Headlines & Headway

With constant pushes for diversity, how has the experience of being a woman in journalism changed over the years?

by Annie Koziel

Photos by Annie Koziel

As 2023 begins, journalism stands in a very controversial space in the public eye. From social media news reporting to political influence to a push for more diverse voices to mis- and disinformation, American media is a very hot topic.

“The industry has done such a good job, and I say that fully sarcastically, reporting on its own struggles, that I don’t know that there are many people… who look at journalism and say… wow, this is a really promising field for me,” said Pam Lannom, editor and co-owner of The Hinsdalean. “You know, because there’s just so much bad news.” bigger and bigger I began to understand that the opportunities that were there for many journalists were not there for journalists of color. At some papers, there was a perception that we were incapable of doing major stories, and so would never get those big assignments, and that’s often why you don’t see, even today, as many journalists of color breaking the big stories, and doing the big, long, pieces, because there’s a reluctance to offer us those kinds of stories.”

With course selections this year, our Devil’s Advocate staff noticed a trend in the journalism staff at Hinsdale Central: both the Advocate and yearbook staffs are overwhelmingly female, even as much of the professional industry faces calls for increased diversity. At the beginning of 2021, The New York Times released a “Call to Action” and plan for facilitating and increasing diversity in their company at a time when diversity and inclusion were at the forefront of public awareness, and many other groups in the journalism industry and elsewhere pledged to increase diversity and opportunities for marginalized groups. Now, with the new year, it’s fitting to look back and see how far the journalism industry has come - and how far it still has to go.

The Pew Research Center released a report in June, which found that 67% of journalists in the United States think that their organization had enough diversity in gender, with 58% for age, 43% for sexual orientation and 32% for race and ethnicity.

As the industry works toward more equality, representation and diverse voices, many argue the importance of acknowledging that it has come a long way.

“Everything’s the same and everything’s different,” said Lisa Napoli, journalist, author, and writer of Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie, a book about four of the women who brought National Public Radio into the public eye at a time when women in the workforce were a rare thing.

“Because so much of the dialogue is different today… When Susan [Stamberg] was entering the work world, it was not a foregone conclusion that even a woman with a college degree, and that was not typical then, would enter the workforce… Then when you fast forward to when I entered the workforce in 1984… the big conversation was, how does a woman juggle everything… and not completely derail her career... Now, of course, today… I think people of your generation probably would look at that and would think that was kind of funny, or outdated or ridiculous,” Napoli said.

These changes have stemmed from decades of work from women in the journalism industry, including enduring discrimination and calling it out.

“Lynn Povich… wrote a book… about the women at Newsweek before I was there, [who] sued the magazine because women, no matter how talented they were, tended to get stuck just doing the fact checking and that sort of thing,” said Karen Springen, Assistant Professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and former Newsweek correspondent.

Springen continued, saying that Povich was brave for bringing the lawsuit. Even when Springen joined Newsweek in 1985, she said many women were not in high positions despite Povich winning the lawsuit.

And before the Newsweek lawsuits, the feminism and women’s liberation movements of the 1950s and 1960s paved the way for female autonomy and women in the workforce.

“That’s why I love telling this story,” Napoli said. “Because it’s braided together, the stories of the four women, the creation

“There have always been challenges,” said Dahleen Glanton, a communications consultant and former columnist and reporter for the Chicago Tribune. “I didn’t realize them as much when I was just starting out, but as I progressed and went to papers that were Research courtesy of Pew Research Center of NPR, and the… change in society. In many ways, those women personified the struggle that women who weren’t going to have these glamorous on-air radio jobs were experiencing. But they had the privilege that anybody who works in a public medium does, which is, people heard their voices. And so while they were doing that, while they were working to have their lives and have their careers, so many other people were working on the political spectrum to get women’s ability to have credit, for instance, or [to] take out a mortgage without a man cosigning it, to have reproductive rights, to have the freedom to choose not to get married.”

Napoli added how the women’s movement had a cultural stranglehold because even if women weren’t marching, the demand for change was bubbling up all around everyone.

According to Reuters, in 2020, women made up about 40% of journalists across “200 major outlets,” but only 23% of the top editors, and showed how “every single market covered has a majority of men among the top editors, including countries… where women outnumber men among working journalists.”

University of Chicago, and former Chicago Tribune reporter. “There weren’t a lot of women, there certainly weren’t a lot of women in the higher ranks of the newsroom, and I could’ve really used some mentoring or… just a little guidance, because I didn’t get any of that. Having said that, I’m sure it was a hundred times better an environment than someone who entered 10 years before that, 20 years before that, 30 years before that.” my own pace. I love how it introduces me to people of all walks of life… [but] I think it’s because of the reputation, where yearbook and Devils’ Advocate are seen as… very flowery, and girly. That’s kind of what people see it as, and they see the face value and judge based on those stereotypes, and so… I think both staffs have such a high ratio of girls to guys because it’s seen as a very artistic and feminine and girly kind of class.”

However, these trends are leaps and bounds away from where they have been in the past.

“I would say that [the biggest change is that] women do have positions of power,” Springen said. “I mean, there’s a Medill alum… Julie Pace… she’s the editor-in-chief of the Associated Press. There’s a woman… named Sally Buzbee, who’s the editor-inchief of The Washington Post. Those are pretty big jobs, and that just wasn’t the case [in the past].”

Additionally, women now have more opportunities to choose their beats and paths in journalism, while in the past they may have been restricted to certain topics.

“I was very intimidated [when I started out],” said Heidi Stevens, columnist, Director of External Affairs at TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the

Stevens said she never felt pigeonholed into writing about certain topics or not working nights because of children, but said women a generation or two before her likely did.

“It always felt clear to me that I could pursue the beat that I was interested in,” Stevens said.

In contrast to the professional journalism industry, high school journalism at Hinsdale Central is very female-dominated and female-run.

“I would say the first couple of years, it was still mostly female but there was always a solid group of males,” said Erin Palmer, yearbook teacher and sponsor. “Really up until maybe the last five years, we had an all-female staff last year, this year we only have two males… For some reason women are just gravitating toward the class.”

Adding to Palmer’s take, senior and Editor-in-Chief Vinni Guo said, “It’s such a self-disciplined [class] and I get to run it at

For many students, journalism can also offer more control and creative freedom - a deliberate choice by the sponsors and teachers.

“I think it offers them a chance to make their mark and to control the narrative, when maybe they aren’t in control in other areas,” Palmer said. “I think that’s important particularly in high school where you’re constantly moving from class to class, that this one class, they are more in control of… how they want to run the class, how they want to - what kind of vibe they want the class to feel like, and it gives them a chance to be a power to make decisions.”