Should She, or Shouldn't She, Pursue a Career in Journalism?

Abstract

This qualitative study uses textual analysis and the lens of true womanhood to analyze twenty-eight articles by or about female journalists that appeared in U.S. magazines from 1887 to 1930. The research argues that the nineteenth-century characteristics that defined true womanhood—purity, piety, domesticity, and submissiveness—were reimagined in order to encourage—or discourage—white women from pursuing a career in journalism. Discussions were framed in terms of three narratives—didactic, cautionary, and celebratory—and this may have affected the way that women viewed their career and relationships with male and female colleagues The ensuing discourse worked to protect the male-dominated newsroom and contain aspiring female journalists by preventing their advancement beyond society reporting and the women's pages.