Buzz
For much of history, the fields of journalism and broadcast reporting were largely male-dominated, with men at the forefront of both writing articles and delivering news. As print journalism evolved into television broadcasts, men continued to hold the reins, creating the narratives that reached the masses. Although women were involved in the industry, they faced considerable obstacles, often limited to secondary roles or reporting on 'softer' topics. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that a revolutionary shift occurred, with trailblazing women pushing past these barriers and setting the stage for a more inclusive, diverse media landscape.
These trailblazing women shattered gender norms, overcame racism, battled bureaucracy, and even faced gunfire to bring news from across the globe—sometimes at the expense of their own lives.
10. Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)
While Rinehart is best known for her mystery novels, in 1915, she convinced her editor at the Saturday Evening Post to send her to Europe as a foreign correspondent, making her the first American journalist to report from the World War I front lines. Though the British denied her access to the front, she persuaded the Belgian Red Cross to allow her in, citing her nursing experience as an asset for reporting on the conditions of Belgian soldiers. When a colonel warned her of the discomfort she might face in the war zone, she famously responded, 'I don’t want to be comfortable.'
During her time abroad, Rinehart had the opportunity to interview King Albert of Belgium, Queen Mary of Great Britain, and Winston Churchill. She was also the first to report on the German army’s use of poison gas, but her article was not published by the Post due to the United States' neutral stance at the time.
Rinehart’s 1915 book, Kings, Queens and Pawns, offers a vivid account of her experiences during the war, detailing the suffering and devastation she witnessed. In 1918, the U.S. Secretary of War sent her to France to offer advice to the War Department on the needs of soldiers at the frontlines. She also became one of the very few women granted permission to report on the disarmament conference.
9. Gerda Taro (1910–1937)
Born in Stuttgart to Polish Jewish parents, Gerta Pohorylle fled Germany in 1933 after anti-Jewish boycotts devastated her father’s business. In Paris, she met another German refugee who introduced her to the world of photojournalism. After honing her skills as a darkroom assistant, she secured a job at a photographic agency, teamed up with a Hungarian photographer who went by the name Robert Capa, and adopted the name Gerda Taro for herself.
In the summer of 1936, Taro and Capa traveled to Spain, where a brutal civil war was unfolding between the leftist government and Francisco Franco, supported by Hitler and Mussolini. Taro boldly journeyed across the war-torn country, documenting the dire conditions of the Republic’s poorly equipped soldiers, the bombing of Madrid, civilians fleeing Franco’s forces, and the unwavering courage of ordinary Spaniards. Her powerful photographs were published in cities like London, Zurich, France, and even Nazi Germany.
On July 25, 1937, while stationed at the front lines, Taro found herself caught in an airstrike from German and Italian planes. She continued reporting until she ran out of film. Afterward, she was riding on the running board of a press car when a retreating tank collided with the vehicle, crushing her. Taro succumbed to her injuries the following morning, just days shy of her 27th birthday. Her funeral in Paris drew tens of thousands of mourners.
8. Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961)
Dorothy Thompson made history as the first female Central European Bureau chief for both the New York Evening Post and Philadelphia Public Ledger, and she was also the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany.
In 1931, Thompson secured an exclusive interview with Adolf Hitler, which she used to write a scathing article for Cosmopolitan Magazine. This article later expanded into her 1933 book, I Saw Hitler, once he assumed the position of Chancellor. Thompson’s continued writings about the dangers of fascism and its anti-Semitic ideologies led to her expulsion from Germany in 1934, ordered directly by Hitler.
After returning to the United States, Thompson became a leading voice in opposition to fascism through her syndicated column, “On the Record,” published monthly in Ladies Home Journal, and her commentaries on NBC radio. She emerged as one of the most influential American voices warning of the growing fascist threat in the years leading up to World War II. Her 1938 book, Refugees: Anarchy or Organization?, called on Americans to recognize the positive contributions that refugees from the Spanish Civil War and Nazi oppression could make to the U.S.
7. Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971)
Margaret Bourke-White’s photography humanized some of the most pivotal stories of her time. In 1930, she became the first foreigner to gain unrestricted access to the Soviet Union as an industrial photographer. There, she shifted her focus from machines to the people who powered them.
She later captured the rise of Nazism across central Europe and documented social inequities back in the U.S., portraying the struggles of German ironworkers, Southern sharecroppers, and Midwestern farmers ravaged by the Dust Bowl. In 1936, Bourke-White was one of the first four photographers hired by Life Magazine, and her image appeared on the debut cover.
Bourke-White made history as the first female photographer to work with the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II and the first woman allowed aboard a bombing mission. She faced mortar fire while accompanying Allied forces in Italy and followed Patton’s Third Army in 1945 as they liberated concentration camps like Buchenwald.
Later, Bourke-White photographed Gandhi and captured India’s struggle for independence, as well as covering the Korean War. Though Parkinson’s disease led her to retire from photography in 1957, she continued to document her life and career through writing.
9. Martha Gellhorn (1908–1998)
In 1937, Martha Gellhorn redirected her focus to foreign affairs, starting with the Spanish Civil War. Her vivid reporting captured the bombings of Barcelona, tanks rolling into Madrid, and the heroic stories of combat soldiers and the wounded in hospitals.
During her time in Spain, Gellhorn reconnected with Ernest Hemingway, whom she had met the year before in Key West, Florida. They married in 1940 but separated five years later. Throughout this period, Gellhorn reported on the war between Japan and China, the Allied campaign in Italy, and the Battle of the Bulge.
To cover the D-Day invasion, Gellhorn managed to board a hospital ship and secretly stowed away when it headed for France. Upon arrival, she joined medics at Omaha Beach to help evacuate the wounded, later publishing a compelling account of her experience. After the war, she reported on the Nazi atrocities and the subsequent Nuremberg trials. Her journalism continued in places like El Salvador, Vietnam, and the Middle East during the Six-Day War, working alongside younger colleagues in the field.
5. Maggie Higgins (1920–1966)
In the final stages of World War II, Marguerite 'Maggie' Higgins was assigned to Europe, where she excelled in the challenging task of interviewing survivors of recently liberated concentration camps. Her comprehensive coverage of the Nuremberg Trials and the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia and Poland led to her promotion to the position of Berlin Bureau Chief.
Higgins’s move to the Tokyo bureau, once regarded as a minor assignment, placed her among the first reporters to cover the outbreak of the Korean War. There, she demonstrated her courage by challenging military officials for access to the front lines. Though some viewed her boldness as reckless, a Marine general prohibited her from entering the combat zones, but she successfully appealed to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of United Nations forces, who allowed her back.
At a time when women were excluded from the National Press Club and barred from attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Higgins’s groundbreaking reporting earned her one of only six Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting in 1951, making her the first woman honored for covering the front lines. After surviving the dangers of two wars, she died at the age of forty-five from a tropical disease contracted while reporting from Vietnam.
4. Alice Allison Dunnigan (1906–1983)
Alice Dunnigan, born to a Kentucky tenant farmer and a mother who worked as a laundress, left her teaching career in 1942 to relocate to Washington, D.C., where she joined the Department of Labor. After World War II, she began reporting for the Associated Negro Press (ANP), an international agency that covered news for Black-owned newspapers across the nation.
In August 1947, she made history as the first Black female journalist granted credentials to cover both Congress and the White House. Despite her success as ANP's Washington Bureau Chief, Dunnigan faced gender-based wage disparities. When her superior refused to finance her trip to accompany President Truman on his 1948 Whistle Stop Tour, she had to personally borrow $1,000 to cover the cost.
However, financial challenges were not the sole hurdle Dunnigan had to overcome. Jim Crow laws in Washington restricted where she could live, eat, and even the transportation she could use. In 1953, she was denied entry to a speech by President Eisenhower at a whites-only theater and was forced to sit in the segregated “servant” section during Ohio Senator Robert Taft’s funeral.
Despite these obstacles, Dunnigan remained committed to reporting on civil rights struggles. She covered everything from local desegregation efforts at a hamburger chain and the Greyhound terminal restaurant to the tragic Mississippi lynching of Emmett Till.
3. Marlene Sanders (1931–2015)
Marlene Sanders made a lasting impact on broadcast journalism, both in front of and behind the camera. After a brief stint in theater, she began her career in 1955 as an assistant producer for a news program at a small New York City television station. Sanders climbed the ranks, eventually becoming the assistant news director at WNEW radio in New York, where she both wrote and produced documentaries.
Over her fourteen-year career as a correspondent for ABC News, Sanders covered major events such as Robert Kennedy’s assassination and the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. She made history as the first female TV network journalist to report from Vietnam. In 1964, Sanders also became the first woman to anchor a national TV news broadcast, stepping in for an unwell Ron Cochran. Later, in 1971, she filled in for Sam Donaldson as ABC's weekend news anchor for three months.
Sanders offered a unique viewpoint in her documentaries, focusing on the women’s movement, women’s roles in religion, and the challenges women faced in her own field. In 1976, she broke new ground by becoming the first woman to be named vice president of a network TV news division.
After transitioning to CBS, Sanders earned three Emmys for her work as a producer and correspondent on CBS Reports. She chose not to take a transfer to CBS radio in 1987, leaving the network to briefly work at public television station WNET. Later, as an adjunct professor at New York University, Sanders mentored the next generation of journalists for over twenty-five years.
2. Dorothy Fuldheim (1893–1989)
Dorothy Fuldheim became one of the pioneers of television as the nation's first female TV news anchor. Already an established figure in radio and public speaking, Fuldheim was hired by Cleveland's first commercial TV station before it even aired in 1947. Initially hired as a temporary replacement for a man, she ended up staying with the program for an impressive thirty-seven years.
After a decade as an anchor, Fuldheim expanded her role to become a field reporter, traveling the world from Northern Ireland to Hong Kong and the Middle East. Throughout her extensive career, she interviewed a wide range of prominent figures including Helen Keller, Bob Hope, Jimmy Hoffa, Albert Einstein, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and every U.S. president from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. She continued her work in broadcasting until a stroke at ninety-one ended her career.
1. Ethel Payne (1911–1991)
Originally aspiring to become a civil rights lawyer, Ethel Payne was rejected by the University of Chicago Law School due to her race. While stationed at the Army Special Services Club in Korea, she kept a diary detailing the segregation and racism Black soldiers faced. Her diary excerpts were published in the Black-owned Chicago Defender, which led to a full-time reporting position with the newspaper in 1951.
Payne joined Alice Dunnigan in the White House Press Corps, where she questioned President Eisenhower on civil rights issues until he stopped calling on her. In response, the White House Press Secretary attempted to revoke her press credentials and scrutinized her tax returns.
Payne covered the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott and conducted one of the first interviews with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. early in his career. She was also present when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, receiving one of the ceremonial pens used for the occasion.
In 1970, Payne made history by becoming the first Black woman to work as a radio and television commentator. She contributed to two CBS programs between 1972 and 1982. In November 2023, a new lectern in the White House briefing room was named to honor both Ethel Payne and Alice Dunnigan.
