In this Book
- Out on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space
- Book
- 2011
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
summary
Out on Assignment illuminates the lives and writings of a lost world of women who wrote for major metropolitan newspapers at the start of the twentieth century. Using extraordinary archival research, Alice Fahs unearths a richly networked community of female journalists drawn by the hundreds to major cities--especially New York--from all parts of the United States.
Newspaper women were part of a wave of women seeking new, independent, urban lives, but they struggled to obtain the newspaper work of their dreams. Although some female journalists embraced more adventurous reporting, including stunt work and undercover assignments, many were relegated to the women's page. However, these intrepid female journalists made the women's page their own. Fahs reveals how their writings--including celebrity interviews, witty sketches of urban life, celebrations of being "bachelor girls," advice columns, and a campaign in support of suffrage--had far-reaching implications for the creation of new, modern public spaces for American women at the turn of the century. As observers and actors in a new drama of independent urban life, newspaper women used the simultaneously liberating and exploitative nature of their work, Fahs argues, to demonstrate the power of a public voice, both individually and collectively.
Newspaper women were part of a wave of women seeking new, independent, urban lives, but they struggled to obtain the newspaper work of their dreams. Although some female journalists embraced more adventurous reporting, including stunt work and undercover assignments, many were relegated to the women's page. However, these intrepid female journalists made the women's page their own. Fahs reveals how their writings--including celebrity interviews, witty sketches of urban life, celebrations of being "bachelor girls," advice columns, and a campaign in support of suffrage--had far-reaching implications for the creation of new, modern public spaces for American women at the turn of the century. As observers and actors in a new drama of independent urban life, newspaper women used the simultaneously liberating and exploitative nature of their work, Fahs argues, to demonstrate the power of a public voice, both individually and collectively.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Contents/Illustrations
- pp. vii-ix
- Introduction
- pp. 1-16
- Chapter two: The Woman’s Page
- pp. 56-91
- Chapter three: Human Interest
- pp. 92-132
- Chapter four: Bachelor Girls
- pp. 133-161
- Chapter five: Adventure
- pp. 162-192
- Chapter six: Work
- pp. 193-231
- Chapter seven: Travel
- pp. 232-271
- Epilogue: Toward Suffrage
- pp. 272-277
- Selected Bibliography
- pp. 325-340
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 341-342
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469602561
Related ISBN(s)
9780807834961, 9780807869031, 9781469621968
MARC Record
OCLC
767952991
Pages
376
Launched on MUSE
2013-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No