Jim Bellows, women & ASNE
I am working on an article about how women’s page editors worked with the journalism industry in the 1960s and early 1970s to improve the status of women at newspapers. I am focusing on three organizations: ASNE, APME and the American Press Institute.
There has been a tendency to simplify women’s roles at newspapers as one of victims. While they were clearly discriminated against – from pay to promotions – they did try to make change for themselves and future female journalists. They were aware of their smaller paychecks and poor treatment. They took action though organizations that they hoped would make a difference. For example, Miami Herald Women’s Page Editor Marie Anderson and Arizona Republic Women’s Page Editor Maggie Savoy issued a report to APME about a survey that documented the low status of the women’s pages in the mid-1960s. (The follow up study several years later that showed little change was titled: “Sorry Maggie and Marie.”)
In my research about ASNE, I found a 1974 document that showed longtime newspaper editor Jim Bellows’ leadership in trying to change the organization’s membership rules to include more women. The changes were ratified in 1976.
I love that when I uncover new information about Jim, it typically involves him helping women in the profession. (Jim was married to the previously mentioned Maggie Savoy who wrote a scathing article in the December 1970 ANSE publication The Bulletin about women in journalism. She died that same month.)
