'Male editors now look at women as reporters or copy editors, not as women first and journalists a distant second.'

- Linda Levin,
Journalism Professor,
University of
Rhode Island

'Man or woman, there are always one or two in the mix wherever you are who will test what you are made of.'

- Mary Harrington,
Publisher,
South Coast Media Group,
New Bedford, Mass.

Chazy Dowaliby moderates a mayoral debate in Quincy, Mass., where she is editor of the Patriot Ledger.

With glass ceiling broken
Women journalists see
advancement as based
solely on merit now

By Adrianne Loggins
Bulletin Staff

This year, for the first time, all of the top editors at the University of Rhode Island’s student daily, The Good Five Cent Cigar, are women, according to Linda Levin, a professor of journalism there.

The presence of women in top leading positions throughout the news industry is more common now than it was 30 years ago, and it has made a lasting impact on newspapers, Levin said.

Levin has worked as a reporter for The Providence (R.I.) Journal, as a prize-winning freelance writer, as a book author, and as a professor of journalism for 24 years.

Levin said she never felt intimidated in the newsroom, just angry and frustrated.

“For the first few years I was at the Journal, I had an editor who about every three months would call me into his office and ask me if I was sure I didn’t want to work in the women’s department. My answer was always the same: ‘I want to continue to cover hard news’,” Levin said.

Chazy Dowaliby is editor of The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass., and the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass. She has worked as a reporter; features writer; editor; editorial director of a national Irish newspaper group; publisher and chief executive officer of a group of 43 weeklies and dailies; and as a consultant for newspapers, magazines and television in Europe and the United States.

Dowaliby said she got into journalism because she “wanted to be Lois Lane — really.”

During her time in the news industry, Dowaliby said she had felt “disrespected or not taken seriously” as a woman in the news business, not as a reporter, but as an editor and manager.

“Stereotypes, fear and prejudice survive and often thrive everywhere. The workplace is no different,” she said.

Mary Harrington, publisher of South Coast Media Group, which is based in New Bedford, Mass., and includes The Standard-Times of New Bedford, said she began her journalism career as a Northeastern University co-op student working as a reporter at the Patriot Ledger of Quincy. She also has been a reporter, copy editor, executive news editor, managing editor, and general manager.

“I grew up loving newspapers. The more I learned about the profession, the more intrigued I became. That has never changed for me,” Harrington said.

Harrington said she was not intimidated in the newsroom as a woman, but rather, when she first began to work in a newsroom at 19 years old, as someone unfamiliar with the range of challenges a reporter faces.

“That’s when I learned that if it scared you and wasn’t outright dangerous, you should face it down. Man or woman, there are always one or two in the mix wherever you are who will test what you are made of,” she said.

Levin said there were a number of instances where her gender made it challenging to rise through the ranks, but she did so even while dealing with gender discrimination.

“I joined the city staff of the Journal, considered a big promotion, a couple of years later. When the labor reporter went on extended sick leave, I took over his beat. I was the only woman on the city staff of the paper. Eventually the reporter died, and the editors were looking to find a permanent replacement. I applied for the job, but it went to a man on the staff who was my age and had never covered labor,” Levin said.

Dowaliby said women have been involved in the news since the 19th century, but their presence was “few and far between.”

Harrington said it was late in the game before women moved into newspaper management.

“It was very tough for the first wave at the regional papers. Those women took the brunt of breaking through that glass ceiling. But it showed me management was a possibility, and I owe them much following in their wake,” Harrington said.

According to Dowaliby, the Gannett Co. Inc. of McLean, Va., took the lead in making the first moves to promote women to managerial roles in the 1970s.

“When I became the editor of the Daily Freeman in Kingston, N.Y., in the late ’70s, I was one of a handful of women editors out of a statewide group of newspapers of more than 300,” Dowaliby said.

Levin said newsrooms now have many more women reporters and editors.

“Male editors now look at women as reporters or copy editors, not as women first and journalists a distant second,” she said.

Ashley Varese, editor of the New Canaan (Conn.) News-Review, said she has been in the news industry for 10 years, first as a reporter and then as a managing editor.

Varese said she has not felt intimidated in the newsroom as a woman, and when she started, her two editors were women. Varese said that, as she has moved to different positions, there have always been women in top jobs.

“I haven’t felt like women are lagging behind. The women I’ve worked with are pretty tough cookies,” Varese said.

Amanda Pinto, editor of the New Haven (Conn.) Register, said she has not felt intimidated in the newsroom at all either.

“I haven’t really thought of my gender as an obstacle to becoming an editor,” Pinto said.

Pinto said it is always important to have people with various perspectives in the news industry, and that women come up with different questions and have a different way of asking them.

Harrington said the more diverse the newsroom, in gender and ethnic background and talents, the richer the newspaper it produces.

“Going forward, women and men who are tough enough and flexible enough to ride and guide the dramatic changes unfolding in our industry will be critical to its ultimate success,” Harrington said.

Dowaliby said the future for women in the news industry depends on their commitment to reporting the news, not their gender.

“The opportunities are limited only to the passion, the ability, and the commitment to keep at it, for better or for worse. Print journalism is a vocation, not a job. If you care about public service, if you see the relevance and the significance of a free and vibrant press, then you can and will succeed — male or female,” she said.

POSTED 6/4/09

'I haven’t really thought of my gender as an obstacle to
becoming
an editor.'

- Amanda Pinto,
Editor,
New Haven (Conn.) Register

'I haven’t felt like women are lagging behind. The women I’ve worked with are pretty tough cookies.'

- Ashley Varese,
Editor,
New Canaan (Conn.) News-Review