The Growth of the Women’s Page Community

Voss, Kimberly Wilmot

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96214-6_2

Kimberly Wilmot Voss²

180 Accesses

Abstract

The women’s page community was a strong one. There were city and statewide press associations for women journalists, along with reporting contests. They spent time at the meetings of these groups and wrote letters to each other later. By 1960, the women were gathering annually at the Penney-Missouri Awards ceremonies. This competition rewarded the women’s pages that featured progressive news. The award ceremonies also included meetings where top women’s page editors presented their story ideas and strategies to other women journalists.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 49.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 64.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 89.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Joseph P. McKerns, “Journalism Education,” History of Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia, 2013, 289–290; Brad Asher “The Professional Vision: Conflicts Over Journalism Education,” American Journalism 11, no. 4 (Fall 1994): 304–320; Joseph A. Mirando, “Training and Education of Journalists,” in American Journalism: History, Principles, Practices, ed. W. David Sloan and Lisa Mullikin Parcell (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2009), 76–86.
2.
Josephine Caldwell Meyer, “A B C for Jobs,” Matrix, August 1940, 10–11.
3.
Maurine Beasley and Kathryn Theus, The New Majority (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1988), 14.
4.
Marion Marzolf, Up From the Footnote: A History of Women Journalists (New York: Hasting House Publishers, 1977), 249.
5.
Jean James, “Women in Schools of Journalism,” Matrix, June 1932, 13–14.
6.
Adelaide H. Jones, “Women Graduates In the 1941–1951 Decade,” Journalism Quarterly, 1953: 49–54.
7.
Beasley and Theus, The New Majority, 22–23.
8.
As early as 1939, the school boasted that women journalism graduates were working at newspapers across the country. Earl English, Journalism Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Publishing, 1988), 66.
9.
Maggie Savoy, “Untitled” in Anyone Who Enters Here Must Celebrate Maggie, ed. Jim Bellows (Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1972), 91.
10.
Dorothy Jurney, “Women in Journalism Oral History Project,” Washington Press Club Foundation, transcript, Session 2, 55.
11.
Ibid.
12.
University of Louisville. Oral History Project, July 21, 1982 Interview with Carol Sutton, CD #1, Part 1.
13.
University of Louisville. Oral History Project, July 21, 1982 Interview with Carol Sutton, CD #1, Part 1.
14.
University of Louisville. Oral History Project, July 21, 1982 Interview with Carol Sutton, CD #1, Part 1.
15.
Julia Bristol, “Women’s Editor: Edee Greene Created a Section Even She Can Read with Relish,” Editor & Publisher, February 23, 1963.
16.
Ibid.
17.
Julian M. Pleasants, Orange Journalism: Voices from Florida Newspapers (Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press, 2003), 72.
18.
John Somerville letter Gloria Biggs, March 9, 1973, Papers of Gloria Biggs, State Historical Society of Missouri.
19.
Marjorie Paxson letter to Gloria Biggs, March 8, 1973, Papers of Gloria Biggs, State Historical Society of Missouri.
20.
Ibid.
21.
Gloria Biggs to Marie Anderson, January 31, 1978, Papers of Marie Anderson, State Historical Society of Missouri.
22.
Ibid.
23.
Helen Muir, Baby Grace Sees the Cow: A Memoir, ed. by Alison Owen (Florida: The Prologue Society, 2004), 11.
24.
Dorothy Roe, “Women’s Features Get Recognition,” Editor & Publisher, December 17, 1960. 55.
25.
Kathryn Robinette letter to Paul Myhre, December 27, 1966, Papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards, State Historical Society of Missouri.
26.
Edee Greene letter to Paul Myhre, October 5, 1961, Penney-Missouri Awards papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
27.
Paul Myhre letter to Edee Greene, January 11, 1963, Penney-Missouri Awards papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
28.
George Pica, former Penney-Missouri Awards director, email interview, March 20, 2003.
29.
Marjorie Paxson, “Women in Journalism Oral History Project,” Washington Press Club Foundation, transcript, Session 3, 63.
30.
Marie Anderson letter to Paul L. Myhre, September 4, 1967, Penney-Missouri Awards Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
31.
Paul L. Myhre letter to Beverley Morales, June 21, 1961, Penney-Missouri Awards Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
32.
Beverley Morals letter to Paul Myhre, June 15, 1961, Penney-Missouri Awards Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
33.
Edee Greene letter to Paul Myhre, October 5, 1961, Penney-Missouri Awards Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
34.
Edee Greene speech, “How to Hurdle Your Girdle or Sex in the City Room,” Theta Sigma Phi Seminar, Cleveland, Ohio, August 24, 1963, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
35.
Edee Greene letter to Paul Myhre, April 5, 1965, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
36.
Greene, “How to Hurdle.”
37.
Marie Anderson letter to Paul L. Myhre, September 4, 1967, Penney-Missouri Awards Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
38.
Marjorie Paxson, New Guardians of the Press: Selected Profiles of America’s Women Newspaper Editors (Indianapolis, Indiana: R.J. Berg and Co., 1983), 124.
39.
Paxson, “Women in Journalism,” Session 3, 66.
40.
Diane K. Gentry, “Women in Journalism Oral History Project,” Washington Press Club Foundation, 1991, Introduction, 1.
41.
Paxson, “Women in Journalism,” Session 3, 71.
42.
The Association for Women in Communications website, Hall of Fame page, accessed October 1, 2007, http://www.womcom.org/about_us/Hall_of_fame.asp.
43.
Katherine Lanpher, “The Boys at the Club: An Examination of Press Clubs as an Aspect of the Occupational Culture of the Late 19th Century Journalist,” presented at the Association for Education in Journalism, History Division, Athens, Ohio, July 1982, 5.
44.
Maurine Beasley, “The Women’s National Press Club: Case Study of Professional Aspirations,” Journalism History 15, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 112–121.
45.
Elizabeth Burt, “A Bid for Legitimacy: The Woman’s Press Club Movement, 1881–1900,” Journalism History 23, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 72–84.
46.
Helen M. Staunton, “Mary Hornaday Protests Bars to Newswomen,” Editor & Publisher, July 15, 1944.
47.
Ibid.
48.
Kimberly Wilmot Voss and Lance Speere, “Way Past Deadline: The Women’s Fight to Integrate the Milwaukee Press Club,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 92, no. 1 (Autumn 2008).
49.
Ruthe Deskin of the Las Vegas Sun was the second woman elected to the Nevada Press Club in 1966. Her papers are in the Special Collections of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Kimberly Wilmot Voss and Lance Speere, “Where She Stands: Ruthe Deskin and Her Place in the City of Bright Lights and Bigger Personalities After 50 years at the Las Vegas Sun,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Fall 2012.
50.
Maurine H. Beasley and Sheila J. Gibbons, eds., Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism (Washington, D.C.: American University Press, 1993), 10.
51.
Marie Anderson letter to Paul L. Myhre, September 4, 1967, Penney-Missouri Awards Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
52.
Jean Jarvis Sneed, “The Florida Newspaper Woman of 1970” (master’s thesis, University of Florida, 1970), 4.
53.
Marie Anderson letter to Paul Myhre, September 12, 1966, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
54.
Marie Anderson letter to Paul Myhre, September 4, 1967, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
55.
Don Shoemaker Remarks to Florida Women’s Press Club, Daytona Beach, September 13, 1958, 5, Don Shoemaker Papers, University of North Carolina University Library.
56.
Ibid.
57.
Don Shoemaker, With All Deliberate Speed: Segregation-Desegregation in Southern Schools (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), forward.
58.
Marie Anderson and Maggie Savoy, “What Does Your Women’s Editor Think of You?” Associated Press Managing Editors Red Book, 1963, Marie Anderson’s papers, Box 3, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri. Also, Chang conducted a national survey and found that women editors made less than men editors did for overseeing the same sections. Won Chang, “Characteristics and Self-Perceptions of Women’s Page Editors.” Journalism Quarterly, 1975: 61–65.
59.
John Rogers Malloy, “A History of the Sentinel Star” (master’s thesis, University of Florida, 1977), 53.
60.
Sneed, “Florida Newspaper Woman,” 37.
61.
Helen Wells to Marie Anderson, Undated, Marie Anderson’s papers, Box 3, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
62.
Note from Anderson to Applegate, August 22, unknown year, Roberta Applegate’s papers, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
63.
Beth Resler, “Not Much Equal Pay For Miami,” Miami Herald, June 18, 1964.
64.
Roberta Applegate letter to G. Milton Kelly, April 24, 1964, Papers of Roberta Applegate, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
65.
Roberta Applegate, “Women More Conservative,” Miami Herald, n.d.
66.
A Few Good Women Oral History Project, Penn State University, http://afgw.libraries.psu.edu/background.html.
67.
Edee Greene letter to Paul and Mary Myhre, August 5, 1965, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
68.
Robert Pierce, A Sacred Trust: Nelson Poynter and the St. Petersburg Times (Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1993), 212.
69.
Craig Basse, Anne Goldman, former Times features editor, St. Petersburg Times, February 6, 2003.
70.
Marjorie Paxson, telephone interview with author, June 2003.
71.
Paxson, “Women in Journalism,” Session 3, 79.
72.
Marjorie Paxson letter to Paul Myhre, June 25, 1970, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
73.
Edee Greene letter to Paul Myhre, June 9, 1970, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
74.
Paul Myhre letter to Marjorie Paxson, June 30, 1970, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
75.
Edee Greene letter to Paul Myhre, July 13, 1970, Penney-Missouri Award Papers, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
76.
Jurney, “Women in Journalism,” Session 1, 49.
77.
Jurney, “Women in Journalism,” Session 1, 50.
78.
Montgomery Curtis letter to Dorothy Jurney, March 26, 1959, Papers of Dorothy Jurney, National Women and Media Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri.
79.
Nixon Smiley, Knights of the Fourth Estate: The Story of the Miami Herald (Miami, Florida: Banyan Books, 1984), 267.
80.
Frank Angelo, On Guard: A History of the Detroit Free Press (Detroit: Detroit Free Press, 1981), 207.
81.
Ibid.
82.
Jurney, “Women in Journalism,” Session 2, 59.
83.
Kay Mills, “Her Story: ‘HerStory’ of JAWS,” Journalism and Women Symposium, updated March 11 2010, https://www.jaws.org/about-jaws/herstory-of-jaws/her-story/.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Nicholson School of Communication and Media, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
Kimberly Wilmot Voss

Authors

Kimberly Wilmot Voss
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Voss, K.W. (2018). The Growth of the Women’s Page Community. In: Re-Evaluating Women's Page Journalism in the Post-World War II Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96214-6_2

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96214-6_2
Published: 06 September 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96213-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96214-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics