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Women in journalism are individuals who participate injournalism. As journalism became aprofession, women were restricted by custom from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. Nevertheless, women operated as editors, reporters, sports analysts and journalists even before the 1890s[1] in some countries as far back as the 18th century.
In 2017, with the#MeToo movement, a number of notable female journalists came forward to report sexual harassment in their workplaces.[2]
In 2018, a global support organization calledThe Coalition For Women In JournalismArchived 10 January 2022 at theWayback Machine was formed to address the challenges women journalists face across different countries in the world. According to its founder, a Pakistani journalistKiran Nazish,"Traditionally, women journalists have been doing it alone and they do need an infrastructure that helps guide them through their careers." Shesaid in an interview, "The reason why women are not on the top is not because there aren't enough women or that they're not talented enough, it's purely that they need to help each other. That's why we were formed and that's why we would like to get as much support in from everyone in the industry."
According to Lauren Wolfe, an investigative journalist and the director of the Women's Media Center's Women Under Siege program, female journalists face particular risks over their male colleagues, and are more likely to experienceonline harassment orsexual assault on the job.[3]
According to a report released on 20 December 2017 by theCommittee to Protect Journalists, in 2017, 42 journalists were killed because of their work worldwide, with 81 percent of those journalists male. This was slightly lower than the historical average of 93 percent of men journalists killed annually for their work, withThe Intercept theorizing that the drop was perhaps due to women being assigned more frequently to dangerous locales.[3]
Until 2019, the problem of gender imbalance and lack of representation of women on platforms of success continued. After the British Journalism Awards 2019, the fewer bylines by women visible in the award caused a stir leadingto a protest and a relaunch of Words By Women Awards.
Safety of journalists is the ability forjournalists and media professionals to receive, produce and share information without facing physical or moral threats. Women journalists also face increasing dangers such as sexual assault, "whether in the form of a targeted sexual violation, often in reprisal for their work; mob-related sexual violence aimed against journalists covering public events; or the sexual abuse of journalists in detention or captivity. Many of these crimes are not reported as a result of powerful cultural and professional stigmas."[4][5]
Women journalists, whether they are working in an insecure context, or in anewsroom, face risks of physical assault,sexual harassment,sexual assault, rape, and even murder. Women journalists are vulnerable to attacks not only from those attempting to silence their coverage but also from sources, colleagues, and others.[6] A 2014 global survey of nearly 1,000 journalists, initiated by the International News Safety Institute (INSI) in partnership with theInternational Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and with the support ofUNESCO, found that nearly two-thirds of women who took part in the survey had experienced intimidation, threats orabuse in the workplace.[7]
In the period from 2012 through 2016, UNESCO's Director-General denounced the killing of 38 women journalists, representing 7 per cent of all journalists killed.[8] The percentage of journalists killed who are women is significantly lower than their overall representation in the media workforce. This large gender gap is likely partly the result of the persistent under-representation of women reporting from war zones or insurgencies or on topics such as politics and crime.[9]
The September 2017 report of theUnited Nations Secretary-General outlines a way forward for a gender-sensitive approach to strengthening the safety of women journalists.[10] In 2016, theCouncil of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 on the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists and other media actors, in particular noting the gender-specific threats that many journalists face and calling for urgent, resolute and systematic responses.[11][12] The same year, the IPDC council requests the UNESCO Director-General's report to include gender information.[13]
Legal harassment is the biggest threat to female journalists, according to a report by theCoalition for Women in Journalism. So far this year,[when?] at least 72 cases of legal harassment have been reported to the CFWIJ. When the number of detentions is added, it becomes clear how the legal system can be misused to target and silence journalists, posing a serious threat to female journalists.
Another big issue is harassment, which can happen online and at work. The sexual nature of the harassment women experience is often rooted inmisogyny, as evidenced by the numerous cases ofrape threats and sexually explicitmanipulated photos and videos that have been used to defame and disparage female journalists. The so-called "double onslaught" on female journalists is visible again: they are targeted both for their gender and their profession. For this reason, it is crucial to focus on the gendered components of the dangers to which female journalists are exposed. The harassment women journalists face, whether online or offline, threatens their right to freedom of expression and limits the diversity of opinion in the media.[14]
The Guardian surveyed the 70 million comments recorded on its website between 1999 and 2016 (only 22,000 of which were recorded before 2006). Of these comments, approximately 1.4 million (approximately two per cent) were blocked for abusive or disruptive behavior. Of the 10 staff journalists who received the highest levels of abuse and ‘dismissivetrolling’, eight were women.[17]
The INSI and IWMF survey found that more than 25 per cent of ‘verbal, written and/or physical intimidation including threats to family and friends’ took place online.[18]
Countering online abuse is a significant challenge, and few legislative and policy frameworks exist on the international or national level to protect journalists from digital harassment.[19]
TheInternational Federation of Journalists and the South Asia Media Solidarity Network launched the Byte Back campaign to raise awareness andcombat online harassment of women journalists in the Asia-Pacific region.[20]
TheOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) organized an expert meeting titled ‘New Challenges to Freedom of Expression: Countering Online Abuse of Female Journalists’ which produced a publication of the same title that includes the voices of journalists and academics on the realities of online abuse of women journalists and how it can be combated.[21][12]Sophia Dalton published the newspaperThe Patriot inToronto in 1840–1848,[22] followed in 1851 byMary Herbert, who became the first woman publisher inNova Scotia when publishing theMayflower, or Ladies' Acadian Newspaper.[23]
Three Canadian woman journalists who worked near the end of the nineteenth century for newspapers which would evolve into theGlobe and Mail wereKit Coleman,Faith Fenton andSara Jeannette Duncan.[24]
Canadian-bornFlorence MacLeod Harper was notable for her work with photographer Donald Thompson covering both the Eastern front in World War One and the February revolution in St Petersburg 1917 forLeslie's Weekly. Her subsequent books,Bloodstained Russia andRunaway Russia, were among the first Western accounts of events.[25]
Henriette Holst-Hendrix,[26] the first woman journalist of Holland, was known both in the U.S. and abroad for her lectures on Dutch and Japanese customs. Soon after completing college in Holland, Holst at the age of 21 entered the newspaper field in 1898, at a time when journalism was still considered "a man's job". She became an art, literary and dramatic critic for the chief Amsterdam papers, and came into close contact with most of the artists of her own country and many foreign artists traveling through Holland, working first forDe Telegraf newspaper in The Hague, which was one of the leading papers in Amsterdam.
In 1907, she married Willem Holst, an expert in Oriental Art, and went to live in Japan. During her seventeen years there, she contributed[27] articles to newspapers in Amsterdam, Surabaya, Java, London and New York.[28][29] Many of her reviews have appeared inThe New York Times andThe Saturday Review of Literature. Henriette Holst was a contributor toThe New York Times and theSaturday Review of Literature. While in Japan, she published "Study on the life of Japanese Woman" in the Dutch language. Mrs. Holst began to lecture in Yokohama, Japan when the Alliance Francaise asked her to relate her interviews with the famous Sarah Bernhardt.
In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake hit and destroyed everything. Only themselves surviving, they came back to Holland where her children continued to study, and the following year moved to New York.[30] Henriette spoke several times at the Great Neck Town Hall under the auspices of different societies – the League for Political Education and the Netherland-American Foundation among them. After one of her lectures the Netherlands Legation appointed her to represent Holland at a world conference in Washington, DC.
Mrs. Holst was managed by William B. Feakins Inc. located at Times Building, New York. She was President of the New York Branch of the Netherlands Abroad Society. She appeared before many women's clubs and gave talks at schools, clubs and summer camps. In Great Neck she was active in the Great Neck Players. She died from cancer on August 22, 1933 at the age of 56.
In Denmark, women became editors early on by inheriting papers form their spouses, the earliest examples beingSophie Morsing, who inheritedWochenliche Zeitung from her husband in 1658 and managed the paper as editor, and Catherine Hake, who inherited the paperEuropäische Wochentliche Zeitung as widow the following year – as far as it is known, though, these women did not write in their papers.[31]
The first woman in Denmark to publish articles in Danish papers was the writerCharlotte Baden, who occasionally participated in the weeklyMorgenPost from 1786 to 1793.[31] In 1845, Marie Arnesen became the first woman to participate in the public political debate in a Danish newspaper, and from the 1850s, it became common for women to participate in public debate or contribute with an occasional article: among them beingCaroline Testman, who wrote travel articles, andAthalia Schwartz, who was a well known public media figure through her participation in the debate in the papers between 1849 and 1871.[31] In the 1870s, the women's movement started and published papers of their own, with women editors and journalists.
It was not until the 1880s, however, that women begun to be professionally active in the Danish press, andSofie Horten (1848–1927) likely became the first woman who supported herself as a professional journalist when she was employed atSorø Amtstidende in 1888.[31] An important pioneer wasLoulou Lassen, employed at thePolitiken in 1910, the first female career journalist and a pioneer female journalist within science, also arguably the first nationally well known woman in the profession. In 1912, eight women were members of the reporter's unionKøbenhavns Journalistforbund (Copenhagen Association of Journalists), five in the clubJournalistforeningen i København (Journalist Association of Copenhagen) and a total of 35 women employed as journalists in Denmark.[31]
Hind Nawfal (1860–1920) was the first woman in the Arab world to publish a journal (Al-Fatat) concerning only women's issues.Zaynab Fawwaz was another prolific journalist who also founded a literary salon.
The Swedish journalist and editorCatharina Ahlgren was most likely the first female journalist and editor in the then Swedish province of Finland when she published her own essay paper, the Swedish languageOm att rätt behaga in 1782, which was also among the first papers in Finland.[32]
Traditionally, the first female journalist has been referred to asFredrika Runeberg, who wrote poems and articles inHelsingfors Morgonblad under the name of her spouseJohan Ludvig Runeberg in the 1830s.[31] The first woman in Finland to work as a journalist in Finland under her own name wasAdelaïde Ehrnrooth, who wrote inHelsingfors Dagblad andHufvudstadsbladet for 35 years from 1869 onward.[31]
Women's involvement in journalism came early in France. Women having been active within the printing and publishing business sinceYolande Bonhomme andCharlotte Guillard in the early 16th century, the first female journalists appeared almost from the beginning when the press and the profession of journalism developed in the 17th and early 18th century.Anne-Marguerite Petit du Noyer (1663–1719) has been referred to as the perhaps first female celebrity journalists in France and Europe. Her reports of the negotiations leading to thePeace of Utrecht were read all over Europe, and admired for the distinction with which she reported on scandal and gossip.[33]
During the 18th century, women were active as publishers, chief editors and journalists in the French press. Female authors such asJeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont andAdélaïde Dufrénoy contributed with articles to the press, and chief editors such asMadeleine Fauconnier of theNécrologe ofParis (1764–1782) andJustine Giroud of theAffiches, annonces et avis-divers du Dauphiné ofGrenoble 1774–1792, enjoyed successful careers in both the capital and the provinces.
The feminist press developed, andMadame de Beaumer,Catherine Michelle de Maisonneuve andMarie-Emilie Maryon de Montanclos all successively functioned as chief editors and directors of the women's magazineJournal des dames (1759–78).[34] During theFrench Revolution, women editors such asMarguerite Pagès-Marinier,Barbe-Therese Marchand,Louise-Félicité de Kéralio andAnne Félicité Colombe participated in the political debate.
During the 19th century, it was not uncommon for women to participate in the French press, but the majority of them were not professional journalists but writers such asGeorge Sand, who only contributed on a temporary basis. In the second half of the 19th century, the women's movement started their own magazines with female journalists, though they were seldom professional full-time reporters.
During the 1880s and 1890s, about a dozen women journalists were employed in the French press.[35] They were considered the pioneer generation of professional women reporters in France, among whom Caroline Rémy de Guebhard (1855–1929) andMarguerite Durand (1864–1936) are often referred to as the pioneers.[35]Caroline Rémy de Guebhard, pen-name Severine, was employed by theCri du Peuple in 1880s and has been referred to as the first female reporter in France.[35]
In 1816,Therese Huber became an editor of theMorgenblatt für gebildete Stände, one of the main literary and cultural journals of the era.[36] Therese Huber was the first woman supporting her family with a salaried editorial position at a journal[37] and has been described as the first woman to hold an editorial position[38][39] and even as the first journalist in Germany.[40] Huber had full responsibility for the journal from 1817 to 1823.[37] She was not only author and editor for the journal, but also contributed many of her own translations.[41] The journal had its most successful period under her editorship, with more than 1800 copies sold in 1820.[42]
Kagure Gacheche, The editor of "Hustle", a pullout in the Wednesday edition ofThe Standard, a national newspaper in Kenya.
Christine Koech, The editor of "Eve", a pullout in the Saturday edition ofThe Standard, a national newspaper in Kenya.
Judith Mwobobia, The editor of "Sunday", a pullout in the Sunday edition ofThe Standard, a national newspaper in Kenya.
The history of women in journalism inNepal is relatively new. Nepal only enjoyed an open press after the1990 democratic movement. It is only since that change that women have been more active in the scene of journalism. The number of registered women journalists under theFederation of Nepalese Journalists is 1,613.[43]
The first female journalist in Norway wasBirgithe Kühle, who published the local paperProvincial-Lecture inBergen between 1794 and 1795.[44]
During the 19th century, women participated with articles in the press, especially within the culture sections and a translators, notablyMagdalene Thoresen, who has by some been referred to as an early female journalist: from 1856,Marie Colban (1814–1884) lived in Paris, from where she wrote articles forMorgenbladet andIllustreret Nyhedsblad, for which she can be regarded as the first female foreign correspondent in the Norwegian press.[31]
Other pioneers wereWilhelmine Gulowsen, editor of the culture paperFigaro in 1882–83, andElisabeth Schøyen, editor of the family magazineFamilie-Musæum in 1878 and journalist ofBergensposten andAftenposten.[45]
The Norwegian newspaper press in the capital ofOslo had their first two female reporters withMarie Mathisen atDagsposten in 1897, andAnna Hvoslef atAftenposten in 1898: the former became the first female member of theOslo Journalistklubb (Oslo Journalist Association) in 1902.[46]
In 1822,Wanda Malecka (1800–1860) became the first woman newspaper publisher in Poland when she published theBronisława (followed in 1826–1831 by theWybór romansów); she had in 1818-1820 previously been the editor of the handwritten publicationDomownik, and was also a pioneer woman journalist, publishing articles inWanda.[47]
In Sweden,Maria Matras, known as "N. Wankijfs Enka", published the paperOrdinarie Stockholmiske Posttijdender in 1690–1695, but it is unknown if she wrote in the paper as well.[48]
Margareta Momma became the first identified female journalist andchief editor as the editor of the political essaypaperSamtal emellan Argi Skugga och en obekant Fruentimbers Skugga in 1738.[49] During the 18th century, many periodicals for, about, and likely also by women were published, but as women normally published under pseudonym, the can seldom be identified: one of the few identified ones beingCatharina Ahlgren, who edited the typical women's periodicalDe nymodiga fruntimren (Modern Women) in 1773.[50] Women chief editors became fairly common during the 18th century, when the press in Sweden developed, especially since the widow of a male printer or editor normally took over the business of her late spouse: a successful and well known female newspaper editor wasAnna Hammar-Rosén, who managed the popular newspaperHwad Nytt?? Hwad Nytt?? between 1773 and 1795.[48]
It was not until the 19th century that the papers of the Swedish press started to introduce a permanent staff of co-workers and journalists, a development which attached the first women as permanent employees to the newspaper offices, which are noted to beWendela Hebbe atAftonbladet in 1841–1851 andMarie Sophie Schwartz atSvenska Tidningen Dagligt Allehanda in 1851–1857.[48] In 1858,Louise Flodin came to be regarded as an important pioneer when she founded her own newspaper, became the first woman to be given a newspaper license, and composed a staff entirely of women employees,[48] andEva Brag became an important pioneer during her career atGöteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning in 1865–1889.[51]
From the 1880s, women became more common in the offices of the press, and when women was admitted to theSwedish Publicists' Association in 1885, 14 women were inducted as members.[48]The pioneer generation of women journalists were generally from the upper/middle class who wished to earn their own income.[48] At this point, the focus of a conventional education for a woman was language, which was not the case with a conventional male education, especially since the male reporters were generally not from the upper classes.[48] Women were employed as translators and given the responsibility for the coverage of culture and foreign news and interviews of foreigners. During this period, women journalists were reportedly respected – partially due to their social background – and due to their language skills given assignments with equal status to their male co-workers.[48] In 1918,Maria Cederschiöld, first woman editor of a foreign news section, recalled that women reporters were not as controversial or discriminated in the 1880s as they would later become, "...when the results ofStrindberg's hatred of women made itself known. Nor was the struggle of life and competition so sharp, as it has later become. The women pioneers were generally treated with sympathy and interest, even by the men, perhaps because they normally did not regard them as dangerous competitors."[48]
Of the seven biggest newspapers in Stockholm, six had female co-workers prior to 1900, and whenSwedish Union of Journalists was founded in 1901, women were included from the start.[48] An important event occurred in 1910, when the popular novelPennskaftet byElin Wägner made the journalist's profession a popular career choice for women, and women career journalists were often referred to as "pennskaft".[48] By this time, women reporters, though a minority, had become common and no longer regarded as a novelty, and the competition had become harder: in 1913,Stockholms Dagblad made a record by having seven female co-workers, and the same year, theSwedish Publicists' Association founded theDe kvinnliga journalisternas stipendiefond to finance foreign trips for women reporters.[48] Women coveredWorld War I and theRussian Revolution and several women journalists became famed role models, includingEster Blenda Nordström,Anna Lisa Andersson andElin Brandell.
During theInterwar period, a change occurred that exposed women reporters to an informal discrimination long referred to as a "woman's trap": the introduction of the customarywomen's section of the newspapers.[48] DuringWorld War I, war-time rationing made it necessary to cover household interests, which after the war became a woman's section, as household tasks were regarded as female tasks.[48] The coverage of the women's section customarily became the task of the female reporters, and as they were a minority, the same reporters were often forced to handle the women's section aside from their other assignments, which placed them at a great disadvantage to their male colleagues when the competition became harsher during the interwar depression.[48]In parallel, there were women with successful careers, notablyBarbro Alving, whose coverage of theSpanish Civil War,World War II and theCold war made her famous, andDagmar Cronn, who was the editor of the economy section atSvenska Dagbladet in 1933–1959, which made her unique at the time. In 1939,Elsa Nyblom became vice chairperson of thePublicistklubben.
The informal discrimination changed when women reporters started to expand the subjects treated at the women's sections. A noted example of this development wasSynnöve Bellander, editor of the women's section "Hus och hem" atSvenska Dagbladet in 1932–1959. Originally expected to write only of fashion and make up, Bellander started to expand the area to the subjects of education and professional life for women, and from there to consumer issues and food quality and other issues concerning the private home life. This development in the women's sections gradually transformed them to sections for "family" and private life for both sexes, and blurred the line to the rest of the paper.[48]
The 1960s signified a great change. A debate about gender discrimination in the press, followed by the general debate about gender roles during thesecond-wave feminism, quickly raised the numbers of female reporters in the press from 1965 onward. In 1970,Pernilla Tunberger became the first woman to be awardedStora Journalistpriset.[48]
Fatma Aliye Topuz wrote for 13 years, between 1895 and 1908, columns in the magazineHanımlara Mahsus Gazete ("Ladies' Own Gazette"), and her sisterEmine Semiye Onasya worked on the editorial staff.
The number of women contributing to British newspapers and periodicals increased dramatically as the 19th century progressed. This increase was partly due to the proliferation of women-only publications that covered society, arts and fashion as well as emerging topics such as feminism and women's suffrage. The trend was also accompanied by a slow-growing acceptance of women journalists in the more traditional press. By 1894, the number of women journalists was large enough for theSociety of Women Writers and Journalists to be founded, By 1896, the society had over 200 members.[52]
The first female full-time employed journalist inFleet Street wasEliza Lynn Linton, who was employed byThe Morning Chronicle from 1848: three years later, she became the paper's correspondent in Paris, and upon her return to London in the 1860s, she was given a permanent position.[31]
Early in her career, novelistGeorge Eliot was a contributor to theCoventry Herald and Observer, and she later became assistant editor on the left-wing journalThe Westminster Review from 1851 until 1852.[52]
Feminist writerBessie Rayner Parkes Belloc began her career writing for local newspapers and was founder editor of theEnglish Woman's Journal, which was published between 1858 and 1864,[52] she also wrote essays, poetry, fiction and travel literature. Her daughter,Marie Belloc Lowndes, was a novelist as well as a contributor toThe Pall Mall Gazette between 1889 and 1895. She travelled widely for her work and reported on the Paris Exhibition of 1889.[52] Marie's brother was writer and satiristHilaire Belloc.
The Irish writerFrances Cobbe wrote for theLondon Echo from 1868 until 1875, with most of her work appearing in the newspaper's leaders. She wrote on a range of topics, the agreement being that she visited the newspaper offices three mornings a week to write an article "on some social subject".[52]
One of the first British war correspondents was the writerLady Florence Dixie who reported on theFirst Boer War, 1880–1881, as field correspondent forThe Morning Post. She also reported on theAnglo-Zulu War.[52]
Emily Crawford was an Irish foreign correspondent who lived in Paris and wrote a regular "Letter from Paris" for London'sMorning Star in the 1860s. Her husband, George Moreland Crawford, was the Paris correspondent ofThe Daily News. When he died suddenly in 1885, Emily inherited his position and continued in the role until 1907. She wrote for a wide range of newspapers and periodicals during her career and became President of theSociety of Women Journalists in 1901.[53]
After studying medicine at Edinburgh,Florence Fenwick Miller decided to follow a different course and turned to lecturing and writing instead. She was a keen proponent of women's suffrage and editedThe Woman's Signal from 1895 until 1899. In 1886 she began a Ladies' Column forThe Illustrated London News and continued it for 30 years. She contributed to a wide range of other publications during her career, includingThe Echo,Fraser's Magazine andThe Woman's World.[52]
Flora Shaw was a foreign correspondent whose interview with the exiled former Sudanese governor,Zebehr Pasha, was published in thePall Mall Gazette in 1886. This led to commissions from theManchester Guardian andThe Times where Shaw eventually became Colonial Editor. As a correspondent, she travelled toSouthern Africa,Australia,New Zealand andCanada.[52]
After a famous failed attempt to divorce her husband,Lord Colin Campbell, in 1886, Irish bornGertrude Elizabeth Blood turned to journalism. She contributed to thePall Mall Gazette and wrote columns on a wide range of topics, including art, music, theatre and fishing.[52]
Virginia Mary Crawford began writing forThe Pall Mall Gazette in the 1880s after a much publicised divorce from her husbandDonald Crawford. Her writing covered art, literature, women's rights and Catholicism. She played an active role in women's suffrage.
Eliza Davis Aria was a fashion writer and columnist known as 'Mrs Aria', who wrote for a variety of publications in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including forQueen,The Gentlewoman,Hearth and Home, and theDaily Chronicle.[52] She was well known in London society and had a long-term relationship with the actorSir Henry Irving.
In 1891,Rachel Beer became the first female editor of a national newspaper in the UK when she became editor ofThe Observer. In 1893 she purchased theSunday Times and became editor of that paper too.[52]
One of the founders of theSociety of Women Journalists,Mary Frances Billington, was its president from 1913 to 1920. Her career began in the 1880s and she helped establish theSouthern Echo in 1888. She covered major events for theDaily Telegraph in the late 1890s and later reported from France during World War I.[52]
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 Women Journalists at the Turn of the 20th Century, Professor Tracy Lucht, lecture at Iowa state University,C-SPAN[54] |
The BaronessFrederika Charlotte Riedesel's 18th-centuryLetters and Journals Relating to the War of the American Revolution and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga[55] 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 theBattles of Saratoga. She suffered the hardships of siege when she sheltered in the cellar ofthe Marshall House during thefailed retreat of the British army.
Beginning in the late 19th 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 wasJane Grey Swisshelm. A former correspondent forHorace Greeley'sNew York Tribune, she persuaded PresidentMillard Fillmore to open the gallery in congress so that she could report on congressional news.[56] 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 theNew 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 tosociety 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 wasIna Eloise Young (later Ina Young Kelley). In 1907, Young was said to be the only female sports editor (or "sporting" editor, as it was then called). She worked in Colorado for theTrinidad Chronicle-News, and her areas of expertise were baseball, football, and horse racing.[57] She covered the1908 World Series, the only woman of her time to do so.[58] 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.[59]
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Another example of a woman in a non-traditional media profession wasJennie 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, Mix became the radio editor atRadio Broadcast magazine, a position she held from early 1924 until her sudden death in April 1925.[60] In talk radio, there were no women among the top 10 ofTalkers Magazine's "Heavy Hundred" and only two women were among the 183 sport talk radio hosts list.[59] Women increased their presence in professional journalism, and popular representations of the "intrepid girl reporter" became popular in 20th-century films and literature, such as inHis Girl Friday (1940).[61][62]
Dorothy Thompson was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized byTime magazine as the second most influential woman in America, afterEleanor Roosevelt.[63] Thompson is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and as one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s.[64] She is regarded by some as the "First Lady of American Journalism".[65] After the War, she stood up for Palestinian rights against much hostility.
See alsoWomen journalists by name and by category andWomen printers and publishers before 1800References for this section can be found on the article pages if not cited below.
While there are significant numbers ofwomen vocalists singing in pop and rock music, many other aspects of pop and rock music are male-dominated, includingrecord producing,instrument playing andmusic journalism. According to Anwen Crawford, the "problem for women [popular music critics] is that our role in popular music was codified long ago", which means that "[b]ooks by living female rock critics (or jazz, hip-hop, and dance-music critics, for that matter) are scant."[93]
SociologistSimon Frith noted that pop and rock music "are closely associated with gender; that is, with conventions of male and female behaviour."[94] According to Holly Kruse, both popular music articles and academic articles about pop music are usually written from "masculine subject positions."[95] As well, there are relatively few women writing in music journalism: "By 1999, the number of female editors or senior writers atRolling Stone hovered around...15%, [while] atSpin andRaygun, [it was] roughly 20%."[96] Criticism associated with gender was discussed in a 2014Jezebel article about the struggles of women in music journalism, written by music critic Tracy Moore, previously an editor at theNashville Scene.[97]
The American music criticAnn Powers, as a female critic and journalist, has written critiques on the perceptions of sex, racial and social minorities in the music industry. She has also written about feminism.[98][99] In 2006, she accepted a position as chief pop-music critic at theLos Angeles Times, where she succeededRobert Hilburn.[100] In 2005, Powers co-wrote the bookPiece by Piece with musicianTori Amos, which discusses the role of women in the modern music industry, and features information about composing, touring, performance, and the realities of the music business.
Notable popular music critics include:
In 2005, the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) at Columbia studied arts journalism in America and found that "the average classical music critic is a white, 52-year-old male with agraduate degree, but 26 percent of all critics writing are female." However, William Osborne points out that this 26 percent figure includes all newspapers, including low-circulation regional papers. Osborne states that the "...large US papers, which are the ones that influence public opinion, have virtually no women classical music critics". The only female critics from major US papers areAnne Midgette (The New York Times) and Wynne Delacoma (Chicago Sun-Times). Midgette was the "first woman to cover classical music in the entire history of the paper".[101]Susannah Clapp, a critic fromThe Guardian–a newspaper that has a female classical music critic–stated in May 2014 that she had only then realized "...what a rarity" a female classical music critic is in journalism.[102]
Notable women classical music critics include:
This article incorporates text from afree content work. Licensed under CC BY SA 3.0 IGO (license statement/permission). Text taken fromWorld Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development Global Report 2018, 202, UNESCO, UNESCO.
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