Integrating the National Press Club
On December 14, 1970: The National Press Club in Washington, DC voted to admit women to membership after excluding them from membership since the club’s institution. Prior to 1970, women reporters had to cover press events from the balcony – as pictured above.
From Girls in the Balcony by Nan Robertson regarding the 1955 decision by the National Press Club to restrict women to the balcony:
“Here were the people in the balcony, distinguished journalists treated like second-class citizens. I had to cover the stories there. Some people equated the balcony with the back of the bus, but at least the bus got everybody to the same destination just as well. We could not ask questions of the speakers. You entered and left through a back door. It was discrimination at its rawest .”
— Bonnie Angelo, chief of the Newsday bureau in Washington
Two years ago, Lance and I wrote an article about the fight to allow women to become members of the Milwaukee Press Club.
In 1971, Vera Glaser was elected the president of the Washington Press Club. Women journalists created the organization in 1919 because women were not allowed to be members of the National Press Club. Ironically, she was the presiding president when men were finally allowed to become members the Washington Press Club. In her papers at the University of Wyoming is a letter from a new male member who found it discriminatory that there were so many female officers in the club. He recommended that more men should be elected. (The two clubs finally merged in 1985 allowing both men and women as members.)
Glaser was a political reporter whose column typically ran in the women’s pages.
Integrating the National Press Club
On December 14, 1970: The National Press Club in Washington, DC voted to admit women to membership after excluding them from membership since the club’s institution. Prior to 1970, women reporters had to cover press events from the balcony – as pictured above.
From Girls in the Balcony by Nan Robertson regarding the 1955 decision by the National Press Club to restrict women to the balcony:
“Here were the people in the balcony, distinguished journalists treated like second-class citizens. I had to cover the stories there. Some people equated the balcony with the back of the bus, but at least the bus got everybody to the same destination just as well. We could not ask questions of the speakers. You entered and left through a back door. It was discrimination at its rawest .”
— Bonnie Angelo, chief of the Newsday bureau in Washington
Two years ago, Lance and I wrote an article about the fight to allow women to become members of the Milwaukee Press Club.
In 1971, Vera Glaser was elected the president of the Washington Press Club. Women journalists created the organization in 1919 because women were not allowed to be members of the National Press Club. Ironically, she was the presiding president when men were finally allowed to become members the Washington Press Club. In her papers at the University of Wyoming is a letter from a new male member who found it discriminatory that there were so many female officers in the club. He recommended that more men should be elected. (The two clubs finally merged in 1985 allowing both men and women as members.)
Glaser was a political reporter whose column typically ran in the women’s pages.
