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by Martha Allen
1988
Chapter 1
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION NETWORKS AMONG WOMEN
Introduction
Networking by women in the United States is not a new phenomenon.
Since, and even prior to, the first woman's rights convention
in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, women have developed various
means of communication through which to work to improve the female
condition. Throughout history women have often communicated systematically
not only by person-to-person methods, including organizations
and conventions, but also by publishing periodicals and books.
Men, and organizations that included men, played a key role in
financing many of the early women's rights papers.
By contrast, women today are financing most of the periodicals
of the current women's movement themselves, producing a press
essentially independent of male influence. Another distinctive
feature is the variety of media forms that they are using. Women
totally or primarily own and operate media in print, broadcast,
film, video, and music. The most remarkable difference from all
past efforts of women to build communication networks comes from
the breadth and depth of today's communication among women. Instead
of originating with a single class of women, as in the past, today's
periodicals arise from women in all walks of life and economic
levels.
Forging these extensive multi-media networks during the two decades,
1963 to 1983, not only held together women of common interests
and backgrounds, but created networks between women of diverse
interests and cultures. Women of various ethnic backgrounds; women
in service work and the trades; disabled women; women concerned
with international issues, economic issues and issues of sexuality,
health and safety -- these and others shared experiences and perspectives
among themselves and then with other women. Working together in
this way, they produced vibrant and growing communication networks.
This study analyzes media that is primarily run by women, for
women, and about women. "Primarily" in this case means
the media need not be 100% women-run, although most are. According
to this definition, as long as women are clearly making the decisions,
and the limited male involvement does not indicate any control
of the direction, then it is still considered women's media. Some
media begun by married women, for instance, had support from male
family members, but where these men were not involved in decision-making
on the content, the media are defined as "women's media".
Occasionally media allowed a few males on their staffs but not
in positions of power. Such limited male involvement also did
not prevent the media from being considered women's media. Institutionally-owned
media, such as universities, or churches, were evaluated, necessarily
subjectively, on the extent to which there seemed to be autonomy
and woman-control of the media.
This is a study of women's media, not "feminist" media.
While some may consider the terms synonymous, or at least interchangeable,
women's media and feminist media are not the same. The term "feminist"
often includes men. Some men call themselves feminist and are
considered by women to be feminist. What is historically unique
about this contemporary development of media, besides its extensiveness,
is that it is almost totally independent of men, as will be made
apparent in Chapters 3-7. A study of "feminist" media,
therefore, would necessarily be for another purpose than the one
being undertaken here.
Furthermore, the term "feminist" has no firm definition,
and while I could use a dictionary definition, or make my own,
it would be pointless if the women involved in media differ. Women
do disagree about the term. Some women define "feminist"
narrowly. Others say all women are feminists and point to the
number who did not call themselves "feminist" yesterday
but events or experience made them so today. They note the potential
to be "feminist" is there in all women. While one could
let each women's media themselves decide if they consider themselves
feminist, many do not say. The term is often avoided because of
the bad connotations mass media have given the word to the general
public. The term "women's media," in contrast, is all-encompassing
and can be more logically equated with the equally comprehensive
term "women's movement" than can the term "feminist
media."
My criterion for selecting periodicals was their ownership, not
their content. Only after selecting all women-owned media did
I check content to see whether they were also operated by, for
and about women. I used women's own statements, where such statements
appeared, on whether they were "for and about" women.
And I also examined the content. Some periodicals said they hoped
many men would read their issues, but these periodicals did not
publish their periodical for male readership.
This "for and about" part of the criterion, of course,
raises the question of whether a women-owned periodical opposed
to issues commonly considered a part of the women's movement would
be included in my study of women's media. The answer is yes; I
included any media owned by women, which is by, for and about
women, are included. Women do not agree 100% on all issues of
the women's movement. There are women who are vitally involved
in the women's movement, for example, who are opposed to abortion.
Woman to Woman, edited by Dr. Linda Parks, who identified
herself as a lesbian feminist, was a champion of women in prison,
regularly exposing bad prison conditions, yet she editorialized
that abortion was murder. During the time period of this study,
1963-1983, many women changed their positions on the Equal Rights
Amendment, having earlier been convinced that protective laws
for women were hard-won benefits necessary for working women.
Some women would abolish the family while others work to strengthen
it. The issue of separatism, of working independently of men or
with men, continues to be an issue upon which women will find
no agreement.
But what if the media not only did not conform to commonly held
positions on a few issues but outspokenly opposed the women's
movement itself? Again, the answer is to evaluate whether it conforms
to the criterion of ownership and operation primarily by, for
and about women. In reality I did not find any such papers. Phyllis
Schlafly's Report, part of her Eagle Forum, might
have been thought to fall in this category. I examined 56 issues
over a six year period 1976-1981 (and one in 1973). This careful
study revealed that it did not conform to the criterion. It is
the publication of an organization of, and financed by, both men
and women. The issues it covers run a wide range of foreign and
U.S. domestic policy with women's issues in the minority. Less
than half of the articles were on or in any way related to women,
as, for example, "How the Libs and the Feds Plan to Spend
Your Money," compared with typical foreign policy articles
such as, "Cuddling Up to Caribbean Communists" or "Don't
Surrender the U.S. Canal!" Being edited by a woman is not
enough to fit the criterion.
My methodology required first setting up the parameters for my
study, realistically assessing what was possible to undertake
in one dissertation. As will be seen, each form of women's media
could be an entire dissertation study in itself. Therefore, it
appeared wiser to save extensive discussion of some forms of women's
media for a future study. Although extremely important, women's
communication through organizations, conferences, demonstrations
and theater could not be covered in detail in this study. Emphasis
has not been placed on the person-to-person forms of communication,
despite their vital role in the women's movement. The more formalized
forms of women's media, print, broadcast, film, video, and music,
were chosen because they provided more tangible networks, indicated
greater levels of organized effort, and were more measurable,
more extensive, and in many ways more lasting.
To select my periodicals I went to major library collections of
women's media and special and individual collections, to several
published lists, and to any source that might include women's
media. (See appendix.) A periodical is any print medium that appears,
or is intended to appear, at intervals. It includes newspapers,
magazines, newsletters, bulletins, and regular reports; all of
these kinds of periodicals were within the scope of my study.
I then applied my women's media definition to each periodical
by examining the periodical itself. Some which appeared at first
to qualify were found upon my examination not to fit one or more
parts of the criterion: primarily owned and operated by, for and
about women. For example, Anima, which provides "Crucial
new ideas in feminism, psychology and religion, [and] concentrates
on the quest for wholeness through values traditionally labeled
'feminist,'" is co-edited by a man and a woman for men and
women. This was also true of many periodicals using the word "feminist"
in the title or subtitle. All of the traditional women's magazines
are known to be male owned, such as Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home
Journal and Seventeen. I checked the ambiguous media,
despite indications that they might not be women's media, in order
to see if that was indeed the case. My final selection for examination
totaled 1,380 periodicals that were women owned and run by, for
and about women. Of these I reviewed approximately 500 periodicals.
After arranging my initial list of 1380 periodicals alphabetically
and chronologically, I began examining the range in order to have
a representative spread --- both large and small, both well-known
and little known, both short and long-lived. Some women's media
became "well-known" because the activists working on
them attended conferences and consciously networked. Others became
well-known because the issues with which they concerned themselves
caught the attention of women as being particularly relevant to
their lives. It was not possible to examine every issue of all
of the selected periodicals. Some could not be located. I carefully
examined as many as I could find particularly the early and pioneering
women's media.
In examining approximately 500 women's periodicals, I learned
first that they were of certain types and that these categories
into which they naturally fell were of great significance to my
overall analysis. Indeed, these categories form the basis of my
chapter organization. These categories were: general or multi-issue
periodicals (chapters 3 and 4), single issue periodicals (chapter
5), and special identity periodicals -- those coming from a particular
perspective (chapter 6). A fourth category encompassed other,
non-periodical forms of women's media (chapter 7), such as news
services, book publishing, distribution, radio, television, cable
television, video, film, and music. I located these sources through
archives, printed lists, and references to them found in the periodicals
examined.
I surveyed enough copies of each periodical to come to a firm
conclusion as to its purpose, approach, characteristics and content.
Once having determined this, I thereafter skimmed the issues to
spot divergence from the pattern, noting any particular developments,
including changes over time, and reading those issues fully. I
compiled information on hundreds of other periodicals that were
not available for examination in order to more thoroughly understand
the extent and character of the development of print networks
among women.
At this point I began my intensive study and analysis of the content
and substance of the growing networks, looking particularly for
consistent threads running through all the types of the women's
media that I was now examining in depth. Out of this intensive
and exhaustive examination and continuing evaluation, I found
eight characteristics of women's media. These eight characteristics
appeared in all types and all forms of media. They were the qualities
that all these women's media held in common. Because of their
singular importance, I have discussed them as they arose in the
various media networks.
Chapter Summaries
In addition to describing my methodology and defining terms,
chapter one relates the long-recognized need for communication
networks of women and others such as black Americans, to the structure,
theory, and reality of mainstream mass media. It provides a short
overview of the origin and development of the nation's communication
system and briefly discusses the effects of women's reliance on
mass media as for their communications forum.
Chapter two focuses on the 1960's when women began speaking out
again in increasing numbers against discrimination and for women's
rights, peace and justice issues. It describes women's attempts
to use both alternative media and mass media, and finally, when
nothing else worked, their own media, which they had to create
to fill each new need for communication.
The third and fourth chapters study the multi-issue women's periodicals,
showing the development of the pioneering papers, and analyzing
the eight distinctive characteristics of women's media that became
apparent under intensive comparative examination.
Chapter five covers single-issue periodicals. The single-issue
periodicals have a particular focus, such as health or economics,
and usually do not try to cover other issues in depth, except
as they relate to the primary focus.
Chapter six looks at the special identity women's periodicals.
Special identity periodicals are those coming from women who share
unique perspectives -- such as the periodicals of black and ethnic
women, religious women, and lesbian women. These women have a
particular focus and perspective, even when their periodicals
were also sometimes covering other issues.
Chapter seven looks beyond periodicals to other forms of communication,
such as presses and publishers, news services, film, broadcast,
video, cable, and music groups. I applied the same criterion applied
to periodicals to these other forms of women's media. To qualify,
the media group needed to be primarily by, for and about women.
Information on the various forms of women's media came predominantly
from women's periodicals, but it also came from letters, fliers,
and brochures from the groups themselves.
Chapter eight concludes with a summary of what I found in the
study of the development of communication networks among women
and analyzes and evaluates the findings. It notes the importance
of these developments.
Women's media networks provide a wealth of data and perspectives
not available in mass media that can enable women's history to
be written more accurately and with more insightful analysis.
Such primary sources offer information about both the activists
and the theorists of the movement, for, as this study shows, in
the women's movement the theorists are generally a part of the
movement. Female historians of the women's movement have, in fact,
organized themselves in an effort to write women into history.
Yet, at the time of this study in 1988, only a few theses and
dissertations even mention women's media, thus indicating the
urgency of encouraging this type of research for the history of
women. The one significant study of women's media, dealing solely
with feminist periodicals, was written in 1975. While the existence
of women's media may be taken for granted today more than when
Anne Mather wrote her thesis on the early feminist periodicals,
many of these primary documents are still missing from the historical
record. Most of the "videoletters," for example, that
document what was taking place in the women's movement in the
early 1970's, though a rich source for historians, are lost to
us today. Other women's media are available, but are underutilized.
And many periodicals are being discarded now that should be preserved.
Yet, if historians were sufficiently aware of the significance,
extent, and diversity of women's media, then in turn the libraries
and archives would be encouraged to acquire these valuable sources.
Women's media are a ripe area for research; they reflect American
women's wide diversity of ideas, insights, and interests, and,
as can be seen in the following six chapters, they spoke as the
various parts of the movement that they in fact were.
Early Recognition of the Need for a Means of Communication
Women, like other groups of Americans, have long recognized
the need to communicate with each other and with the general public
and to directly put forth their own views for themselves. It was
recognized and accepted by all such groups that, based on the
U.S. Constitution's First Amendment (to be discussed shortly),
owners of established media had the right to and did speak for
themselves, but that they did not, and could not, speak for others
(even though they may claim to be representing or mirroring "the
public").
"We wish to plead our own cause. Too long has the publick
[sic] been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern
us dearly," wrote editors John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish
in 1827 in Freedom's Journal, the first black newspaper
in the United States, published in New York. Russwurm and Cornish
launched their journal after repeated attempts to get letters
to the editor published in response to vile attacks against blacks
in the New York Enquirer and several other New York City
papers. When they were unable to obtain access to the mass media,
they began their own periodical. Although they would be unable
to reach such a large, diverse audience for their information
and perspectives, at least they would be able to get their message
out and it would be in their own words. In 1847 Frederick Douglass
established the North Star to allow blacks a voice independent
of the white abolitionists. Although by the end of the Civil War
only 24 black journals were still being published, between 1865
and 1900 almost 1,200 new black periodicals emerged, indicating
the birth of a significant and growing communication network among
black Americans. With the twentieth century came the continued
growth of the black press. In 1905 W.E.B. DuBois began the first
of five periodicals he would publish in the cause of justice and
equality for blacks. In 1910 Dubois began his 24-year association
with The Crisis, the official journal of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, beginning with a press
run of 500, and reaching a peak circulation of 100,000 by 1918.
The same year DuBois began publishing, Robert S. Abbott founded
the Chicago Defender. Within ten years the Defender
had more than 200,000 subscribers in both the North and the
South. After Abbott's death in 1940, his nephew John Sengstacke
took over as publisher, making it a part of the largest Black
newspaper group in America. By the mid-1970's, more than 200 black
weekly newspapers were reaching 4.3 million readers, and there
were five dailies and approximately 175 magazines, according to
Lauren Kessler in The Dissident Press. While the figures
fell to fewer than 100 weeklies and only one daily by 1980, there
nevertheless exists a strong communication network among black
Americans and a recognized need for efforts to strengthen and
expand a voice for blacks independent of white control.
Women, too, were to learn from their experience with established
media, and also with male-run alternative organizations' media,
the need to have their own voice. Many women working for the abolition
of slavery in the early 19th Century discovered from that experience
the need both for women's rights and for an independent means
of communication. In subsequent years, as women found that the
existing media had not adequately provided a forum for their issues,
they established periodicals which by exchanging their ideas and
information, not only proved vital to advancing their cause but
also stimulated action. Women's media, like the black press, helped
to shape consciousness and to generate movements for change.
Women began publishing reform periodicals in the 1840's. In 1848
Amelia Bloomer launched The Lily, a paper whose masthead
declared itself: "Devoted to the Interests of Women."
One of the most important o
f the early women's papers appeared
in 1868 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded
the 16-page weekly Revolution to cover the many concerns
of women that the male-owned press of the day failed to cover:
healthier dress for women, the sexual double standard, marriage
and divorce, prostitution, suffrage, and issues of particular
concern to working women, such as equal pay for equal work. Victoria
Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin began publishing Woodhull &
Claflin's Weekly in New York City in 1870. Topics they covered
included abortion, venereal disease, prostitution, the occult,
suffrage and women's restrictive clothing. Josephine St. Pierre
Ruffin edited the New Era Club's Woman's Era Magazine in
Boston. Ruffin, a woman of mixed ancestry -- African, Indian,
French and English -- took the lead in calling on black women
to organize a national organization since many white women excluded
Afro-American women from their organizations. In 1917 Woman
Citizen formed as a combination of the Woman's Journal
and several smaller suffrage papers. In 1902 Margaret Sanger
started Woman Rebel, a magaz
ine concerned almost exclusively
with the issue of birth control. Charlotte Perkins Gilman devoted
seven years to publishing The Forerunner, serving as its
editor and sole contributor. The National Federation of Business
and Professional Women's Clubs' The Independent Woman ;
the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's Four
Lights ; the Woman's Party's Equal Rights are among
the organizations that continued publishing throughout the decades
and continue today (although several under new names).
While individuals and organizations continued to publish notable
women's periodicals, not all were women-owned and run as were
characteristic of the women's periodicals which began emerging
in the late 1960's. For example, the suffrage paper, Women's
Journal , was edited in 1870 by Lucy Stone and her husband
Henry Blackwell, and Mary Livermore, who had given up her paper The Agitator to join them. For most of the 1920's and the
next three or four decades until the late 1960's, there was no
women's media movement. The few women's periodicals that existed
were mostly the newsletters and journals published by women's
organizations for their members only. Not only was there thus
no continuity with any of the pre-1920's women's media, but in
an era prior to women's studies programs, most of the founders
of the women's periodicals of the late 1960's were unaware of
the earlier papers. The new media began consciously as women-owned
and operated media for and about women in reaction to the control
that males had over women's communications and women's lives.
The communications system in this country had developed such that
it was primarily in the hands of wealthy, white males. It was
also concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The basis was being
laid for a future revolt, one that came in the 1960's, against
the tight control of women's information by male-owned media.
The Development of the Nation's Communications System
While the American communications media system is considered
to be securely grounded on the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment
right to freedom of the press for individual expression of one's
beliefs and information, the Amendment does not in reality further
most people's communication. Since the day when the Amendment
was first adopted, the increasing cost of media technology led
to dominance by the wealthy men, such as the corporate officials
in conglomerate giants.
Individual printers who usually did all the work themselves owned
and published the first newspapers in colonial days. They presented
opinions and news information were presented in the form of articles
and letters, announcements of ship arrivals, lists of their contents,
and, for income, advertisements and official government notices.
The printer-owners of these papers put forth the facts and opinions
they felt were important to circulate. This rationale remains
the raison d'être of the U.S. media, sanctioned by
court interpretation of the First Amendment's free press clause
which is thought to belong to every American without regard to
whether they have the money to exercise it.
Even though women and others in the past could see the gap between
theory and reality, they have not challenged the purpose of mainstream
media. They have simply wanted to be able to do the same, to communicate
their own information directly from themselves without intermediaries
and with a similar outreach to the whole public. The rise of women-owned
media resulted from their decreasing ability to do so.
At the time the First Amendment was adopted in 1789, the dream
seemed attainable. The ability to reach the public was far more
equal than it has been at any time since then. No one, no matter
how wealthy, could print more than a few hundred copies of a newspaper
per day because the press in 1800 was still the same as in the
time when Gutenberg invented moveable type which revolutionized
the printing process (mid-15th century). Becoming a printer did
not takes large sums of money, although the amounts required surpassed
the income available to most working class individuals. In the
age of the pamphleteer and of many newspapers, the authors of
the First Amendment could not have imagined or prepared their
words to suit the world of today's media technology.
While at the same time that the size of the country expanded,
so did the complexity of press technology -- and its cost -- needed
to reach that larger and more diverse population. With the invention
of faster presses and machine-made paper, Benjamin Day inaugurated
the era of the "penny press" in the 1830's. Thousands
of copies could be printed daily for one cent each instead of
the usual six cents. This new equipment cost thousands of dollars
but made it possible for its owners eventually to reach millions
of people. The "poor printer" gave way to wealthy individuals
as owners, then to companies and corporations, and, now, conglomerates.
Publishers relied heavily on advertisers to cover the higher costs,
a factor which increasingly affected the character of the news
and information the public received when editors feared alienating
these sources of revenue. If increased costs were great, increased
profits were also substantial and there was no longer any semblance
of equal ability among Americans to communicate their information.
Those with limited incomes could not reach the large numbers reached
by those with or backed by wealth. Thus, the press that could
now afford mass outreach became an increasingly powerful, independent
political force. Virtually all Americans, from candidates for
public office to women seeking change, had to look to mass media
owners and editors rather than directly to the public to whom
they wished to speak and whose support they sought.
A number of current writers have noted the powerful role the media
has come to play and the increasing domination by a few individuals
and corporations, as contrasted to the early newspapers. Don Pember
wrote in Mass Media in America :
"Two hundred years ago if readers complained
about a newspaper, the publisher could honestly look them straight
in the eye and tell them if they didn't like the paper they could
start their own or buy one of the competitor's journals. Likewise,
if a person had something to tell the community, he or she could
seek a platform in any one of the often half-dozen publications.
Of course, this is not possible today -- and we are the lesser
for it."
While in 1900 there were 2,042 daily papers and 2,023 owners,
by 1980 there were 1,730 dailies and 760 owners. Ben Bagdikian,
reporter and editor for more than 30 years, noted that by the
late 1960's most Americans had no choice in their local printed
news, since 97 percent of all cities with daily newspapers had
only one company printing the news. "Present news systems
already are highly selective," he wrote in 1971. "Daily
newspaper in the United States are almost all local monopolies,
so that the printed picture of the country is under control of
one man or a group of men. This is intensified by the fact that
half of these papers are also owned by men who control other monopoly
papers as well, so that if they wished to exercise a bias, each
proprietor has this power over many cities." Writing in the
mid-1960's about the Washington Press Corps, William Rivers commented
on the growing awareness among the American people of the power
of media, and noted, "control of information is central to
power." He described the pressure on newspaper correspondents
to slant their dispatches according to their publisher's leanings
or face having their stories played down, cut or killed for "policy
reasons."
Broadcast communications developed with more precise guidelines.
It was more evident that with limited airwave spectrum the broadcast
business in existence had a responsibility to the public to be
fair, that is, to share air time with views held by other members
of the public. However, the concentration of ownership as well
as the fact that three networks dominated the industry, was a
cause of concern by the 1960's. In the late 1960's most of the
top 50 television markets which served approximately 75 percent
of the nation's television homes had three competing commercial
VHF television stations. More than 90 percent were owned by entities
that owned other media interests. "I fear that we have already
reached the point in this country where the media, our greatest
check on other accumulations of power, may themselves be beyond
the reach of any other institution: the Congress, the President,
or the Federal Communications Commission, not to mention governors,
mayors, state legislators, and city councilmen," stated FCC
Commissioner Nicholas Johnson in 1968.
While in 1967 and 1968 the Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee
held extensive hearings into the interlocking ownerships of the
communications media, and its seven-volume transcript provided
information about the media "barons," by the 1980's
the Fairness Doctrine, adopted in 1949, as well as other regulation
of the media were being discarded. Yet concentration increases
steadily. Mass media today constitute some of the most highly
monopolized sectors of the American economy. In 1982, mass media
in America was concentrated in the hands of fifty or fewer corporations
which in turn are interlocked with other massive industries and
multinational banks. Less than 50 corporations controlled half
or more of all the major media in the country in 1982. By 1987
the figure was 29 or fewer corporations. Most of the biggest firms
have direct interest not only in domestic, but in foreign investments
as well, and therefore have a stake in both the foreign and domestic
policies of the United States.
Writers on the mass media, in addition to documenting the concentration
of ownership, indicate that this steadily increasing trend has
serious implications. For women, concentration of communications
media in a few hands, nearly all male, meant their chances of
being heard by the public and by other women were slim. The American
system of freedom of the press was not working for the vast majority
of Americans who could not afford to compete for the technology
needed to reach the public with their information. Recognition
of this situation came through trial & error experience, but
it eventually was the cause of the rise of women-owned networks
of communication in print and other media forms.
Effects of Relying on Mass Media as Sole Communications Forum
Many women learned the importance of having their own media
during World War II and the postwar aftermath in the 1950's. During
the war period, the mass media had encouraged women to try nontraditional
jobs, and from the experience women found they liked the work
and the economic independence. But in the postwar years mass media
ignored this new information now a part of women's experience
and instead presented, and popularized by frequent repetition,
their own opinion that women's proper place was in the home.
Historians have described this campaign and its many facets. One
wrote: "The woman who identified herself as 'just a housewife'
on radio or television shows of the day was greeted with appreciative
applause; and no other 'occupation' received such widespread adulation
in the nation's popular magazines." Others wrote: "The
feminine mystique was a propaganda campaign aimed at women of
all classes, purveyed by all the media. Furthermore, there was
nothing subtle about it. It not only argued that women ought to
stay home, but predicted failure if they ventured outside their
appropriate sphere."
In describing the impact of media on women's roles after World
War II, another historian noted, "the new emphasis on domesticity
was everywhere apparent. In newspapers and magazines, on radio
and billboards, Rosie the Riveter was replaced by the homemaker
as the national feminine model." Mass media trivialized women
by portraying them in stereotyped characterizations. "[F]emale
film stars of the 1950's were either sweet, innocent, and characterless,
like Debbie Reynolds and Doris Day, or, like Marilyn Monroe, projected
a complex blend of innocence and aggressive sexuality," wrote
this historian. Television began in the 1950's to broadcast its
message into homes, portraying the woman "either as sex object
or as a contented homebody, often flighty and irresponsible."
Several historians have noted the contrast of the 1950's to the
portrayal of women during World War II. Magazines and films which
applauded the capable, active women who could manage a house,
raise children, and work full time did not ridicule women for
wearing trousers during the war years. Maureen Honey has documented
how editors of popular romance magazines, prodded by war-time
propaganda agencies of the federal government, used fictional
portrayals of women to encourage women to think of themselves
as strong and independent during the war, and as consumers dependent
on the household after the war. At that time, the projected image
of Rosie the Riveter vanished, despite the continued participation
of women in the workforce.
While developing a positive image of women's work as home-centered,
the mass media also developed a negative image of career women.
Historians have cited the example of media use of psychiatrists
to support and promote their stereotyping of career women. Despite
the media's post-war portrayal of women as ideally suited to the
home and its characterization of working women as perverse, most
women wished to retain their employment in the same industry or
occupation, as during the war years. According to a study by the
Women's Bureau, 84% of the women interviewed in the Women's Bureau
study had to support themselves, and often others as well. Eight
percent said they needed to continue work for special reasons
such as sending children to school or buying a house. Some women,
facing discrimination and lay-offs, filed union grievances and
collectively protested. Various organizations, from the YWCA to
ad hoc union committees held conferences to deal with this problem.
In December 1945, 200 women picketed the Ford Highland Motor Plant
over its discriminatory practices which further indicated women's
desire not only to retain their jobs but their willingness to
fight for them. But mass media did not cover these concerns of
women. Despite the fact that the number of women in the workforce
steadily increased in the 1950's and 1960's, mass media promoted
only one option: that of homemaker.
Women began to realize the major impact that such media images
had in shaping their images of themselves and the images others
formed about them. Dissatisfaction among women about their portrayal
began to grow in the late fifties -- among working women who were
constantly denigrated by these media stereotypes, by women who
were not satisfied with being "just" a housewife, and
by women who felt that they should be playing a role in
world politics. The few women who had remained active and conscious
of women's rights throughout the fifties were now joined by large
numbers. At the turn of the decade, the rebellion that had been
silently growing against male media control over the dissemination
of women's information, suddenly burst out. Greater numbers of
women became active in efforts to communicate with each other
by establishing their own media to make changes in their lives
and the world.
_____
Chapter One Footnotes
1
Woman to Woman, Feminist Newsletter, New Orleans, Louisiana
4 (October 1985):1.
2
"How the Libs and the Feds Plan to Spend Your Money,"
The Phyllis Schlafly Report , (Alton, Illinois)
9 (May 1976), pp. 1-2, 4; "Cuddling Up to Caribbean Communists,"
The Phyllis Schlafly Report 10 (July 1977), pp.1-4; "Don't
surrender the U.S. Canal!," The Phyllis Schlafly Report
10 (February 1977), pp.1-3.
3
In discussing periodicals, termination dates are generally included
when known, but at times inclusion of this information would not
have been pertinent or would have been disruptive to the points
being made. Therefore dates are included with the list of periodicals
in the bibliography. Women's periodicals, as well as other forms
of media, were not begun as business with the expectation that
they would continue indefinitely. Therefore when a women's media
lasted a few years, as opposed to a few decades or more, it was
not seen as a failure but as a specific contribution for a particular
need. While many women's media begun in the early years are still
in existence today, many more have ceased. Others spring up constantly
to replace them, providing a constantly growing network. In 1988,
for example, over 375 women's periodicals exist in the United
States, not counting all the chapter newsletters of organizations
such as the National Organization for Women and the National Women's
Political Caucus. Circulation figures are mentioned where known.
Most periodicals did not provide their circulation figures (only
second-class mailed periodicals are required to divulge this information).
Women's periodicals sometimes use idiosyncratic capitalization
and spelling in their titles (and text). The word women, for instance,
might be spelled wimmin or womyn.
4
For information on the development of the black press see Lauren
Kessler, The Dissident Press (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications,
1984); Paula Giddings "The Beginning: The Spirit of the Early
Black Press," Encore 20 (June 1977), and Freedom's
Journal, editorial I (June 20 1977); "Black Press Notebook,"
Encore (July 5 1977); Lee Finkle, Forums for Protest:
The Black Press During World War II (London: Associated University
Presses, 1975); Vishnu V. Oak, The Negro Newspaper ( Yellow
Springs, Ohio: Antioch Press, 1948); Maxwell R. Brooks, The
Negro Press Re-Examined; Political Content of Leading Negro
Newspapers (Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1959);
Frederick G. Detweiler, The Negro Press in the United States
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922); Harry G. LaBrie,
The Black Newspapers in America: A Guide (Iowa City:
University of Iowa Press, 1970); Martin E. Dann, The Black
Press , 1827-1890, The Quest for National Identity (New York:
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1971); L.D. Reddick "Educational Programs
for the Improvement of the Race Relations: Motion Pictures, Radio,
The Press, and Libraries," Journal of Negro Education
XII (Summer 1944); Irvine Garland Penn, The Afro-American
Press and Its Editors (New York: Arno Press and the New York
Times, 1969); "The Afro-American Editor's Mission, by Eminent
Journalists: 1891", Encore 20 (June 1977); Alfreda
M. Duster, ed., Crusade for Justice, the Autobiography of Ida
B. Wells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972); Darwin
T. Turner, "Images of Blacks in Visual-Auditory Media,"
UMOJA n.s.11, 2 (Summer 1978): 111-122; Roland Wolseley,
The Black Press in the United States (Ames, Ia.: Iowa State
University Press, 1974); Lawrence D. Hogan, A Black National
News Service, The Associated Negro Press and Claude Barnett,
1919-1945 (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1984);
and Martha Leslie Allen, "Black Women Journalists and the
Black Press in the South at the Turn of the Century, 1895-1904",
unpublished master's thesis (Washington, D.C.: Howard University,
1978). In June 1977 The Black Press Archives was established at
the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University.
5
Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle:The Woman's Right Movement
in the United States (New York: Atheneum, 1968), pp. 82, 189-190;
Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman, A History of Women in
America (New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1978), pp. 161-167;
Judith Papachristou, ed., Women Together, A History in Documents
of the Women's Movement in the United States (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1976), pp. 61, 75; Sharon Harley and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn,
eds., The Afro-American Woman, Struggles and Images (Port
Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1978), p. 51; Carrie Chapman Catt
and Nettie Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics, The
Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (Seattle: University
of Washington Press, 1969), p. 270; William Jay Jacobs, Women
in American History (Beverly Hills: Benzinger, Bruce &
Glencoe, Inc., 1976), p. 251; and Mary R. Beard, Women As Force
in History (New York: Macmillan Co., 1971), p. 37.
6
Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle , p. 152; Carol Hymowitz
and Michaele Weissman, A History of Women in America ,
p. 163.
7
Among the periodicals still publishing in the 1960's were The
Graduate Woman, of the American Association of University
Women ; American Women in Radio and Television News
and Views, of the American Women in Radio and Television;
The National Voter, of the League of Women Voters; The
National Business Woman [called The Independent Woman up until
1956], of the National Federation of Business and Professional
Women; the National Woman's Party's Equal Rights; NCAWE
, periodical of the National Council of Administrative Women
in Education; Four Lights , of the Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom; Women Lawyer's Journal, of
the National Association of Women Lawyers; and the Ladder,
of the Daughters of Bilitis.
8
The First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting
the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances." None of these
rights except the press requires any significant amount of money
to exercise.
9
In New York City, James Gordon Bennett, related John Tebbel in
The Compact History of the American Newspaper, "had
only $500 to his name, but it was enough to establish him in a
Wall Street basement with an ailing press, scarcely more than
enough type, and a desk made of a wide plank laid across two flour
barrels, but out of this cellar emerged one May morning in 1835
a newspaper In only fifteen months, the Herald boasted 40, 000
circulation, and it was climbing every day." (New York: Hawthorne
Books, 1963), pp. 96-97.
10
"So You Think You Have a Free Press," by Donna Allen,
pamphlet available from the Women's Institute for Freedom of the
Press (WIFP), Washington, DC, 1970 and "Call For Research,"
by Donna Allen and Dana Densmore, WIFP, 1977, p. 2. Classic descriptions
of the development of the nation's print media, including press
ownership and technological development, may be found in James
Melvin Lee, History of American Journalism (New York: Garden
City Publishing Co., Inc., 1917), pp.15,16,64; Alfred McClung
Lee, The Daily Newspaper in America (New York: MacMillan
Co., 1037), pp. 97,99-101, 113,116,117; Frederic Hudson, Journalism
in the United States1690-1872 (New York: Harper Bros., 1873),
pp. 418,420; Edwin Emery, The Press and America, An Interpretive
History of Journalism (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1978), pp. 32-33, 210,214; Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism,
A History: 1690-1960 (New York: MacMillan, 1962), pp. 46-47,
49-51,54; and John Tebble, The Compact History of the
American Newspaper, pp. 11-21, 33-39, 93-97.
11
Don R. Pember, Mass Media in America (Chicago: Science
Research Associates, Inc., 1983), p. 362.
12
Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly (Boston: Beacon Press,1983),
p. 9.
13
Ben H. Bagdikian, The Information Machines, Their Impact on
Men and the
Media (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), pp. 137, 294.
14
William L. Rivers, The Opinion Makers, The Washington Press
Corps (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967), pp. 129, 174-175.
15
Nicholas Johnson, "The Media Barons and the Public Interest,
An FCC Commissioner's Warning." The Atlantic 6 (June
1968), pp. 48,50.
16
Editors, "The American Media Baronies." The Atlantic,
July 1969, p. 86.
17
Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, pp. 4-19. A few statistics
illustrate the extent of this concentration. As of 1980 there
were 1,730 daily newspapers, with a total daily circulation of
61 million. Twenty corporations controlled more than half the
daily sales. One percent of owners owned 34 percent of all papers
sold daily. Daily newspapers today provide the news indicators
for other media such as weeklies, magazines, books, radio, television
and even movies. Over half the $12 billion in revenues of the
11,000 magazines in this country as of 1980 were in the hands
of twenty corporations. One percent of magazine owners received
more than half of magazine revenues. There are 1,000 television
stations on the air, dominated by three networks- ABC, CBS, and
NBC. Together with their owned and operated television stations
in the major markets, in 1980 the three networks received more
than half of the $8.8 billion of television revenues. Of the 9,000
radio stations, 8,000 are commercially operated. Radio goes to
99.9 percent of American homes and to most cars. Ten companies
dominate the radio market. There are 2,500 book publishers producing
34,000 new titles a year. Most of the publishers, however, publish
only from one to five books a year. In1980, eleven corporations
received more than half the $7 billion in book sales. Book store
chains were also concentrating ownership in the distribution market,
often with interlocking directorates. While there are eight or
nine movie studies, four of these studios dominate the industry
with more than half the business.
18
Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, pp. 5,7. In a March
18, 1987 phone conversation, Bagdikian stated that the consolidation
had reached 29 or fewer corporations. "There is almost no
country in the world in which a subsidiary of the fifty media
companies does not have a significant investment," Bagdikian
wrote. "One major media company alone, CBS, has foreign subsidiaries
headquartered in thirty-four countries, ranging from Argentina
to South Africa." The book industry is consolidating to just
five to seven major companies, source for the industry stated,
according to an article by Laura Landro in The Wall Street
Journal in March 1987 entitled "Book Industry Faces More
Consolidation; Only a Handful of Big Publishers May Survive."
19
Don Pember, Mass Media in America, p. 255. Pember provided
useful statistics on the media concentration: "The dimensions
of this economic concentration have reached such serious proportions
that a single newspaper group owns 85 daily newspapers; nearly
9 percent of the millions of newspapers delivered each Sunday
are published by a single chain; only 2.5 percent of the cities
in America with daily newspapers have competing daily papers;
media chains control more than 75 percent of all commercial television
stations, and so forth." (p. 255) For more information on
the concentration of media ownership, see Stephen R. Barnett,
"Monopoly Gains," Columbia Journalism Review,
(May-June 1980); "Disclosure of Corporate Ownership",
December 27, 1973, (Committee on Government Operations, United
States Senate, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.);
Robert H. Stanley and Charles S. Steinberg, The Media
Environment: Mass Communications in American Society (New
York: Hastings House Publications, Inc.); and numerous issues
of both The Guild Reporter (Official Publication of The
Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC) and Media Report
to Women (Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press,
Washington, D.C.).
20
William Jay Jacobs, Women in American History, p. 259.
21
Rosalyn Baxandall, Linda Gordon, and Susan Reverby, eds., America's
Working Women (New York: Random House, 1976), p. 302.
22
Lois W. Banner, Women in Modern America, A Brief History
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1974), p. 215.
23
Judith Papchristou, ed., Women Together, A History in Documents
of the Women's Movement in the United States, p. 214; Maureen
Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter ; Class, Gender, and Propaganda
during World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Press, 1984).
24
Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman, A History of Women in America,
p.325. Baxandall, Gordon and Reverby, America's Working Women
(p. 311) noted that the percentage of black women who desired
to keep their jobs was especially high.
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press
1940 Calvert Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009-1502
phone: 202-265-6707
www.wifp.org