journalism history,  Marie Anderson

More Women Without Children

The Miami Herald had this interesting column about the number of women who do not have children. According to the Pew Report, today, nearly 20 percent of women end their child bearing years without biological children, compared to 10 percent in 1976, a new Pew Research Center report shows. The columnist notes, “Researchers believe public attitudes have changed, putting less pressure on women to get married and bear children.”

“The fact that nearly one in five women does not have a child of her own is an enormous transformation from the past,” says D’Vera Cohn, coauthor of the Pew report, More Women Without Children.

Many of the women’s page editors went without children. For example, these women married were childless: Gloria Biggs, Colleen “Koky” Dishon, and Dorothy Jurney. The following women also did not marry: Aileen Ryan, Marie Anderson and Marjorie Paxson.

I have often wondered about whether some of these women felt they had to choose between their personal lives and their careers. Last summer I got a little insight into Miami Herald women’s page editor Marie Anderson’s private life. (She is the blonde in the above photo.) Her former food editor Jeanne Voltz wrote in a letter that the single Marie had her heart broken at a young age and did not recover. I found the letter in Helen Muir’s papers at the University of Miami.

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journalism history,  Marie Anderson

More Women Without Children

The Miami Herald had this interesting column about the number of women who do not have children. According to the Pew Report, today, nearly 20 percent of women end their child bearing years without biological children, compared to 10 percent in 1976, a new Pew Research Center report shows. The columnist notes, “Researchers believe public attitudes have changed, putting less pressure on women to get married and bear children.”

“The fact that nearly one in five women does not have a child of her own is an enormous transformation from the past,” says D’Vera Cohn, coauthor of the Pew report, More Women Without Children.

Many of the women’s page editors went without children. For example, these women married were childless: Gloria Biggs, Colleen “Koky” Dishon, and Dorothy Jurney. The following women also did not marry: Aileen Ryan, Marie Anderson and Marjorie Paxson.

I have often wondered about whether some of these women felt they had to choose between their personal lives and their careers. Last summer I got a little insight into Miami Herald women’s page editor Marie Anderson’s private life. (She is the blonde in the above photo.) Her former food editor Jeanne Voltz wrote in a letter that the single Marie had her heart broken at a young age and did not recover. I found the letter in Helen Muir’s papers at the University of Miami.

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2 Comments

  • Kimberly Wilmot Voss

    That could be true but I do not have evidence of that in my women's pages research. For example, Dorothy Jurney told her husband that she did not want to have children. Several did not marry (such as Marj Paxson and Marie Anderson) and likely did not have children for that reason. In all of the letters I have studied, there is no mention of trying to conceive.

  • Jen

    Perhaps these women could not conceive. That's a good portion of women in this category. Also, there are those that do not want children. Personally, I feel our society is more "child-centered" than in the past.

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