Agness Underwood’s Historic Rise in an All-Male Newsroom: A Case Study

Stephanie A Bluestein

doi:10.1177/2158244017710290

Abstract

Agness Underwood (1902-1984) made history in 1947 when she was promoted from reporter to city editor, making her the first woman to oversee a major metropolitan U.S. newsroom. Employing a biographical research method, narrative analysis was used to examine Underwood’s professional and personal life through her journalism work, articles written about her, personal artifacts, and author interviews of people who knew her. The data were then analyzed in terms of sex roles, personality traits, and leadership styles to construct a deeper understanding of this maverick journalist’s accomplishments. The findings indicate the traditional masculine qualities she possessed, in combination with her personality traits and transformational leadership style, greatly contributed to her success.

Highlights

Desperate to help support her struggling family, Agness (Aggie) Underwood took a job at a local newspaper, filling in for a vacationing switchboard operator
It was intended to only be a 2-week position. It was the beginning of a legendary 41-year career that culminated with her becoming the first woman city editor of a major metropolitan U.S newspaper
By age 16, Agness Underwood had lost both of her parents, dropped out of high school, and was living in a homeless shelter in San Francisco

Summary

Introduction

Desperate to help support her struggling family, Agness (Aggie) Underwood took a job at a local newspaper, filling in for a vacationing switchboard operator. It was intended to only be a 2-week position Instead, it was the beginning of a legendary 41-year career that culminated with her becoming the first woman city editor of a major metropolitan U.S newspaper. The recollections of Underwood’s colleagues, in addition to artifacts from her archives and articles written about her, contribute to the field of sex roles by explaining how this mid-20th century journalist was able to break through gender barriers. The unintentional progress she made paved the way for female journalists to have more meaningful careers and make a greater contribution to society

Results

Discussion

Conclusion