WOMEN IN

JOURNALISM

By: Brittany Klein and Kimberly Ross

PRINTING, POLITICS, AND PROPONENTS OF CAUSES

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.

PRINTING, POLITICS, AND PROPONENTS OF

CAUSES CONT’D.

19th Century: Women wrote about social and political causes.

Involvement in abolition, temperance and suffrage campaigns inspired many to begin periodicals, about these subjects.

SCRIBBLING WOMEN

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.

JOURNALISM FOR FEMALE AUDIENCES

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.

JOURNALISM FOR FEMALE AUDIENCES

CONT’D.

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.

STUNT REPORTERS AND SOB SISTER’S

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.

FROM “FRONT PAGE GIRLS” TO ELEANOR

GIRLS 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.

WOMEN COVER WAR

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.

POST-WAR YEARS AND THE GROWTH OF BROADCASTING

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.”

POST WAR YEARS AND THE GROWTH OF BROADCASTING CONT’D.

Marguerite Higgins

Pauline Frederick

Marlene Sanders

CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL DISCONNECT

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.

CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL DISCONNECT

CONT’D.

Marvel Cooke

Charlayne Hunter Gault

FEMINISTS CHALLENGE TRADITIONS

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”.

WOMEN AT THE TOP Eliza Holbrook Nicholson

Eleanor “Cissy” Patterson

WOMEN AT THE TOP CONT’D.

Katharine Graham

Barbara Walters

FAMILIAR THEMES FOR A NEW

MILLENNIUM 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.

WOMEN IN MODERN JOURNALISM

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.

WOMEN IN MODERN JOURNALISM CONT’D

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=Y52WGJq4xKU