worked for the Evansville Courier and Press in Indiana during high school. Aftercollege she worked in Dallas for the Richardson Daily News, Downtown News and D magazine. At thetime of study she worked in marketing and public relations for Dallas advertising agencies.

39. Female Journalist 13, interview by author, 4 January 2005.40. Female Journalist 13, interview by author, 4 January 2005.41. Female Journalist 6, interview by author, 4 January 2005. Born in 1968, Asian, single, no

children. Bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University and law degree from HarvardLaw School. She interned at American Lawyer and worked as a reporter for Electronic News magazine,covering the semiconductor industry. She later wrote reports for a research firm and researched andwrote for two Internet companies. At the time of study she worked for an advertising agency in NewYork City.

42. Female Journalist 6, interview by author, 4 January 2005.43. Female Journalist 8, interview by author, 5 January 2005.44. Female Journalist 5, interview by author, 4 January 2005. Born in 1955, Caucasian, single,

no children. Bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Texas at Arlington and lawdegree from Southern Methodist University Law School. In high school she worked for herhometown newspaper in Kansas. After college she worked as a radio reporter and anchor for fiveyears. At the time of study, she was a lawyer in Dallas.

45. Female Journalist 9, interview by author, 20 June 2005.46. Female Journalist 9, interview by author, 20 June 2005.47. Female Journalist 9, interview by author, 20 June 2005.48. Female Journalist 4, interview by author, 8 January 2005.49. Female Journalist 1, interview by author, 12 February 2005. Born in 1982, Asian, single, no

children. Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Sheworked for her college newspaper and interned at the St. Petersburg Times. At the time of study, sheattended law school in Chicago.

50. Female Journalist 6, interview by author, 4 January 2005.51. Female Journalist 6, interview by author, 4 January 2005.52. Female Journalist 8, interview by author, 5 January 2005.53. Female Journalist 14, interview by author, 10 June 2005. Born in 1965, Vietnamese-

American, married, no children. Bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas atAustin and master of fine arts in creative writing from New York University. She worked as areporter for the Orange County Register, a freelance writer, a waitress and a journalism instructor atCalifornia State University-Fullerton. At the time of study she was a writing instructor at Parson’sSchool of Design in New York City.

54. Female Journalist 8, interview by author, 5 January 2005.55. Female Journalist 3, interview by author, 16 November 2004. Born in 1979, Caucasian,

married, one child. Bachelor’s degree from Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University.She worked as a reporter for her college newspaper and for the Killeen Daily Herald in Killeen, Texas.At the time of study, she taught high school journalism in Marietta, Ga.

56. Female Journalist 17, interview by author, 24 June 2005.57. Female Journalist 9, interview by author, 20 June 2005.


58. Female Journalist 15, interview by author, 21 June 2005. Born in 1971, Caucasian, single, nochildren. Bachelor’s degree in political science from Arizona State University, law degree fromArizona State University Law School and master’s degree in public administration from ColumbiaUniversity. She worked as the editor of her college newspaper and as a reporter for the PhoenixGazette and Arizona Republic. At the time of study, she served as corporation commissioner forArizona, an elected position.

59. Skidmore, “Gender and the Agenda,” 205, 209.60. Walsh-Childers, Chance and Herzog, “Women Journalists Report Discrimination in

Newsrooms,” 86.

Documents

Why Women Leave Journalism