Abstract
The “Her Say” column of the “Womanews” section in the Chicago Tribune functioned as an editorial to position the new women's section and provide women-centered perspectives on issues. Written by women from outside the Tribune staff during its 1991 launch, “Her Say” spoke in voices drawn from the larger women's community, often harkening back to earlier notions of gender to bring forward concepts and rework them to fit American women in the 1990s. Using sex difference and privileging sisterhood, “Her Say” articulated the terms of a separate women's culture, the bounds of which continued to be defined by newspapers across the nation as they introduced their own women's sections. Through “Her Say” this section signaled a shift in the media paradigm from liberal feminism to a cultural feminist approach, which called for a reconnection among women through women's media in the media mainstream. The myth for the 1990s that emerged from “Her Say” was that of a world-weary prodigal daughter returning to the hearth. As the mouthpiece for the “Womanews” section, “Her Say” heralded a revaluing of “woman,” and challenged the industry to hasten its redefinition of “news” for 21st -century relevancy.
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