women's history month
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Women’s History Month: Lois Hagen
Day 21 of Women’s History Month features Milwaukee Journal furnishing reporter Lois Hagen. According to this article: Lois was born in Westby, Wisconsin in 1918. She earned a journalism degree at UW-Madison – at a time when it was unusual for a woman to do something other than earn a teaching certificate. Initially, Lois worked as a journalist at Time and the Associated Press. She spent the bulk of her career in the women’s pages of the Milwaukee Journal. She set new standards for women at the newspaper, being the first mother to return to the Journal after having a child. She traveled extensively covering furnishings and she won a…
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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…
- food editors, food history, food journalism, Peggy Daum, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Peggy Daum
Day 19 of Women’s History Month features another Milwaukee Journal women’s page journalist: Peggy Daum. Peggy was a women’s page reporter in the 1950s and 1960s. She became the food editor of the section in 1968 and remained in the position for two decades. Daum had a strong journalism background that she applied to her beat – food. Barbara Dembski, the Milwaukee Journal’s assistant managing editor of features, said Daum never abandoned her audience. She said of Daum: “Despite her national stature in food journalism, she never forgot who her section was for. She wrote it for the typical, salt-of-the-earth, best cook on the block.” And those neighborhood cooks, her…
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Women’s History Month: Aileen Ryan
Day 18 of Women’s History Month features the Milwaukee Journal’s Aileen Ryan – a three-time Penney-Missouri Award winner. Each day this week will feature a Milwaukee Journal women’s page journalist. During her first summer of work in 1921, Ryan attended a meeting to hear Milwaukee Journal Editor Marvin Creager say he was happy to have females on the staff because “women have cleaned up newspaper offices.” Ryan later recalled the statement made her feel as though she had been hired to use a mop. Ryan started under the editorship of women’s page journalist Elizabeth B. Moffet. Moffett had been recruited from the Kansas City Star, where she had pioneered a…
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Women’s History Month: Colleen “Koky” Dishon
Day 17 of Women’s History Month features Colleen “Koky” Dishon. She started her career covering hard news for the Associated Press during World War II. After the war, she was a progressive women’s page editor in Columbus, Ohio, and Milwaukee before moving on to Chicago. She was hired by the Chicago Tribune in 1975 and in 1982, Dishon was named associate editor, becoming the first woman listed in the Chicago Tribune’s masthead. At the Tribune, Dishon created 17 special sections that were often quickly copied at newspapers across the country. In the words of Tribune Managing Editor Ann Marie Lipinski: “Whether you have ever worked for Koky, or ever heard…
- Eleni Epstein, fashion history, fashion journalism, journalism history, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Eleni Epstein
Day 16 of Women’s History Month features Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein. She was one of the most noticeable Washington, D.C., voices in translating fashion news in the post-World War II era through 1981. Epstein found fashion to have a unique role in Washington society. After all, as she pointed out, it was her city’s unique social events that required the high couture clothing that she wrote about. “Washington women have always been interested in fashion,” she said. “Our city is one of achievers and doers.” It was a world that Epstein circulated within and would share with her readers as someone who could rarely afford many of the…