Women’s History Month: Janet Chusmir
Day 31 of Women’s History Month features the Miami Herald’s Janet Chusmir. She went from women’s page editor to executive editor.
For years, women in newspaper management had few role models. If they were mentored it was by a man. Many of these managers were hard-hitting, tough-talking men. Those first female leaders rarely had families – there was no career path. Then came Janet Chusmir. She was the exception. After earning a journalism degree and raising a family, she entered the workforce. After a few years as a reporter, she rose through the ranks to become the executive editor of the Miami Herald. She achieved success before dying suddenly of a brain aneurysm at age 60. She was counted as a female first in newspaper management.
When Chusmir was named executive editor in December of 1987, about 85 percent of top newspaper editors were men, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Of that group of 1,000 members, only 80 were female. As a trailblazer, her career was significant for two reasons. First, she took a new career path compared to other women before her. Second, she was an advocate for women and minorities in journalism. Unlike the rhetoric of some women who claimed that the news was the same regardless of gender and the management was not influenced by being female, she said she managed differently. As Chusmir’s friend and famed journalist Tad Bartimus wrote, “Every woman who has a ‘first’ label attached her name walks in the steps of countless foremothers.”
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