“You're a Tough Guy,Mary-and a First-Rate Newspaperman”: Gender and Women Journalists in the 1920S and 1930s

Abstract

Relying on autobiographies, articles written by the subjects, and oral history, this article analyzes how gender-based polarities affected ten “front-page gals” between 1920 and 1940. It demonstrates how women journalists had to lose their feminine selves to succeed in the male-dominated city room. The women's emphasis on succeeding on individual merit left: them unable to recognize structural discrimination in pay, assignments, and benefits. Nonetheless, their adventurous spirit blazed a trail for future women journalists.