Project Overview

The Women in Journalism Oral History Project was initiated in 1986 by the Women’s National Press Club, an organization founded to support equal rights for women in the newsroom. Today the Washington Press Club Foundation’s Board of Directors carries on the project’s legacy, working with Washington journalists, academicians and other contributors and donors.

To watch a selection of recorded interviews click here.

The Interviewees
The women included in this project include pioneers of early women’s journalism, champions of civil rights, and celebrities in the world of broadcast television. They represent a diversity of careers, backgrounds, and perspectives, yet all are considered important figures in the history of women in journalism, beginning in the 1920s and continuing through early 21st century.

Interview topics

From its inception, the project—national in scope—was designed in part to examine how increased numbers of women in journalism have broadened the coverage of society. In addition, the transcripts offer an important slice of American social history as the interviewees express the richly textured life of a major profession that, like other professions, has struggled to adapt to the changing conditions of a world in transition. Sample topics include:

  • The women’s movement, the fight for women’s rights, and The New York Times sex discrimination suit
  • Racism, the Civil Rights era, and the Benilda Rosario suit against minority discrimination at the Times
  • Coverage of major American twentieth century political events
  • Changes in journalism ethics, technology, and society

Accessing and citing the transcripts

Library resources — Each oral history interview has been indexed, and appendix material has been added. Tapes and transcripts are deposited at Columbia University's Oral History Research Office in New York City and in the National Press Club Library in Washington, DC. Transcripts have been made available to major schools of journalism and other research libraries. Some individual interview sessions were videotaped; copies of the tapes are located at Columbia University, the National Press Club Library and California State University at Sacramento.

Copyrights & permissions — The Washington Press Club Foundation holds the copyright to the interviews. Quotes and citations must come from the text of the transcripts, not the tapes. The suggested form of citation is: Interview with [interviewee] by [interviewer], Women in Journalism oral history project of the Washington Press Club Foundation, [date of interview], [page of transcript], in the Oral History Collection of Columbia University and other repositories.
Users of the manuscript materials are responsible for obtaining permission to publish quotations. If more than the amount allowable under the "fair use" doctrine is required, a letter requesting permission to quote should be written to the Washington Press Club Foundation stating the pages of the transcript to be used and the way in which they will be used.

Internet citations — For those researchers wishing to cite the "Women in Journalism" oral history project from our online transcripts, we recommend following current Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines.