A BID FOR LEGITIMACY:
THE WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB MOVEMENT, 1881-1900
By
Elizabeth V. Burt
Assistant Professor
School of Communication
University of Hartford
West Hartford, CT
Submitted to
The Annual Convention of the AEJMC
Anaheim, California, August 1996
A BID FOR LEGITIMACY:
THE WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB MOVEMENT, 1881-1900
During the last fifteen years of the Nineteenth Century, women
journalists mobilized to claim their legitimate place within the journalism
profession. This paper establishes the basic facts concerning these
organizations, discusses some of the issues addressed by the organizations and
how they were received by the male-dominated journalism community, and considers
how the twentieth century definition of women journalists was formed as a result
of debates conducted within these organizations.
A BID FOR LEGITIMACY:
THE WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB MOVEMENT, 1881-1900
During the last fifteen years of the Nineteenth Century, women
journalists across the country mobilized to claim their legitimate place within
the journalism profession, establishing more than seventeen woman's press
associations and clubs. This paper establishes the basic facts concerning these
organizations, discusses some of the issues they addressed as well as how they
were received by the male-dominated journalism community, and considers how the
twentieth century definition of women journalists was formed as a result of
debates conducted within these organizations. The author proposes that although
the associations were founded in the cooperative and supportive spirit of the
nineteenth century woman's club movement, they came in direct conflict with the
emerging ideology of the Twentieth Century that encouraged and rewarded
pragmatism, competition, and "productivity." The conflict between these two
value systems caused a deep schism within the clubs as well as within individual
women journalists that can be detected even today.
A Bid for Legitimacy:
The Woman's Press Club Movement, 1881-1900
During the last fifteen years of the Nineteenth Century, women
journalists across the country mobilized to claim their legitimate place within
the journalism profession. Long denied respect, recognition, equal pay, and
equal opportunity, more than 700 organized, joined, and participated in women's
press associations in more than seventeen states. This explosion of professional
and feminist activism coincided with a general upsurge in the woman's movement
that culminated with the passage of the suffrage amendment in 1919, as well as a
trend within the journalism community to legitimize itself through associations,
codes, and professional training.[1]
Although this was an important period in the development of women
journalists, journalism scholars have written little about the woman's press
club movement of the 1880s. In her study of the Women's National Press Club,
founded in Washington, D.C. in 1919, historian Maurine Beasley briefly mentions
the earlier formation of two such organizations in that city which, by the
post-World War era, had "faded from the scene."[2] In a more recent work,
historian Agnes Hooper Gottlieb examines the Woman's Press Club of New York
City, founded in 1889. She finds that the club helped promote journalism as a
career for women, created a forum for discussion of important issues, and
provided a necessary network for women journalists who were often isolated in
the male-dominated profession.[3]
Other than these contributions, women's press clubs of this period
have been discussed only in passing, usually only in connection with the women
prominent in their leadership.[4] This oversight may be attributed in part to a
tendency among woman journalism historians to focus on biographical studies or
on the involvement of women journalists in particular issues such as suffrage,
reproductive rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment. It may also be attributed,
however, to a general paucity in archival material and organizational records
from this period.[5]
This paper, therefore, has three goals. First, it shall attempt to
establish the basic facts concerning the major women's press organizations
founded during the period 1881-1900. Second, it shall discuss some of the issues
addressed by these various organizations and how they were received by the
male-dominated journalism community. Finally, it shall consider how, as a result
of debates focused on eligibility to the press associations, the twentieth
century definition of women journalists was formed.
Growth and Discontent
The last two decades of the century were years of great possibility
for women who sought to enter the journalism field, yet it was also a period
during which they faced great frustration. Between 1880 and 1890 the number of
women journalists counted by the federal census increased from 288 to 888, and
by 1900, their number had nearly tripled to 2,193.[6] But even though their
numbers were steadily increasing, fulltime women journalists during this period
represented less than seven percent of the total number of journalists counted
by the census. Furthermore, these women were not only a minority within their
profession, they also exercised little power within the newsroom, rarely holding
editorial or decision-making positions. Finally, the few women who occupied
editorial posts, as well as the majority of women reporters, were usually
assigned to the women's or society pages where they were restricted to providing
advice on "women's issues" such as fashion, food, and family.
When women journalists attempted to escape these confines, they were
often greeted with ridicule and hostility by their male colleagues. Here is how
one contemporary described the lot of women seeking to enter the profession
prior to the early 1880s:
Young ladies who dared to lift their heads in the sea of
journalism
immediately became the targets for the envenomed shafts of
small men. Their abilities were
questioned, their intentions suspected, their reputations
bandied from sneering lip to
careless tongue, and on every hand they were met with
discouragements, until the waves of
disappointment and all the billows of despair rolled over
them.[7]
Some women journalists attempted to describe this situation in a
humorous fashion, describing in a literal sense the obstacles they had to
overcome before gaining access to an editor, a story, and some form of
recognition. According to Texas journalist Belle Hunt, who described the chances
of a literary woman in New York as slim, "[T]he publishers expect a woman, when
she is repulsed at the front door, to go to the back, and when that is closed in
her face she must climb in the window, when she will find a hearty welcome and a
few bank notes as a reward for her perseverance." But despite the dry humor, the
sense of frustration was there, all the same.[8]
Women reporters were further limited in gaining power and recognition
within their profession by both custom and law. They were typically restricted
from regions designated as "male" -- such as the Capital press galleries or the
saloons where voting and electioneering took place -- and thus had little access
to the political stories that made the news section.[9] Well-meaning
paternalistic editors who wished to shield them from danger banned them from
covering stories on violence or crime, or working late at night when such events
might occur, once again precluding their chance at front-page stories.[10] And
beyond the newsroom, press clubs, which began to form after the Civil War,
banned women from membership on the grounds that a place where men smoked,
drank, and gambled was no place for a lady.[11] Although the press clubs were
largely social clubs, they did serve as a meeting place where professional
issues were discussed, where contacts were made, and where often significant
decisions were made. To ban women from the journalism clubs was, in effect, to
restrict their ability to socialize and network within their own professional
community.[12]
Mobilization
Although it may be doubtful that women of the 1860s and '70s were
ready to avail themselves of such opportunities for networking within the male
journalism clubs, at least one female journalist protested against her exclusion
and took a practical step to right the inequity. When journalist Jane Cunningham
Croly ("Jenny June") was excluded from an important dinner of the New York Press
Club in 1868, she founded Sorosis, one of the nation's earliest woman's
clubs.[13] Sorosis and other women's clubs organized shortly after inspired a
national club movement of middle-class women devoted to literary and cultural
self-improvement who met regularly to discuss literature, art, education, and
issues concerning women's self-improvement. Typically made up of middle-class
ladies, these organizations often included writers, educators, ministers, and
other early female professionals as well as leaders within the feminist, reform,
and benevolent communities who found the clubs an ideal venue to examine and
debate some of the most controversial issues of the times.[14]
But it was not until the 1880s that women journalists began to see
the need for clubs devoted specifically to their interests. The first to
organize was a group of "lady correspondents" in Washington, D.C. who, out of
"Necessity and Ambition" formed the "Ladies' Press Club" in 1881 with Emily
Edson Briggs ("Olivia" of the Philadelphia Press) as their first president.[15]
Professionally isolated and well aware of the male camaraderie that dominated
the newspaper business, their purpose in organizing was to create a source of
"mutual help and encouragement" for the female correspondents working in the
nation's capital, especially for the "coming generation" of women journalist.
One of Briggs's first actions as president was to call for recognition for women
reporters in the Capital press gallery. She achieved limited success, winning
them a place adjoining the male reporters, separated only by a wire screen and a
locked door, but the accomplishment served as an important morale booster.
Despite this activity, the Ladies' Press Club did little to expand its influence
or publicize its presence, and, in fact, received only passing notice in one of
the Washington dailies at the time of its organization.[16]
The task of mobilizing women journalists on a national scale was
taken up four years later, in May of 1885, by a group of prominent women
journalists meeting in New Orleans under the leadership of Marion A. McBride of
the Boston Post. With a slate of officers that included Eliza Nicholson,
publisher of the New Orleans Picayune, and Florence M. Adkinson of the
Indianapolis Sentinel, the group created the Woman's National Press Association,
which was to serve as an umbrella organization for the state and city
associations its founders hoped would follow.[17] Their view of the organization
as a networking tool for women journalists was clear in their platform:
The object of this organization is to provide a medium of
communication between journalists of the country and to secure all the benefits
that will result from organized effort. Such information as is continually
needed by writers will always be rendered available, and new avenues will be
opened to individuals for journalistic work. Innumerable benefits will arise
from mutual help and encouragement. One aim of the association is to forward the
interests of working women in every possible way by combined action of newspaper
women.[18]
The home states of the founding members attested to the national
character they hoped the association would attain. While McBride, Nicholson, and
Adkinson represented Massachusetts, Louisiana, and Indiana respectively, vice
president Mrs. L. M. Parz of the St. Louis Republican hailed from Missouri and
vice president Mary McMullen of the Anglo-American Times was based in London.
Honorary members were Mary A. Livermore, of Boston, and Mrs. Frank Leslie, of
New York.[19] Each returned to her home state with the hope of establishing a
local chapter and within nine months, state and city organizations had sprung up
in St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, and San Francisco. By February of
the following year, the association claimed about 300 members and had broadened
its platform to include the goal of its members to "assist more widely all
industrial work relating to art, science, and the industrial pursuits of
women."[20]
One of the most prominent regional associations to form in the wake
of the New Orleans meeting was the Illinois Woman's Press Association, founded
in Chicago in June of 1885 with Mary Allen West, editor of the WCTU's Union
Signal, as its president.[21] West had met McBride at the New Orleans Exposition
in 1885 and returned to Chicago with the idea of organizing a branch to the
national association. The response among women writers was so great, however,
that in January 1886, the Illinois group was reorganized as an independent
society and by 1887 claimed nearly 100 members. Although its regular membership
stayed around that number, by 1891 attendance at its annual conventions had
grown to nearly 300.[22]
McBride next influenced women in her own region to organize, and in
November 1885, five prominent Boston women journalists met with her to create
the New England Woman's Press Association. The group chose pioneer Boston
journalist Sally Joy White of the Boston Herald as president and Estelle M.
Hatch ("Jean Kincaid" of the Boston Daily Globe) as secretary. Over the next
thirteen months Hatch contacted as many of the women journalists in the New
England region as possible, urging them to join the fledgling organization. Many
were attracted by the association's platform, which announced that while its
primary purpose was to promote the interests of women writers, it was also
determined to "forward, by concerted action through the press, such good objects
on social, philanthropic, and reformatory lines as may from time to time present
themselves."[23] Women writers from Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire,
Maine, and Nova Scotia, many of them already active in other women's
organizations, quickly joined and by 1894 the association claimed nearly 100
members.[24] After meeting in the offices of the Woman's Journal during its
early years, the association secured permanent headquarters in the Bellevue
Hotel on Beacon Street in 1888. By the end of the century it claimed 134 active
members.[25]
During the five years following the organization of the Woman's
National Press Association in New Orleans, several other woman's press
associations sprang up across the country, including the Woman's Press
Association of Ohio in 1886 and the Woman's Press Association of the South in
1887. The activities of these organizations and those that pre-dated them gained
publicity both through the local press and the pages of the Journalist, the
major national trade publication of the period.[26] Also, as women took on
leadership roles within their press associations, they began to appear as
spokeswomen and representatives of women journalists before the larger
professional community. Some organizations, such as the National Editorial
Association, founded in 1885, and the New England Suburban Press Association had
begun to enroll both men and women as members, and, ironically, it was often at
these meetings that other women journalists had their first exposure to women's
press associations. In 1890, for example, Allie E. Whitaker, vice president of
the New England Woman's Press Association, spoke on the role of "the fair sex"
in journalism at the annual meeting of the New England Suburban Press
Association, which was attended by several female editors.[27] In the same year,
the women's press associations were amply represented by delegates at the annual
convention of the National Editorial Association held in Boston.[28]
By 1889, a watershed had apparently been reached and in the following
year women writers organized in rural states as well as major cities, inland as
well as on both coasts. Associations representing women journalists and writers
formed in Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, California, Washington, Oregon, and New
York; by the middle of the decade, these new associations boasted a total
membership of more than 300.[29] On the national level, two additional groups
formed with the idea of uniting individual women journalists and individual
state associations, respectively. The Press League, with the goal of
establishing "cooperation among women who earn their living writing for the
press," was founded in Chicago with Antoinette Van Hoesen Wakeman of the Chicago
Evening Post as its first president.[30] The National Federation of Women's
Press Clubs was founded in 1891 in Boston, with Sally Joy White as its first
president. The purpose of the second association was to bring together the
nation's various woman's press clubs, and at its first convention
representatives from six associations attended.[31]
By the end of the century, even more women's press associations were
active and growing in Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri,
Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Although membership numbers were
constantly fluctuating as women died or moved to other regions of the country,
it appears that at least 700 women writers belonged to woman's press
associations by the turn of the century.[32] By that time, they had also
extended their influence to include cooperation and affiliation with many
predominately male press organizations, including the National Editorial
Association (founded in 1885) and the International League of Press Clubs
(founded in 1890) as well as a dozen state and city press organizations.[33]
Goals and Issues of Debate
The major goal of these associations, clearly stated in their
charters, was to assist women writers. When asked in 1892 what women's press
clubs and associations, specifically the Illinois Woman's Press Association,
accomplished, Journalist columnist Margherita Arlina Hamm responded
enthusiastically:
Do! Why they hunt up every discouraged newspaperwoman within reach
of them, give her the secret of how to get a corner on saleable news, and in
fact set her on her feet. God Bless Them![34]
In keeping with this goal, the programs of their meetings and
conventions were filled with speeches and addresses with such titles as: "Women
in Journalism," "The Ethics of Our Profession," "In What Line of Newspaper Work
are Women Most Fitted to Constitutionally Excel," "What are the Common Faults of
Correspondence," "What the Man-Editor Thinks the Woman Wants to Read," and "How
Many Departments Can a Woman Successfully Edit Each Week?"[35] Sometimes the
topics were quite elementary, as was the case in 1886, when Mrs. Harbert of the
Illinois Woman's Press Association, gave advice on preparing a manuscript for
the press, with basic directions to beginners such as: "do not gush" and "sign
your name."[36] At other times, the topics were more general, such as whether
there should be equal wages for men and women, or discussion of the lives of
prominent women in history.[37]
One topic of particular interest to the woman's press associations
was the establishment of classes, programs, and schools of journalism for women.
In 1886, Mrs. M. L. Rayne, later a charter member of the Michigan Woman's Press
Association, established a school of journalism for women in Detroit where
students were given lessons on topics such as "How to Report," "Brevity," and
"Scoops."[38] In 1889 three women established the American Women's College of
Practical Arts in Chicago, where they taught, among other things, courses in
journalism.[39] In 1896 the New Rutgers Institute for Young Ladies in New York
City offered a course in journalism taught by none other than Jane Cunningham
Croly, the founder of the Woman's Press Club of New York.[40] And in 1899 a
course in journalism was introduced to the women at Mt. Holyoke College in South
Hadley, Massachusetts, in which students were trained in the art of reporting by
covering imaginary events and taught the fine points of preparing manuscripts
for publication.[41]
Debate among women journalists over the usefulness of such programs
often reflected the debate within the general journalism community -- were
journalists "born" or were they "made?" Lavinia S. Goodwin of the Woman's
National Press Association and an editor of the Journal of Education, for
example, argued that although "there must be a seed for development... doubtless
this development will be more symmetrical, speedy and complete under proper
tuition than when one is obliged to absorb the technique of her trade little by
little through practice."[42] Kate Masterson, of the New York Herald, on the
other hand, argued that practical experience and common sense served a girl
seeking work in journalism far more than a college degree and advised that a
true "stepping stone" for the writing woman was a position as proofreader on a
weekly paper.[43]
Another frequent topic of discussion, especially during the mid
1890s, was the promotion of "women's editions" of local newspapers, which was
seen as a multiple opportunity for women journalists. These editions, which were
typically put out on a Sunday, were written, edited, and laid out entirely by
women. They served as an opportunity to gain recognition of women journalists,
prove their ability to function on all journalistic levels, and to raise funds
for the association or local charities. Officers of the women's press
associations typically served as editors for these special editions and members
were active on the staffs, although many were simply put out by "the good ladies
of the city."[44] After the first such edition appeared as the Woman's Post
(special edition of the Boston Post) on February 13, 1894, scores of women's
editions were published in the following two years, so much so that writers of
the Fourth Estate began to refer plaintively to the phenomenon as a "fad"
rapidly taking over the country. These special editions were published by
newspapers across the nation, including, to name just a few: the Boston Post;
the Memphis Commercial Appeal; the Atlanta Journal; the Syracuse (New York)
Post; the San Francisco Examiner; the Rocky Mountain News; the Minneapolis
Journal; the Springfield Republican and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.[45] Although
these editions in some cases were criticized by disgruntled male journalists who
observed that the ladies frequently published "a paper full of signed essays and
stories" when they should "attempt to have their say in a four-page edition,"
others readily recognized the advertising and subscription revenue to come from
a twenty-four-page paper and welcomed the opportunity to increase, if only
briefly, sales and advertising revenue.[46]
One particularly sensitive topic of debate, which frequently led to
dissent and even schism during the early years of organization, was that of who
was eligible to join women's press associations and clubs. Although all the
associations discussed here used the term "press" in their titles, most did not
limit their membership to working journalists but also welcomed women associated
with the literary profession as writers of articles or books.[47] The Illinois
Woman's Press Association, for example, included "authors, editors, poets,
contributors, correspondents, reporters, and publishers."[48] The Ladies Press
Club of Washington, D.C. offered membership to all women engaged in literary
work -- lady journalists, correspondents, reporters, magazine contributors, book
and story writers -- but foresaw the time when there would be enough
"new-gathering women" to have a separate organization for them. Although members
in the Washington club did not have to be either fulltime writers or employees
of newspapers, the club had an unwritten rule that none of its members should
write contributions for newspapers except for pay.[49]
In other cases, however, there was considerable debate over whether
membership should be limited to women actively engaged in newspaper work. The
Michigan Woman's Press Association, for example, initially limited eligibility
to "women in the state who were professionally connected with any paper in the
state."[50] Pressure to increase the membership, however, resulted in a revision
of the constitution two years later which expanded membership to include "any
woman resident of Michigan who is regularly connected in a literary way with any
reputable newspaper or magazine, or who is engaged in literary work for
publication [italics added]." The adoption of this revision caused the
association to split, with the result that members of the Grand Rapids papers
and the Detroit Free Press established an organization of their own, the
Michigan Woman's Press Club, which was restricted to women "connected with
newspapers."[51] In other cases, associations restricted membership to women who
earned money with their writing. Thus, the Denver Women's Press Club, founded in
1898, limited active membership to those who had "earned money by their pens"
and the Georgia Woman's Press Association restricted membership even further to
"women engaged in active journalism and who are self-supporting in their work
[italics added]."[52]
Women's press associations, however, did not simply focus on issues
concerning their own professional identity and advancement. They often expanded
their purview to include social and economic reform affecting women workers as
well as broader charitable activities, issues well within the parameters of the
woman's club movement. One of the early goals of the Illinois Woman's Press
Association, for example, was to provide a cheap lodging house for working women
and in 1886 the association announced a campaign to raise $1,500 to fund the
project.[53] The New England Woman's Press Association expanded its activities
to include charity and benevolence and in 1893 formed a benefit society called
Samaritana. In 1894, the association sponsored an author's reading in the Hollis
Street Theater for the benefit of the unemployed and later in that year
distributed $900 among a number of local charitable institutions. By 1898 it had
established a journalists' fund to assist "distressed newspaper people in need
of assistance" whether they were members of the association or not.[54] In 1898,
during the Spanish-American War, the Missouri Woman's Press Association
sponsored a project to provide a library and reading room for the soldiers
stationed at the Jefferson, Missouri, barracks.[55]
Some associations wandered even farther afield in the topics they
discussed and promoted, a trend which reflected the increasing interest and
participation of women in the world at large. The Pacific Coast Woman's Press
Association, founded in 1890 and representing women writers from California,
Washington, Oregon, and Nevada, took it upon itself to promote immigration and
development in states on the western coast and in 1891 became affiliated with
the American Economic Association and various boards of commerce to assist in
this goal.[56] After the General Federation of Women's Clubs called on members
to support a peace movement in 1896, several associations, including the New
York Woman's Press Club, put the topic on their agenda for discussion.[57] As
the threat of war with Spain loomed in 1898, other associations took up the
topic, "Should the United States Go to War?" And in 1899 the New York Woman's
Press Club asked the all-encompassing question, "What has America Done for the
Nineteenth Century?"[58]
Most of the woman's press associations joined the General Federation
of Women's Clubs (formed in 1890), which served as the largest umbrella
organization of them all and soon become involved in controversial issues
espoused (though not always endorsed) by the Federation such as temperance,
women's rights, suffrage, and reform. While many of the members of the
Federation were middle-class, white, well-off, and fundamentally conservative,
the general tenor of the Federation was progressive. Leaders of these reforms
were often among the founding members of women's press associations, including
temperance leader Frances E. Willard of the Illinois association, suffrage
leader Alice Stone Blackwell of the New England association, and feminist
Charlotte Perkins Stetson (later Gilman) of the Pacific Coast association.[59]
This created conflict in some cases of more conservative organizations, creating
schisms and dissention and the sense that the sisterhood was not entirely
united. In 1895, for example, the Georgia Woman's Press Club withdrew from the
Federation because it had admitted to membership three negro women's press
clubs.[60]
Impact
It can safely be said that the establishment of women's press
associations and clubs had a significant impact on the journalism community.
First, because the associations provided evidence of the numbers of women
actually working in journalism, numbers that were often masked in census counts
and company records by the fact that so many were working part-time as
contributors and columnists. And second, because women in the associations were
able to provide a united front. If nothing else, male journalists had to take
their female counterparts seriously.
This had mixed results. Women's press associations and clubs were at
first greeted by some within the established journalism community with
enthusiasm, or, at the very least, neutrality. In the early years, for example,
Journalist publisher Allan Forman welcomed the associations as a sign of
progress, both for women and for the journalism profession:
A few years ago the college man was sneered and flouted at by the
journalistic veterans, and the reporter who wore a clean collar and washed his
hands was regarded with scorn and contempt.... Now the dirty shirt brigade is
exercised over the growing power of women in journalism, They are afraid of her
competition because she is honest, capable, faithful, industrious and doesn't
get drunk. They realize they can't stand against the competition. But these men
will die of delirium tremens and be buried by the Press Club, and we will breath
a sigh of relief when they are well under the sod. They will be remembered for
the debts they have made. But women will keep on doing journalistic work, just
as the college men did, and we will forget about the whiskey-scented grumbling
of the veterans. The growth of the Women's Press Club [of New York] is evidence
of the trend affairs are taking, and the fair and square men in journalism are
glad to welcome women into the profession.[61]
Others, instead, saw women's press associations as a sort of
training ground where women aspiring to work for newspapers would learn the
basics of news writing as well as appropriate professional behavior. The editor
of the Somerville (Massachusetts) Journal, for example, welcomed the
establishment of a press bureau by the New England association, which he hoped
would provide an efficient way of directing the increasing number of women
journalists to appropriate kinds of newspaper work and preventing them from
"trying to force themselves into work for which they are especially
unfitted."[62]
But as the number and membership numbers of the women's press
associations increased and more women began to enter the field, some male
journalists reacted with alarm and hostility. One way to discount the validity
of the associations (as well as their members) became to describe them as havens
for self-proclaimed women journalists who were no more than amateur dabblers. A
frequent criticism, therefore, was that women's press clubs and associations
rarely represented active journalists. Thus a regular contributor to the
Journalist, writing under the penname "Pen Dennis, Jr.," pointed out somewhat
inaccurately in 1894 that only three or four names on the New York Woman's Press
Club roster had the "ghost of a connection with the press." and that the rest of
the names were "unknown in the big newspaper offices of the town."[63] In the
same vein, no less a prestigious publication than the New York Times stooped to
comment in 1898 that the New York club was a "hybrid organization, counting
among its members all sorts and conditions of women, with the exception of
newspaper women." Here an unexpected champion emerged in Ernest Birmingham's
Fourth Estate, which brought the Times neatly to task for not only being
"ill-bred and lacking in gallantry," but, worst of all, for being inaccurate.
The Times should go back and check the records, Birmingham advised. It should
also consider the value of the club:
There is not a multitude of women employed on the New York papers,
though there are many industrious newspaper women who, working hard, earn what
they receive. That they should have formed a club, including in it women not
regularly employed, but contributing to the columns of the press, whose copy is
put into type and other women affiliated with the press through a sympathetic
sisterhood and willingness to help them, is in no sense to the discredit of the
New York Woman's Press Club, but rather an evidence of feminine good sense.[64]
Another frequent criticism was that when women's press associations
and clubs met, they often dealt with impractical or esoteric topics. In 1891,
shortly after the formation of the Pacific Coast Woman's Press Association, a
San Francisco newspaper ran a particularly condescending story on an association
meeting under the headline "The Blue-Stockings Listen in Silent Awe to a Real
Newspaper Woman." The association, the story reported, had presented
"impractical" papers "full of sage and erudite information, and weighty abstruse
and abstract advice as to the reformation of the world." As one member of the
association pointed out, however, the newspaper article failed to report that
the meeting was attended by many working women journalists (far from
"blue-stockings") and to put into context the prestige of the principal speaker,
none other than Boston journalist Sally Joy White.[65]
Criticisms became harsher toward the end of the decade, and comments
on the New England Woman's Press Association and the New York Woman's Press Club
were particularly snide. One tendency was to belittle the women's clubs on the
grounds that all members did at their meetings was socialize and gossip. Thus,
"Adoniram Meek," the acerbic Boston columnist for the Journalist, wrote of the
New England Woman's Press Association's participation in a national convention
in 1898:
Oh, I tell you, but them wimmen folks is having great times
in Denver! May
Alden Ward, Helen M. Winslow... and all the rest of the
Eastern lady writers who sold enough
copy for two first-class fares are there. They won't come
back either until they've just
talked Denver to death and I don't blame 'em."[66]
When women's press associations met, not only did they waste time on
gossip, according to critics, they also engaged in typical petty squabbles of
the type most frequently attributed to women. Thus, when one member of the New
England association scooped another (over a society wedding), the rivals
reportedly fell into "the ways of the typical hen." They "cackled and scratched,
and 'How could she!' and 'The horrid thing!' and 'I never did like her!' rent
the sweaty air."[67]
And when women attended mixed-sex press conventions, according to
critics, they did so simply as a form of entertainment. Following the annual
convention of the International League of Press Clubs in Philadelphia in 1898,
Allan Forman of the Journalist ridiculed the convention as a purely social event
which gave an annual opportunity to "a number of estimable old ladies and young
and old gentlemen to enjoy a week's junket at reduced prices." Forman opposed
the idea of removing the (male) New York Press Club from the League, however, on
the grounds that the League was innocuous enough and should be allowed to
persist if it "amuses the old ladies in trousers and skirts who attend its
conventions."[68] In the following week, "Asmodeus," the Journalists' columnist
from Philadelphia, disagreed with Forman's criticism of the League as being a
purely social organization, but agreed in protesting against the "participation
in any newspaper convention of women whose sole claim to recognition consists of
the fact of their being present."[69] This was quite inaccurate, for many of the
women attending the convention as delegates were affiliated with newspapers.[70]
Conclusions
By the turn of the century, women had become a very visible part of
American public life. They had mobilized across the nation in clubs and
associations that demanded reforms in women's rights, suffrage, temperance, and
the workplace. Universities had begun to admit women as students and they were
slowly making their way into some of the male-dominated professions such as the
ministry, the law, and medicine.
It was inevitable that journalism would get swept up in the woman's
movement. By 1900 women's press associations, which claimed more than 700
members across the nation, were established in at least seventeen states and
their representatives were participating in national conventions of mixed-sex
professional organizations such as the National Editorial Association and the
International League of Press Clubs. The 1900 U.S. census counted 2,193 women
journalists, and for every one who was counted, three or four others worked as
part time contributors and columnists.
Debate over the composition and role of woman's press clubs and
associations took place within both the associations and the larger journalism
community and reflected many of the issues with which these groups were
wrestling.
This was an important period for women, many of whom were consciously
trying to define their roles both as individuals and as members of communities
within a changing society. Reforms that were breaking down some of the rigid
barriers that had defined their place in the world and restricted their behavior
for most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were also forcing them to
redefine themselves and create new rules to live and work by. Middle-class
women, who had long been forced to rely for their future prospects on the good
fortune of being born with a respectable dowry or good looks, were now being
told they could no longer rely on "looks or manners" but must "qualify
themselves for the work of supporting their husbands" by training and
education.[71]
The journalism community was also undergoing rapid changes with the
introduction of new technologies and the development of mass circulation
newspapers and magazines during the last two decades of the century. Harsh
criticism of journalistic practices was either forcing or inspiring leaders
within the industry to redesign journalism as a profession with rules, codes,
and a sense of ethics.[72] The old school of the "dirty-shirt brigade," as
described by Forman, was slowly being replaced by a new generation of bright,
efficient, well-trained, and even well-educated journalists.
It was at this time that women journalists stepped into the
smoke-filled and ash-strewn newsrooms in increasing numbers, tripping over their
Victorian skirts and finding no clean place to sit down. They wanted to claim
their rights as human beings as well as recognition as professional workers.
They knew they could do the work and they frequently did it, but proving it and
getting recognition for it was quite another thing. "The 'new woman' in the
newspaper office! Even you, Eve, have no conception of that slow torture," wrote
"Pauline Pry" in 1890. "I howled twice in two years at the last place, and when
I left the man said he never wanted another d----d woman around.... I'm under
oath to myself henceforth to be less woman and more damned, in a constantly
increasing ratio toward perfect abstraction of the woman."[73]
Although Pry could see the humor in her predicament, others did not.
Given the changes that were occurring in society's expectations toward women,
there should be no surprise that there was confusion over how they should behave
or that, in many cases, they'd be damned, regardless of whether they did or
didn't perform in a particular way. "Woman is not of the slightest practical use
in newspaper work outside certain limits," a newspaper man told Margherita
Arlina Hamm, columnist for the Journalist, in 1892. "By her mental equipment and
physical constitution she is forever debarred from handling the class of work
successfully undertaken by the average male reporter." Hamm, who was later to
become a war correspondent in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, attempted to
point out that women like Nellie Bly and Nell Nelson had succeeded in covering
both crime and disaster, but her arguments were dismissed.[74]
Male editors, as well as many women within the profession, were still
obsessed by the notion of women being distinctly different from men in both
their character and capabilities. When, in 1895, the New York Recorder addressed
the question "What Shall Our Women Do for a Living?" it had the following advice
to women thinking of going into journalism: "Don't! Do anything else. If you're
married, get divorced; if you're single, get married. Get reckless and elevate
the stage, raise chickens, renovate feather beds, anything so you don't try to
break into a newspaper office." The writer went on to itemize the various ways
in which newspaper work was particularly unsuited to women, admitting only
reluctantly that a few good women journalists who were prepared to persevere
might eventually succeed.[75]
Another typical criticism of women journalists that captured this
sense of confusion over what women should be and how they should behave linked
their professional performance with the growing demand for women's rights:
Too many women journalists, feeling that they are doing man's
work, want,
not Women's Rights, but men's rights.... [W]hile they are
jealous of their title to rank with
their male fellow-workers, they are equally tenacious of
their women's rights -- that co
urtesy and chivalrous treatment which is their due because
they are women... For this stamp
of women, and their name is legion, there is no room in
journalism.... Experience has proven
that women can be successful in newspaper work and be none
the less womanly. Yet there have
been but few, very few, instances when a woman has been able
to throw off her womanhood and
become "one of the boys," and retain either her own
self-respect or the esteem of those with
whom she is associated.[76]
The situation was further exasperated by the sheer number -- or
rather the perception of the number -- of women entering or seeking to enter
journalism. The perception of this number was often encouraged by women
journalists themselves, who believed, no doubt, that numbers signified progress.
"You can form no idea until you have looked into the subject, of the army of
newspaper women that exist in this country," declared Margaret Hamilton Welch,
editor of Harper's Bazaar, at a meeting of the Brooklyn Congregational Club in
1899.[77]
While this information might gladden the hearts of women listeners,
it would more likely alarm men, especially male journalists, provoking the
status anxiety typical of middle-class males at the turn of the century. For
although there should have been plenty of room for male and female journalists
alike in the rapidly expanding newspaper and magazine industry, a shortage of
jobs in newspaper work developed during the second half of the 1890s. And it was
women, more often than men, who were discouraged from entering the crowded field
of competition.
"[T]here are too many trying this particular field," the New York
Recorder warned women in 1895. "It is just at present very hard to get -- and
almost equally hard to stay -- in, unless one is unusually adapted."[78] The
crisis continued, and in the following year Fourth Estate cited a local
publication that had advertised a position for an "all-around newspaper man" and
had received more than thirty-five qualified responses from all parts of the
country, despite the fact that the requirements had been high and the pay low.
"There are entirely too many good newspaper men at leisure and anxious to get to
work," the trade journal concluded. And in 1898, with the beginning of the
Spanish-American war and the tendency of newspapers to devote significant space
to the war, news writers, especially space writers, who had remained behind
found little work to do, tightening up the amount of work available from day to
day even more.[79]
Of equal importance to this question of whether women should become
journalists (a somewhat obsolete question, since so many women had, in fact,
proven that they could become journalists) was the question of how they should
be defined once they became journalists. It is significant that this question
arose at this particular time, a period during which intellectuals were
attempting to rationalize and categorize much of the world in as "scientific" a
way as possible. The debate over whether women's press clubs and associations
should be restricted to working journalists, therefore, can be considered
significant on several levels.
First, it reflected the growing tendency in American thought to
categorize people according to the nature of their work. Although the woman's
club movement tended to embrace all women, encourage their development, and
promote a sense of supportive sisterhood, by the mid-1880s, the trend toward
"professionalization" had created a division among women writers. "Career women"
-- those who worked full time and dedicated their lives to a wage-earning job
and forwarding a career -- were defined as productive members of society and
were rewarded accordingly with recognition, positions of (comparative)
influence, and financial renumeration. Women writers of this category became
increasingly referred to as journalists, especially when their work was
non-fiction. "Literary ladies" -- often defined as those who dabbled in writing
for entertainment and pleasure -- were instead devalued, defined almost as
expendable within the journalism community.
This dichotomy reflected a larger trend within intellectual thought
-- the respect for the fact, for the pragmatic, "objective," and scientific
approach to knowledge, that came in the early Twentieth Century to be equated
with professional journalism -- and the respective devaluation of "instinctive,"
emotional, or "creative" work.
Second, it created a schism within even the individual woman
journalist. Where she had long been praised for her ability to understand and
empathize with human emotions and to have a natural inclination toward writing
about issues of the home and the heart, these topics were no longer of value in
the pragmatic world of the Twentieth Century. If she accepted those
characteristics within herself, she would be condemning herself to a decidedly
limited future on the women's pages as a "lady journalist." If she rejected
those characteristics and attempted to become "one of the boys," she would be
denying a part of herself, and would undoubtedly face even more resistance from
her male counterparts.
The women's press associations founded between 1881 and 1900 provided
a supportive community in which women writers, literary ladies, and female
journalists could create a sense of pride and identity. The associations created
an ambiance in which these women could explore and develop opportunities to
practice their craft and, in some cases, earn their living by it. These
associations were very much a part of the woman's movement, which valued
nurturance and cooperation, and were distinguished by the mentoring roles played
by their more experience members toward initiates.
This was also a period, however, in which the dominant intellectual
ideology came to encourage and reward pragmatism, competition, and
"productivity." The goals of the women's press associations, in a sense, were in
direct conflict with this ideology.
Several of the associations discussed here gave in to the dominant
ideology, restricting their membership to women who held regular paying jobs at
newspapers and magazines and thus effectively separating themselves from their
sisters. This author suggests that this schism within the community of women
writers not only set the definition of women journalists for the next century,
but insured that the conflicts described above would be perpetuated as long as
that definition prevailed.
By 1900, the term "literary ladies" had become one of derision, and
the names of many of these admirable women disappeared into the haze of history.
As for the women journalists who chose the career track, defining themselves as
"professionals" wasn't enough; women journalists would continue to be
pigeonholed as "sob sisters," "gossip columnists," society, women's page, and
"lifestyle" writers, fashion writers and feature writers. Further study of
women's press organizations after 1900 should reveal how the associations and
their members responded to this continual devaluation of their work.
Notes
[1] See, for example: Karen J. Blair, The Clubwoman as Feminist:
True Womanhood Redefined, 1868-1914 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1980); Eleanor
Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States,
rev. ed. (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1975), 182-96;
Marion Tuttle Marzolf, Civilizing Voices: American Press Criticism, 1880-1950
(NY: Longman, 1991), 7-33.
[2] Maurine Beasley, "The Women's National Press Club: Case Study of
Professional Aspirations," in Jean Folkerts, ed. Media Voices: An Historical
Perspective (NY: Macmillan, 1992), 263-64. (Reprint of an article of the same
title that appeared in Journalism History 15:4 (Winter 1988). The nineteenth
century organizations discussed by Beasley are the Woman's National Press
Association, started in 1882, and the League of American Pen Women, founded in
1897. The first of these shall be discussed below.
[3] Agnes Hooper Gottlieb, "Networking in the Nineteenth Century:
Founding of the Woman's Press Club of New York City," Journalism History 21:4
(Winter 1995): 156-63.
[4] See, for example, Barbara Belford's brief mention of the NY
Women's Press Club in "Jane Cunningham Croly 'Jennie June,'" chap. in Brilliant
Bylines: A Biographical Anthology of Notable Newspaperwomen in America (NY:
Columbia University Press, 1986), 44. Also Ishbel Ross's reference to the New
England Woman's Press Association in "Front-Page Girl," chap. in Ladies of the
Press, cited in Maurine Beasley and Sheila J. Gibbons, Taking Their Place: A
Documentary History of Women and Journalism (Washington, D.C.: American
University Press, 1993), 133. Eliza Nicholson's role in establishing the Woman's
National Press Association in 1885 and Sally Joy White's role in the New England
Woman's Press Association are cited in Marion Marzolf, Up From the Footnotes
(New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1977), 19, 20.
[5] The extensive records of the Women's Press Club of New York City
at the Butler Library at Columbia University is an exception, rather than the
rule. Of the seventeen women's press clubs discussed here, the author has been
able to identify records or manuscript collections pertinent to the period of
this study for just two -- the Michigan Woman's Press Association, and the
Woman's Press Club of Cincinnati, Ohio -- although an attempt is being made to
trace records through the name of press association officers. The primary source
material for this paper, therefore, is the various articles published by these
organizations between 1884 and 1900 in The Journalist and The Fourth Estate, the
leading trade publications of the period. (The Journalist began publication in
1884, the Fourth Estate in 1894.) While limited in their scope, these
"self-reports" chronicle the development of the various organizations and
indicate some of the issues they were facing. They also indicate some of the
responses of the general journalism community to these associations as well as
to other issues concerning women journalists. The author would like to thank
John Dlugosz and Lorraine Lester, master degree candidates at the University of
Hartford, for assisting her in collecting and categorizing this material.
[6] Beasley and Silver, 10; Gottlieb, 17. These numbers represented
only a fraction of the women actually doing work for newspapers and magazines,
for many worked as part-time correspondents, contributors, and "freelances,"
submitting "piece work" to several publications at a time or moving from paper
to paper to fill brief vacancies. Lucile Lovell, of Taunton, Mass., for example,
reported that between 1886 and 1889 she had worked for more than eight
newspapers: the Boston Post; the Boston Daily Globe; the Boston Herald, the
Bristol Country Republican; the New York Herald; the New York Telegram, and
"other New York papers." Journalist, 26 January 1889, pp. 10-11, col. 1, 3.
[7] S.D. Fry, "Newspaper Women," Journalist, 19 November 1892, p. 10,
col. 3.
[8] "All Over Texas," Journalist, 29 November 1890, p. 3, col. 3.
[9] An 1879 ruling stated that only the main representatives of
newspapers (not columnists or correspondents) could be accredited to enter the
Capital press galleries. Since few women could claim the distinction of being
the main representative of any newspaper, they were thus effectively barred from
covering Congressional debate and legislation. Beasley and Silver, 9.
[10] See, for example, Alan Forman's editorial in the Journalist,
which, intended as a critique of the New York World, announced that
"Self-respecting city editors do not put ladies on police, fire or accident
assignments or hold them on 'emergency' until the early morning hours."
("Remarks," Journalist, October, 1890, p. 6, col. 3.)
[11] In 1889, California journalist Maude S. Peaselee quoted a
Boston Press Club decision that "women might do as good work as men in newspaper
offices, but were out of place in an ordinary men's club [italics added by
Peaselee]." (Maude S. Peaselee, "Here's Hopin'," Journalist, 31, January 1891,
p. 12, col. 1.)
[12] There were a few exceptions to this rule. Jane Cunningham
Croly ("Jenny June") may have been a member of the New York Press Club during
the 1860s; Anna Ballard was a member of the same club ("the only lady member")
in 1886. (Beasley and Silver, 10; Journalist, 6 February 1886, p. 1, col. 1.)
[13] Beasley and Silver, 10; Gottlieb, 156; Henry Ladd Smith, "The
Beauteous Jennie June: Pioneer Woman Journalist," Journalism Quarterly (Spring
1963): 169, 172-174. The dinner was in honor of Charles Dickens; Croly was
excluded, although, according to Beasley and Silver, she was apparently a member
of the club.
[14] Flexner, 182-96. Typical controversial issues of discussion
were temperance, women's education, women's property rights, suffrage, divorce,
the "white slave trade," and child and female labor protection. Members also
read papers on authors, literary and religious topics, and philosophy.
[15] S.D. Fry, "Newspaper Women," Journalist, p. 10, col. 3, p. 11,
col. 1-2. Other founders were Mary Clemmer, correspondent for the Independent,
Martha D. Lincoln, and Rose P. Breandle, who wrote under the penname "Pips."
[16] Fry, p. 10, col. 3. The club later changed its name to the
Woman's National Press Association, not to be confused with the truly national
Woman's National Press Association discussed below. To avoid confusion, this
author will continue to use the name, the Ladies' Press Club, in reference to
the group founded by Briggs. (Marion McBride, "Report to the 1890 Convention of
the National Editorial Association," Journalist, 5 July 1890, p. 12, col. 2.)
[17] Because of the confusion caused by the similarity of names
between this and the group earlier organized in Washington, D.C., the
organization's name was changed to the International Woman's Press Association
in 1888. (McBride, "Report," Journalist, 5 July 1890, p. 12, col. 3.)
[18] McBride, "Report," Journalist, 5 July 1890, p. 12, col. 2.
[19] Whenever possible, the author will use the christian name of the
women cited in this paper. Because it was the frequent custom during this period
for married women to use their husband's name or initials, however, this will
not always be possible.
[20] Journalist, 6 February 1886, p. 4, col. 3
[21] McBride, "Report," Journalist, 5 July 1890, p. 12, col. 3.
[22] Annie E. Myers, "Illinois Woman's Press Club," Journalist, 15
October 1887, p. 6, col. 1-2; "The Illinois Woman's Press Association," Fourth
Estate, 23 May 1895, p. 3, col. 1; Carry May Ashton, "The Illinois Women's Press
Association," Journalist, 24 January 1891, p. 12, col. 1-2.
[23] Jean Kincaid, "New England Woman's Press Association,"
Journalist, 26 January 1889, p. 7, col. 1-3.
[24] Journalist, 1885-94, passim.
[25] Journalist, 13 October 1888, p. 4, col.2; Fourth Estate, 10
December 1898, p. 5, col. 3-4.
[26] The Journalist published columns submitted by the organizers of
the associations as well as news about them in columns from regional
contributors. It also frequently discussed the merits of press associations,
occasionally questioning the value of groups -- both male and female -- whose
purpose appeared to be purely social. This will be discussed below.
[27] "Boston," Journalist, 19 April 1890, p. 6, col. 1.
[28] Journalist, 7 June 1890, p. 4, col. 3. Associations to send
delegates to the 1890 convention included the woman's press associations of New
England, Illinois, and the Pacific Coast. The first woman's press association to
become an auxiliary to the National Editorial Association was the Illinois
Woman's Press Association. (McBride," Report," Journalist, 5 Jul 1890, p. 12,
col. 3.)
[29] Journalist, 1890-95, passim.
[30] Meta Wellers, "The Press League," Journalist, 26 November 2892,
p. 14, col. 2. This group split into two separate organizations in 1895 -- the
Chicago Women's Press Club and the Chicago Press League -- after six of the
founders were blackballed. The dispute apparently arose over a difference of
opinion on who should belong to the organization, writers for daily and weekly
papers, or all women who wrote, whether as correspondents or otherwise. ("Who
are Newspaper Women?" Fourth Estate, 4 April 1895, p. 7, col. 1; "With the Clubs
and Associations," Fourth Estate, 9 May 1895, p. 8, col. 3.)
[31] "Boston," Journalist, 14 November, p. 7, col. 3.
[32] Journalist, 1884-1900, passim; Fourth Estate, 1894-1900, passim.
[33] In 1886, Anna Ballard was an exception as the "only lady
member" of the all-male New York Press Club, but female members and even
officers of all-male or male-dominated clubs and associations exited in the
1890s, even if they were often the "only" women members. Some of the press clubs
and associations to list women as members and even officers were: the North
Central Kansas Editorial Association, the Toledo (Ohio) Press Club; the
Pennsylvania State Editorial Association; the St. Paul Press Club; the Northwest
Missouri Press Association; the Arkansas Press Association; the Oregon Press
Club; the East Texas Press Association; the North Central Kansas Editorial
Association; the Kansas City (Missouri) Press Club; the Minnesota Editors' and
Publishers' Association; the Texas Press Association; the Indianapolis Press
Club; the Mississippi Press Association; and the Florida Press Association.
(Journalist, 1886-1900, passim; Fourth Estate, 1894-1900, passim.) In 1895, the
newspaper men and women of Nevada met to organize a press club, and in 1897, the
New Orleans Press Club boasted of being the only press club in the nation to
admit women to membership and to admit them with the same privileges as men.
("Notes Among the Clubs and Associations," Fourth Estate, 17 October 1895, p.
15, col. 1; "Woman in Press Club," Fourth Estate, 23 September 1897, p. 3, col.
1.)
[34] Margherita Arlina Hamm, "Among the Newspaper Women," 3 September
1892, p. 10, col. 1.
[35] E. Cora De Puy, "Southern Michigan," Journalist, 5 July 1890,
p. 5, col. 3; "Annual Meeting of the Illinois Woman's Press Association,"
Journalist, 4 February 1891, p. 10, col. 2; "Topeka," Journalist, 26 March 1898,
p. 225, col. 3; E. Cora De Puy, "Southern Michigan," 13 May 1899, p. 264, col.
3.
[36] "Woman's Press Club of Illinois," Journalist, 18 December
1886, p. 14, col. 1.
[37] Fourth Estate, 4 July 1895, p. 10, col. 3; Journalist, 16 April
1892, p. 4, col. 3.
[38] Cora Stuart Wheeler, "Mrs. M. L. Rayne," Journalist, 28
February 1891, p. 1-2.
[39] "Three Bright Chicago Women," Journalist, 26 January 1889, p.
17, col. 1-2. The Chicago women were Helen M. Mott, Katherine G. Todd, and Mrs.
Charles B. Smith, none of whom had experience in journalism. The purpose of the
school was to provide "practical insight into the avenues of business life such
as law, railroads, life insurance, journalism and general office work."
[40] Ladd, 173-74.
[41] "Newspaper Work," Fourth Estate, 7 December 1899, p. 4, col. 2.
[42] Lavinia S. Goodwin, "Magnetic Journalism," Journalist, 27 July
1889, p. 4, col. 2.
[43] Kate Masterson, "Small Beginnings in Journalism," Journalist, 1
December 1894, p. 5, col. 1.
[44] Helen M. Winslow, president, as well as Belle Grant Armstrong
("Dinah Sturgis" of the Boston Daily Globe), Barbara Galpin, and Estelle M.
Hatch ("Jean Kincaid" of the Globe,) all officers, were among members of the New
England Woman's Press Association to serve as editors to the first woman's
edition -- the Feb. 13, 1894 women's edition of the Boston Post. ("Boston,"
Journalist, 17 February 1894, p. 4, col. 1.)
[45] Fourth Estate, 1894-95, passim. This author found references to
78 examples of women's edition published in 1894 and 1895. Although the "fad"
apparently died out after 1895, it was revived in the 1910s by suffrage
organizations that published women's and suffrage editions of local newspapers.
The Columbia County branch of the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association, for
example, published a women's edition of the Portage Daily Register in 1912 in
connection with that state's campaign for a suffrage referendum. (Elizabeth V.
Burt, "Rediscovering Zona Gale, Journalist," American Journalism 12:4 (Fall
1995): 456).
[46] "Women's Editions," Fourth Estate, 7 March 1895, p. 4, col. 2.
[47] Several organizations of a more literary character, such as the
Penwomen's Club of Chicago, were also in existence or organized during this
period. (Fourth Estate, 16 May 1895, p. 22, col. 3.)
[48] "The Illinois Woman's Press Association," Fourth Estate, 23 May
1895, p. 3, col. 1
[49] Journalist, 19 November 1892. p. 11, col. 1-2.
[50] E. Cora De Puy, "Organization of the Michigan Woman's Press
Association," 2 August 1890, p. 11, col. 2.
[51] Will Chaddock, "Michigan," Journalist, 27 August 1892, p. 5,
col. 1.
[52] "Press Club Notes," Fourth Estate, 5 May 1898, p. 3, col. 1;
Journalist, 10 April 1890, p. 13, col. 3.
[53] Journalist, 18 December 1886, p. 14 col. 1. By December, the
association had already received pledges for $500.
[54] Journalist, 17 June 1893, p. 14, col. 2; "Boston," Journalist, 13
January 1894, p. 12, col. 2; "Clubs and Associations," Fourth Estate, 22 March
1894, p. 6, col. 4; "The Club Women," Fourth Estate, 10 December 1898, p. 5,
col. 3.
[55] "Press Club News," Fourth Estate, 15 December 1898, p. 3, col.
1.
[56] Journalist, 4 April 1891, p. 11, col. 1.
[57] Gottlieb, 161.
[58] "Press Club News," Fourth Estate, 4 May 1899.
[59] Flexner, 182-196; Journalist, 1894-1900, passim.
[60] "Draws the Color Line Closely," Fourth Estate, 21 March 1895,
p. 3, col. 2.
[61] "Hardly Gallant," Journalist, 23 January 1892, p. 8, col. 2
[62] "Women as News-Scoopers," Journalist, 31 March 1888, p. 12,
col. 1.
[63] Pen Dennis, Jr., "Between Us," Journalist, 26 May 1894, p. 2,
col. 2.
[64] "Carelessness of Facts," Fourth Estate, 10 November 1898, p. 4,
col. 1-2.
[65] Di Vernon, "What is a Newspaper Woman?" Journalist, 5 September
1891, p. 7, col. 1. "Di Vernon" was the penname of Eliza D. Keith, weekly
columnist for the San Francisco News Letter and special correspondent to the San
Francisco Call.
[66] Adoniram Meek, "Our Boston News Letter," Journalist, 9 July 1898,
p. 110, col. 2.
[67] "Boston Beanlets," Journalist, 24 July 1897, p. 110, col. 2.
The author of this column, who wrote under the penname of "Hawk," typically
ridiculed the New England Woman's Press Association, which he elsewhere
described as "redolent" and the members as "adorable." ("Boston Beanlets,"
Journalist, 1 January 1898, p. 130, col. 2.)
[68] "Bye-the-Bye," Journalist, 26 February 1898, p. 192, col. 3.
[69] "Philadelphia," Journalist, 5 March 1898, p. 199, col. 3.
Forman had initially hailed the International League of Press Clubs as a force
for promoting fraternity, good-fellowship, honor, and loyalty among newspapermen
(notwithstanding the fact that at least half a dozen women's associations were
affiliated). ("The International League," Journalist, 20 May 1893, p. 6, col.
1-2.) By 1894, however, he had criticized it for doing nothing of value and
providing nothing more than a social outing. The New England Woman's Press
Association withdrew from the League in 1894 as a result of this criticism.
(Journalist, 9 June 1894, p. 13, col. 1.)
[70] "League Meeting," Fourth Estate, June 4, 1898, p. 5, col. 2.
[71] "Helen Wilmans of Woman's World," Journalist, 29 May 1886, p.
7, col. 2.
[72] Marion Tuttle Marzolf, Civilizing Voices: American Press
Criticism, 1880-1950 (NY: Longman, 1991 ): 7-33.
[73] Pauline Pry, "The 'New Woman,'" Journalist, 23 October 1890, p.
12, col. 2-3.
[74] Margherita Arlina Hamm, "Among the Newspaper Women,"
Journalist, 28 May 1892, p. 6, col. 3.
[75] "Women in Journalism," Fourth Estate, 7 March 1895, p. 7, col.
1.
[76] "Women in Journalism," Journalist 28 May 1887, p. 8, col. 2. This
became a typical criticism of professional women following the feminist movement
of the 1960s; linking "feminism" with women's professional demands became a
typical ploy for confusing the issue and delegitimizing the demand.
[77] "Newspaper Women," Fourth Estate, 13 April 1899, p. 2, col. 4,
p. 4, col. 1. Welch went on to say that regardless of their numbers, women had
not yet attained positions of authority as managing or city editors.
[78] Quoted in "Women in Journalism," Fourth Estate, p. 7, col. 1.
[79] "Space Writers are Sad," Fourth Estate, 5 May 1898, p. 1, col.
2.
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