“A Cosmic Shoulder for the Public to Lean Upon”: Gertrude Gordon and the Rise of Women Journalists

From 1900 through the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and the 1920s, women journalists were making great strides in newsrooms and the public sphere. Gertrude Gordon, who was born Gertrude Kelley, was one of the news-women whose work changed public perceptions of women’s roles and abilities. As Pittsburgh’s first sob sister and the first woman to earn a byline at a Pittsburgh paper, Gordon’s reportage made her a figure that others revered and honored as courageous. This article uses Gordon’s published writings, letters to the editor and other ephemera reacting to Gordon’s articles, and archival evidence to show how Gordon framed women’s lives and work. In addition, this article shows how her stories moved audiences to engage with issues important to early twentieth century women and to imagine new roles for women.