Marjorie Paxson (August 13, 1923 – June 17, 2017) was an American newspaper journalist, editor, and publisher during an era in American history when the women's liberation movement was setting milestones by tackling the barriers of discrimination in the media workplace. Paxson graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1944, and began her newspaper career in Nebraska during World War II, covering hard news for wire services. In the 1960s, Paxson worked as assistant editor under
Marie Anderson
Marie Willard Anderson (April 19, 1916 – July 2, 1996) was a Miami, Florida newspaper editor. Under her leadership in the 1960s the ''Miami Herald'' Women's Page transformed into a nationally recognized progressive women's section, one of the fi ...
Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
'' which, in the 1950s, was considered one of the top women’s sections in the United States. From 1963 to 1967, she was president of Theta Sigma Phi, a sorority that evolved into the Association for Women in Communications (AWC). She won the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into its
hall of fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
. In 1969, she earned a Penney-Missouri award for her work as editor of the women's page in the ''
St. Petersburg Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
''.
Throughout her career, Paxson advocated for working women and for women in journalism. She worked at several different newspapers for different reasons that ranged from being replaced by men returning from the war, to seizing opportunities that afforded her the ability to make positive hard news changes to the women's section. She experienced two demotions as newspapers changed their women's sections into features sections and replaced female editors with male editors. She expressed bitterness over her demotions and attributed them partially to the women's movement. She believed feminist activists unfairly denigrated women's pages and their editors, whom she believed had been supporters of the movement.
She worked as editor of women's pages in Houston, Miami, Philadelphia; and in Boise, Idaho, as an assistant managing editor. While working as women's page editor for the ''Philadelphia Bulletin,'' she took a five-week leave of absence to edit '' Xilonen'', the daily newspaper of the 1975 United Nations World Conference for International Women's Year in Mexico City. She considered her time there to be the most important work of her career. As a result of that work, she was honored with the AWC's Headliner Award. She helped create the
National Women and Media Collection
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
, which documents media coverage of and by women in the United States. She was one of four women's page journalists selected to participate in the Washington Press Foundation's ''
Women in Journalism Oral History Project
The National Press Club is a professional organization and social community in Washington, D.C. for journalists and communications professionals. It hosts public and private gatherings with invited speakers from public life. The club also offers e ...
.'' After more than four decades of working to reshape the definition of women's news, Paxson finished her career as a newspaper publisher in
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
.
Early life
Marjorie Bowers Paxson was born August 13, 1923, in Houston, Texas, to Roland B. and Marie Margaret (Bowers) Paxson, who had moved to Houston from
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...
, where both had grown up. She had one younger brother, John. Her father was a
petroleum geologist
A petroleum geologist is an earth scientist who works in the field of petroleum geology, which involves all aspects of oil discovery and production. Petroleum geologists are usually linked to the actual discovery of oil and the identification of po ...
and her mother had attended a secretarial school but discontinued working after she married. According to Paxson, as children she and her brother visited the derrick floors on the oil fields her father worked, but when she got to high school age she was no longer allowed on the derrick floors because while children were welcome, women were not.
Paxson attended Lamar High School in Houston's Upper Kirby district. She was uninterested in nursing or teaching, then the most common professions open to women, and became involved in journalism while taking a class in high school and writing for her school's newspaper. Her journalism teacher had graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and Paxson decided she wanted to go to the school he had attended.
Paxson's parents aspired to a college education for both their children. In accordance with her parents' wishes that she attend her first two years of college close to home, she applied to Rice University, which was only a mile away. She was concerned about whether she would get into Rice, which at the time limited its freshman class to ten percent women. She was admitted and under an endowment attended tuition-free; she recalled her family paying $200 per year for her to attend Rice. While at Rice she worked on the student newspaper, ''The Thresher''.
In 1942 Paxson transferred to the University of Missouri for her junior year; within a few weeks, most of her male classmates were drafted for World War II. During her time at the university, the dean of the school of journalism was Frank Luther Mott, whom she admired but thought was "sort of a stuffy character" until on New Year's Day during class he staged an attempted murder of himself, giving the class the assignment to write about the incident. She worked for the university's student newspaper, ''
Columbia Missourian
The ''Columbia Missourian'' is a digital-first newspaper based in Columbia, Missouri, published online seven days a week and in print five days a week. The newspaper is affiliated with the Missouri School of Journalism, and is owned as a 501c3 no ...
,'' and graduated from its journalism school in 1944.
Career
After graduating from college Paxson considered joining the military but ultimately decided to look for a job in journalism. She credited her work at the ''Columbia Missourian'' with helping her get her first job at United Press International (UPI) wire service.
Wire services
Like many women in the United States, during World War II Paxson was considered for jobs previously limited to men. Starting in 1944 she covered hard news for the wire services, first for UPI in the two-person Lincoln, Nebraska, bureau for $25 a week. This represented equal pay because it was covered by the American Newspaper Guild contract. With the men away fighting, one in five of UPI's employees was a woman. Paxson and the Lincoln bureau manager, Marguerite Davis, reported all state news with the exception of football games, as women were excluded from Nebraska Stadium's press box, and executions, which the state bureau chief, Gaylord Godwin, considered inappropriate for coverage by women. While covering the Nebraska Supreme Court, Paxson experienced
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
by the
court clerk
A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court, administer oaths to witn ...
. She later recalled this as a common issue for working women, and that her strategy was to keep visits to his office brief, keep the desk between them, and "if he started to come around the desk, you picked up those opinions and left."
Paxson worked for UPI for two years, until 1946. Having signed a waiver agreeing to quit when the war was over, she learned was losing her job. The week she was fired she moved to the Associated Press (AP), in Omaha, Nebraska, to edit radio wire copy for $55 a week. She worked for the AP for two years, then in 1948 moved back to Texas, where she started working in women's pages, which were the only journalism positions open to most women both before and after the war.
Editor
Paxson was hired in 1948 at age 25 as the society editor for the '' Houston Post'', then considered more progressive than the '' Houston Chronicle'', its primary competitor. She was one of a staff of five in the women's section and earned a salary of $75 per week. Houston's oil-boom economy meant she needed to cover many high-profile social events. Paxson recalled that during this period she had 14 evening dresses, most of them sewn by her mother. On a typical Friday she worked all day, covered a party in the evening, returned to the office to file a piece on the event, and got home at 3:00 in the morning. During her time in Houston Paxson lived with her parents, as her parents believed a single woman should not be living in an apartment.
Paxson was promoted from society editor to women's page editor in 1951. She attempted to cover hard news but was told by the news editor that he would never allow a news story to be covered in the women's section. She moved pictures of brides off the women's section's front page, where most newspapers always ran them, in favor of issue-oriented stories; she later recalled accomplishing this in late 1951 or early 1952. She considered this one of her major accomplishments at the paper; at one point she had to explain to the paper's de facto publisher, Oveta Culp Hobby, that she would not run a wedding photo of the daughter of one of Hobby's friends on the front of the section. Paxson said that once she had been given the explanation, Hobby backed Paxson up. She later recalled the strict order of ranking based on family social prominence used to determine how much column space a wedding announcement was given; the most prominent brides received two columns and the least prominent were covered three in two columns.
In 1952 Paxson became women's editor at the ''Houston Chronicle'' for $100 a week, but while she supervised a staff of seven, she was not given hiring and firing authority. While at the ''Chronicle'' she published the first photos of black brides in a major Houston newspaper and convinced her managing editor to take a chance on the then little-known advice columnist Ann Landers. By the mid-1950s she began covering issues affecting working women and other serious news.
Paxson was hired as a copy editor in 1956 by
Dorothy Jurney
Dorothy Misener Jurney (May 8, 1909 – June 19, 2002) was an American journalist. As women's page editor for the ''Miami Herald'', she shifted the focus of those pages from the "Four F's – family, food, fashion, and furnishings" – to ...
, the women's page editor for the ''
Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
'', then considered one of the top women's sections in the country. She was mentored in her new position by Jurney and assistant women's editor
Marie Anderson
Marie Willard Anderson (April 19, 1916 – July 2, 1996) was a Miami, Florida newspaper editor. Under her leadership in the 1960s the ''Miami Herald'' Women's Page transformed into a nationally recognized progressive women's section, one of the fi ...
Jeanne Voltz
Jeanne Voltz (November 20, 1920 – January 15, 2002) was an American food journalist, editor, and cookbook author. She was food editor for the ''Miami Herald'' and the ''Los Angeles Times'', two of the most influential food sections in the count ...
. The department's managing editors included Al Neuharth and Lee Hills. When Jurney moved to the '' Detroit Free Press'' in 1959, Anderson took her place as women's page editor and Paxson was promoted to assistant women's editor. Over the next several years they campaigned to include stories on women's issues such as
birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
and the women's movement. During Anderson and Paxson's tenure, the women's section of the ''Herald'' won so many Penney-Missouri Awards, widely seen as the highest awards for women's page journalism, that the organizers asked the paper to retire from the competition. Paxson worked at the ''Herald'' for 12 years; her ending salary was $9,000 per year.
Paxson moved to the ''
St. Petersburg Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
'', known for its progressive content, to become its women's editor in 1968 at a salary of $13,000 per year. Although she had a staff of seven, all women, she could not make hiring, firing, or budget decisions; this was common among women's page editors during this period. In 1970, following the lead of other major newspapers which were changing their women's sections into features sections, the paper eliminated their women's section, and Paxson was
demoted
''Demoted'' is a 2011 American comedy film directed by J. B. Rogers and starring Michael Vartan, Sean Astin, Celia Weston, David Cross, Billy West and Sara Foster.
Plot
Rodney and Mike are two of the top salesmen at Treadline Tire Company. Desp ...
to assistant features editor. Shortly thereafter she learned she had won a 1969 Penney-Missouri Award for her work on the paper's then-defunct women's section. This was an embarrassment to the paper's management, and when shortly thereafter they discovered she was looking for a new job, they fired her. She was hired as women's page editor by the ''
Philadelphia Bulletin
The ''Philadelphia Bulletin'' was a daily evening newspaper published from 1847 to 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the largest circulation newspaper in Philadelphia for 76 years and was once the largest evening newspaper in the United ...
'' the same year, with a staff of 15. In 1973 the paper eliminated its women's section in favor of a features section, and Paxson was again demoted. She was made associate editor of the paper's Sunday magazine, where her assigned tasks were primarily reading page proofs. Paxson called the time she spent on the magazine "the worst fourteen months of my life." She was made assistant metropolitan editor in 1974, with a staff of 18 but still no personnel authority or budget control. When faced with a decision whether to send a
fashion editor
A fashion editor is a person that supervises the process of creating, developing and presenting content for the fashion department of a magazine, Web site, newspaper or television program.
The work of a fashion editor can be quite varied and may h ...
to Paris, she told her manager she could make a better decision if she knew the department's budget. His response was, "Aren't you glad you don't have to worry your pretty head about things like that?"
While Paxson was working at the ''Bulletin'', she took a five-week leave of absence to edit '' Xilonen'', the daily newspaper of the 1975 United Nations World Conference for International Women's Year in Mexico City, hiring a staff of six as reporters. At ''Xilonen'', she edited the work of influential writers such as Germain Greer. Paxson later called it the most important thing she had ever done; it earned her a Headliner Award from the AWC. When she returned to work, she wrote a four-part series about the conference which ran in multiple newspapers across the country but not in the ''Bulletin''. Paxson viewed this as the writing on the wall and started a job search. She reached out to Neuharth, then the head of
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Rochester for interviews. While waiting for an opening she became frustrated with the deteriorating situation at the ''Bulletin'' and in 1976 quit; her ending salary was $22,000. Paxson then joined Jurney and Jill Ruckelshaus to work on the official report of the third Commission on the Status of Women.
Paxson moved to Gannett's '' Idaho Statesman'', a 60,000-circulation paper in Boise, in 1976 to become assistant managing editor. She helped prepare the news room budget and earned the same salary Gannett would have paid a man. She worked at the ''Statesman'' for 18 months.
Publisher
Paxson moved to the '' Public Opinion'' in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1978 to become the paper's publisher. She was the fourth female publisher of a daily paper in the Gannett media conglomerate. She had budget responsibility for five departments. She recalled that the first time she had to fire someone, "It was a totally new experience for me because I had never had the authority to fire anybody up to this point." She had a habit of bringing her
miniature dachshund
The dachshund ( or ; German: "badger dog"), also known as the wiener dog, badger dog, and sausage dog, is a short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dog breed. The dog may be smooth-haired, wire-haired, or long-haired, and comes in a variety of c ...
, Tiger, to the office with her. When her mother expressed doubt, asking "What will they think?", Paxson told her, "Mom, I am 'they'."
Paxson worked at the ''Public Opinion'' for a little under three years and while there accepted a three-week position as associate editor for the daily newspaper of the 1980 United Nations Mid-Decade Conference for Women in Copenhagen. She worked with executive editor John Rowley, whom she described as "display nglittle understanding of women's issues". Paxson ultimately thought the conference newspaper was demeaning to women, and she wasn't proud of working on it.
In 1980 Paxson became publisher of the '' Muskogee Phoenix'' in
Muskogee, Oklahoma
Muskogee () is the thirteenth-largest city in Oklahoma and the county seat of Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately southeast of Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of the 2020 census, a 6.0 percent decrease ...
. The outgoing publisher, Tams Bixby III, had sold the newspaper to Gannett after three generations of his family running it, and he had decided to retire. Paxson recalled learning that some on the staff were unhappy that the newspaper's publisher was going to be "one of Gannett's token women." During her tenure she changed the paper's stance on the
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
from opposing to supporting.
Paxson held the position of publisher until her retirement in 1986 at the age of 63 after 42 years working in newspapers. Her ending salary was over six figures, including stock options. After she retired she wrote a weekly column for the ''Phoenix'' called "Nobody Asked Me But..." which focused on local issues, daily life, and her travels.
Association for Women in Communications
Paxson was elected president of Theta Sigma Phi in 1963 while working at the ''Miami Herald'' and held that office until 1967. During her tenure she transformed the organization from a social group into a professional association. The group had been founded in 1908 as a sorority for journalism students and was the de facto professional association for women journalists, who were not accepted into the
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...
. Paxson campaigned for a more professional approach, a stance which was not popular with all members, many of whom disagreed with her emphasis on education and training. She led the group to establish a headquarters in Austin, Texas; previously the organization's files had been stored in the national secretary's garage. She also lobbied to change the name from the Greek symbols to Women in Communications, which she considered a more businesslike title; the name change ultimately occurred after her time in office ended. The organization eventually became the Association for Women in Communications.
Views and advocacy
Paxson advocated for working women; in 1966, she advised other women's page editors to "stop downgrading women executives." She and Edee Greene, women's editor of the ''
Fort Lauderdale News
The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...
'', advised other editors not to include sentences such as "although Edee Greene is a champion stock car driver, president of the Florida women's press club and women's editor of the ''Fort Lauderdale News'', she still finds time to be a wife and mother." They argued that no journalist would feel the need to explain about a man that, while successful in various ways, he was still able to be a husband and father.
Newsrooms began in the 1960s to reflect changes wrought by the women's movement, and women made progress in obtaining jobs formerly open only to men. Paxson commented on the remaining resistance to the increasing role of women in journalism, writing in 1967 that "most city editors are men, and there is an inborn prejudice against sending a woman on certain kinds of stories." While working as women's editor for the ''Philadelphia Bulletin'', she wrote a memorandum to the publisher criticizing the paper's coverage of news of importance to women, writing, "It seems to me that unless women are wives, mothers, entertainers—and I include beauty queens in that category—or freaks, the ''Bulletin'' does not admit that they exist.”
On her first day at the ''Muskogee Phoenix'', Paxson was informed by the former publisher that he had had a policy against women wearing pants. She arrived for her second day of work the next morning wearing a pantsuit and walked through the press room, the composing room, and the news room before heading to her office. She then called a meeting of department heads to announce an official change in the dress code. The next day, 29 of the 45 women working for the newspaper arrived to work in pantsuits. Also at the ''Phoenix'', she discovered the paper had three consistent editorial stances: in favor of alcohol by the drink (then illegal in Muskogee), in support of horse racing, and against the Equal Rights Amendment. She had no issues with the first two but of the third told the staff, "That's going to change."
Paxson was angered by what she saw as a betrayal of women's page editors by feminist leaders. She saw these editors as supporters of the movement, as the women's sections had been the only section of most newspapers to provide coverage in the movement's early years; ''The New York Times'' placed the 1965 announcement of the formation of the National Organization for Women between an article about Saks Fifth Avenue and a recipe for turkey stuffing. Leaders of the movement condemned the very idea of a so-called "women's section" as segregation by sex; they wanted news of interest to women to be covered in the news sections and, according to Paxson, saw women's page editors as traitors. In 1983 she wrote,
As the feminist movement developed mainstream support, women's pages began to be viewed as anachronistic. At a time when many women's pages were steadily increasing their coverage of hard news, many newspapers decided to eliminate the sections in favor of features sections, and often hired men to manage those sections. The women's page editors were often demoted or fired. Paxson was twice demoted when her paper replaced its women's section, first at the ''St. Petersburg Times'' and later at the ''Philadelphia Bulletin''; both times, a man was made editor of the new section. Paxson once described her own firing and demotion to a group of other professional women, one of whom commented, "Marj, you have to accept the fact that you're a casualty of the women's movement", an opinion with which Paxson said she agreed. She wrote in 1983 that when newspapers changed "women's sections to general interest feature sections, women's editors paid the price. We were not considered capable of directing this new kind of features section. That was man's work."
Awards
Paxson won a 1969 Penney-Missouri Award, often described as the "
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
of feature writing", for General Excellence at the ''St. Petersburg Times;'' an AWC Headliner Award for her work on ''Xilonen'' in 1975; and an AWC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. She was inducted into the association's Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2020 she was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.
Death and legacy
Paxson donated her papers and $50,000 to the University of Missouri to create the
National Women and Media Collection
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
, which documents media coverage by, about and for women in the United States, in 1986, the year of her retirement. The collection is held in the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection by the State Historical Society of Missouri. She was selected in 1989 to participate in the Washington Press Foundation's ''
Women in Journalism Oral History Project
The National Press Club is a professional organization and social community in Washington, D.C. for journalists and communications professionals. It hosts public and private gatherings with invited speakers from public life. The club also offers e ...
'', one of four women's page journalists to be included in a group of over 60 interviewees. The others were Anderson, Jurney, and
Vivian Castleberry
Vivian Anderson Castleberry (April 8, 1922 – October 4, 2017) was an American newspaper editor, journalist, and women's rights activist, who was elected to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1984.
Early life
She was raised in East Texas and enter ...
.
According to journalism researcher Jan Whitt, Paxson "changed the concept of women's pages in Houston and Miami." She died on June 17, 2017, and was buried in Muskogee's Greenhill Cemetery. She was never married and had no children.