Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism

by Brooke Kroeger

Overview

An essential history of women in American journalism, showcasing exceptional careers from 1840 to the present

Undaunted is a representative history of the American women who surmounted every impediment put in their way to do journalism’s most valued work. From Margaret Fuller’s improbable success to the highly paid reporters of the mid-nineteenth century to the breakthrough investigative triumphs of Nellie Bly, Ida Tarbell, and Ida B. Wells, Brooke Kroeger examines the lives of the best-remembered and long-forgotten woman journalists. She explores the careers of standout woman reporters who covered the major news stories and every conflict at home and abroad since before the Civil War, and she celebrates those exceptional careers up to the present, including those of Martha Gellhorn, Rachel Carson, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Cokie Roberts, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

As Kroeger chronicles the lives of journalists and newsroom leaders in every medium, a larger story develops: the nearly two-centuries-old struggle for women’s rights. Here as well is the collective fight for equity from the gentle stirrings of the late 1800s through the legal battles of the 1970s to the #MeToo movement and today’s racial and gender disparities.

Undaunted unveils the huge and singular impact women have had on a vital profession still dominated by men.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525659143
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/16/2023
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	187,999
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

BROOKE KROEGER is a professor emerita at New York University, where she was the founding director of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and taught from 1998 to 2021. She was UN correspondent for Newsday, deputy metropolitan editor at New York Newsday, and for more than a decade a correspondent, editor, and bureau and division chief for United Press International at home and abroad. She serves on the editorial board of American Journalism: A Journal of Media History. Undaunted is her sixth book. She lives in New York.

Read an Excerpt

Preface

Undaunted makes no claim to being all-inclusive. Rather, it seeks to share in a representative way how women have fared at the top of American journalism, a profession that men have dominated in the 180 years since mass media began.

To arrive at the best way to tell the story, I began with two search terms, “women” and “journalism,” applied together, decade by decade, to every relevant database from 1840 to the present. The approach was hardly scientific but provided consistency. It also gave me a good sense of the conditions that governed the presence and place of women as journalists, the ideas about them that prevailed in each period, and how those ideas changed, or did not change, over time. It became possible to identify the individuals whose achievements received the most attention. I considered how and why some women attracted publicity and if and how their stories fit into the wider context of women’s advancement. Then came the winnowing.

The telling is chronological. It gives precedence to the episodes that dealt with or dovetailed with the most significant news events and trends of each period. That meant leaving out many stories and people I would have liked to include.

Twelve questions guided me. Which stories best illustrated what women were up against in their professional lives? How or why did the most successful women first get in the door? Who were the true trailblazers and pioneers? Assuming talent and hard work, how much did background, privilege, strategy, charisma, style, looks, advocacy, connections, or luck figure in their ascent? How well did women manage their successes and failures, their celebrity and censure? Were they “womanly” or “manly” in their reporting and writing or in their editorial vision? What impact did they have on the nation’s news diet and on the profession? Whom among women has the wider journalism community chosen to honor? Which qualities and characteristics fairly or unfairly attributed to women brought condemnation? Which brought respect? How did newsroom politics figure? Have women made a difference?

I could not resist including some related anecdotes that were too good to omit, but in the interest of a reasonable page count I removed many names, including bylines that deserved to be in the text. If readers find themselves asking, “But what about ____?,” the notes section contains many of those answers.

I found value in highlighting great friendships and tracing the way some outstanding careers were built over decades. I endeavored to fairly praise men who gave deserving women an opportunity when it was not fashionable or usual to do so. Some of them might well have met a #MeToo-like fate had such a movement existed in their day. Others, because of the timing, did. The epilogue briefly details the social and cultural currents roiling in the early 2020s as my work on this book came to an end. It surprised me that the intertwining of gender and race would be such an unbroken through line and that the industry’s economic crises, manpower shortages, and battered prestige at various points have proved as effective as changes in the law for creating opportunity for woman journalists, especially in the most coveted jobs.

In writing the biographies of Nellie Bly and Fannie Hurst and the history of undercover reporting, I engaged with many of the memoirs, biographies, archives, articles, oral histories, and studies that anchor this book. (Bly lived from 1864 to 1922; Hurst, from 1885 to 1968.) Journalism has been the world I’ve lived in, worked in, studied, written about, and taught for more than fifty years. Yet only for Undaunted did I find myself considering the place of journalism’s most successful women as one long continuum. I hope that comes through in the pages that follow.

Against daunting odds, women have always found chairs at the most important tables of this vital profession, seats that often proved hard to keep. Very few of the woman journalists in these pages, alas, have legacies that endured or will endure much beyond their own moment. This is as expected. It is worth pointing out that this is just as true for a great proportion of the profession’s outstanding men.

The stories of the remarkable women included here provide a trove of still-sound career advice and some cautionary tales. Beyond that, we know now that it takes an ample mix of ages, races, genders, ethnicities, and political and cultural views to do American journalism’s essential tasks most effectively. We also know that journalism’s propensity to exclude—addressed repeatedly over the years, but never vanquished—has made us all the poorer. Within that context, our primary focus here is the impact women have had on journalism and journalism’s impact on them.

—Brooke Kroeger
July 2022

Editorial Reviews

03/27/2023

NYU emerita professor of journalism Kroeger (The Suffragents) delivers a sweeping history of female journalists from the mid-1800s to the present. Focusing on women at the top of the profession, Kroeger spotlights transcendentalist writer Margaret Fuller, who landed a job as the New York Tribune’s literary editor and front-page columnist in 1844; crusading investigative journalists Nellie Bly and Ida B. Wells; and WWII reporters Martha Gellhorn and Marguerite Higgins. In the 1960s, female journalists tapped into civil rights legislation and second-wave feminism to boost gender equity in the profession, enabling more women to move into top management positions. Yet overall progress proved “lackluster” in the face of sexual harassment, ageism, and other discriminatory beliefs and practices. A revitalized “feminist discourse” in the 2010s led to renewed efforts to diversify newsrooms, while the #MeToo movement empowered reporters like Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey to break stories about Harvey Weinstein and other serial abusers. Kroeger more than proves that women have “faced down and overcome all manner of impediment to become integral to this enterprise,” but the jumble of names, dates, and events can be dizzying at times. Still, it’s a solidly researched and fluidly written overview of an important chapter in women’s history. Illus. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Compendious and lively . . . Deeply researched and encyclopedic in the best sense, the book attempts to create a broad new canon of unforgettables.”—Jane Kamensky, The New York Times

"Not since Ishbel Ross’ 1936 Ladies of the Press has such a comprehensive and essential text looked at women’s journalism history...Undaunted is a true triumph and an authoritative text...Overall, Kroeger tells a history more complete than we have ever seen before. I expect that few if any scholars will recognize all the names in Undaunted, and that, after reading, even fewer will forget their stories."—Ashley Walter, American Journalism

“This book is a timely reminder that while women have come a long way in journalism, their gains can’t be taken for granted. . . . Kroeger is well equipped to take us through generations of determined, tenacious women.”—Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times

“Eye-opening . . . For nearly 100 years, no new book for a wide audience had been published documenting the contributions of women to journalism. It was certainly time for an update. . . . In addition to getting into major transformation in the field of journalism, Undaunted is also a delight for the many personal stories it relates.”—Veronica Esposito, The Guardian

“[Undaunted] is packed with the stories of women who have taken part in writing the first draft of history. . . . [Written] with refreshing positivity . . . Kroeger is a great champion of women, and she is a preserver of the long, rich historical record.”—Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Wall Street Journal

“Monumental . . . A substantial work of research on women journalists over the last 180 years, underscoring both sexist hurdles and tremendous breakthroughs . . . A tour de force that should be in every library and school in the country.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A sweeping history . . . A solidly researched and fluidly written overview of an important chapter in women’s history.”—Publishers Weekly

“Terrific . . . In a masterly work of broad research and elegant synthesis, Kroeger writes a lively, fast-paced account spanning 150 years in newspapers, magazines and television news. Cataloging a dizzying array of characters in complex and unconventional exploits, Kroeger conveys both the glory and the sexist humiliation and roadblocks these talented, driven women experienced.”—Clara Bingham, The Guardian

“Kroeger’s immersive history examines the myriad challenges [women journalists] faced professionally and from society writ large and celebrates the ingenuity, valor, and integrity with which they pursued their goals. Merging feminist struggles with journalistic triumphs, Kroeger sheds an important light on both spheres.”—Booklist

“Brooke Kroeger has produced a significant reference work on women in American journalism, an encyclopedia of individuals with the key moments of their professional lives brought to life with useful and engaging detail. . . . Kroeger’s principal contribution has been the breadth of her catalog and how up to date it is.”—Sheila Gibbons, Media Report to Women

“After her sharp, smart biographies of pathbreaking women writers Fannie Hurst and Nellie Bly . . . Kroeger extends her vision and now chronicles the full sweep of female reporters. . . . Kroeger’s powerful history is a way to consider the continually winding road toward equality for women.”—The National Book Review, “5 Hot Books”

“Undaunted is proof that not every patriotic hero bore a gun and wore pants. Historically, most of the women who poured their souls into the Fourth Estate were treated like witnesses to their own execution: Everyone got to make a speech about them — but them. Now their story is told by one of their own, with the forthright candor and superb journalistic skill for which Brooke Kroeger is known. The pioneers in this tome were foot soldiers of justice and imagination. Their presence in newsrooms challenged the very nature of journalism, which by its nature, lives in a language dipped in the subtle but charged, effective strength of male prejudice. For all their talent and skill, these women had no voice in history. Now, thanks to Kroeger, they have one.”—James McBride, author of Deacon King Kong

“Editors confined them to the women's section, and thought them too emotional for wider duty. Bosses insisted they could not go out at night without a male escort. Professional societies would not let them in. Historians of journalism wiped them from the story. Newspapers mercilessly underpaid them. And everyone seemed to observe upon their ‘nature,’ said to be ill-suited for journalism's toughest tasks. The gradual overcoming of these barriers is the grand theme of Brooke Kroeger's Undaunted, a phenomenal work of research with a simple point to make. Women are half the public. Making them equals in the newsroom is not an option but a necessity.”—Jay Rosen, author of What Are Journalists For?

“Brooke Kroeger here offers an invaluable accounting of two centuries of achievement. Full of surprising stories, Undaunted masterfully charts individual breakthroughs while building the larger narrative of female journalists in America. While it can be disheartening to watch the same issues come back decade after decade, it is impossible to read this record of journalistic innovation without a sense of triumph.”—Kim Todd, author of Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters”

“For too long the contributions of women to American journalism have been devalued or overlooked. Fortunately, Brooke Kroeger has retrieved many of their inspiring tales from the waste bin of history to show how women forever changed the field. An overdue collective history of generations of intrepid female journalists.”—Pamela Newkirk, author of Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media

“With unprecedented scope, Brooke Kroeger has created a fast-paced, beautifully written account of fearless women journalists across America whose inspiring, relentless determination overcame pernicious behavior and persistent barriers. Undaunted is a heavy dose of inspiration for today’s women working in journalism and all women still knocking down gender barriers.”—Jennifer Preston, Senior Fellow, Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics, and Public Policy

“In the no-stone-unturned style of the reporters whose exploits she retells, Brooke Kroeger documents how tenacious pioneers from Nellie Bly to Nikole Hannah-Jones blasted through the walls of journalism, exposed topics previously ignored, and built a home for women in America’s most controversial profession even as newsrooms fought for survival. Kroeger leaves no doubt that enterprising women have long narrated America’s real story.”—Elizabeth Cobbs, author of Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé

From the Publisher

★ 2023-03-09
A substantial work of research on women journalists over the last 180 years, underscoring both sexist hurdles and tremendous breakthroughs.

A historian who has published biographies of Fannie Hurst and Nellie Bly, Kroeger, the founding director of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, moves chronologically in this monumental study of journalists who made a significant impact in their time and forged the way for those who came later. She begins with one of the most influential: Margaret Fuller, a friend of the transcendentalists and leading advocate for birth control and other progressive causes. In 1870, “long before Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle,” Midy Morgan exposed the animal abuse in New York City’s cattle market for the Times. The author then turns to the two ferocious Idas: Wells, a crusader against lynching, and Tarbell, who revealed the extent of the monopoly of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in McClure’s from 1902 to 1904. By the turn of the century, it was assumed that women journalists were paid less than men, and women accepted it along with the sexist treatment and the belief that they should be relegated to the “soft” pages rather than hard news. Nonetheless, many young women continued to seek out the glamorous career of journalism. Many uncelebrated women journalists covered the world wars—so-called “front-page girls”—often without credit, though many achieved real breakthroughs—e.g., Martha Gellhorn, Rebecca West, Dorothy Thompson, and Rachel Carson. Despite feats by “supernovas” in the 1960s and ’70s (Lois Wille, Ada Louise Huxtable, Charlotte Curtis), Kroeger cites the lawsuit by women journalists against Newsweek in 1970 as a turning point. Decades later, the #MeToo movement amplified the concerns of discrimination and won important victories. A recent study shows that women are still “sorely lacking” in “all realms of media,” emphasizing the age-old refrain: “progress, setback; push, pull.”

A tour de force that should be in every library and school in the country.

Kirkus Reviews