Jean Otto
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Women’s History Month: Jean Otto
Day 20 of Women’s History Month and women’s page journalists features Jean Otto who died rather recently. Here is a link to her obituary. She started in the women’s pages of the Milwaukee Journal in 1968 and four years later, she became the first woman to serve as an editorial writer with the Journal. And one of the few women in that position in the country. She was later named editor of the newspaper’s expanding Op-Ed page. In 1979, she became the first female president of the Society for Professional Journalists. It was an organization that had only allowed women to be members a decade before. She wrote a book…
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Pioneering Journalist Jean Otto Dies
I recently learned that Milwaukee Journal reporter and editorial writer Jean Otto died. Here is her obituary. She started in the women’s pages of the Journal in 1968 and four years later, she became the first woman to serve as an editorial writer with The Milwaukee Journal. And one of the few women in that position in the country. She was later named editor of the newspaper’s expanding Op-Ed page. In 1979, she became the first female president of the Society for Professional Journalists. She wrote a book about her life: First Love: Memoirs of a First Amendment Freedom Fighter.
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Clarice Rowlands
Yesterday’s response to a post about Clarice Rowlands inspired me to look back at the Milwaukee Journal women’s page and food journalist in the 1940s through 1960s. After a search of her work, I found a brief profile of Rowlands. She was a native of Cambria, Wisconsin. She earned a degree in journalism in 1936 from the University of Wisconsin. She worked at the Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1937 to 1943. In June 1944, she joined the women’s pages as a general assignment reporter and later worked on the society desk. She eventually made her way to the food section. She won numerous awards for food writing – the Vesta…
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Clarice Rowlands
Yesterday’s response to a post about Clarice Rowlands inspired me to look back at the Milwaukee Journal women’s page and food journalist in the 1940s through 1960s. After a search of her work, I found a brief profile of Rowlands. She was a native of Cambria, Wisconsin. She earned a degree in journalism in 1936 from the University of Wisconsin. She worked at the Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1937 to 1943. In June 1944, she joined the women’s pages as a general assignment reporter and later worked on the society desk. She eventually made her way to the food section. She won numerous awards for food writing – the Vesta…
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Milwaukee women’s page editor Jean Otto
I am beginning the collection of information about 1960s Milwaukee Journal women’s page editor Jean Otto. She wrote some amazing articles in the women’s sections – news about rape, workplace inequities and daycare issues. Dorothy Jurney and Vivian Castleberry described Jean as a progressive women’s page journalist. In 1972, Jean became the first woman on the editorial board at the Milwaukee Journal – one of the first women in this position in the country. In 1979, she became the first female president of the Society of Professional Journalist – an organization that excluded women until 1969. She led a national effort to have March 16 — the birthdate of James…
