School of Journalism. Women in Newspaper Management.
Indiana University, Bloomington. Center for New Communications;
Indiana University, Bloomington. School of Journalism;
Women in Communications, inc.;
Frank E. Gannett Newspaper Foundation
[AI-Generated Summary] In this 1978 interview, Mimi Shields, a general editor at Newsweek, details the landmark sex discrimination case filed by 62 female editorial employees under Title VII. She explains that before the EEOC complaint, women were restricted almost exclusively to researcher roles with no opportunity for advancement, a systemic practice management initially defended as a "50-year tradition". Shields describes how the lawsuit successfully opened professional pathways, leading to women being promoted to writers and editors and increasing the number of female writers from one to sixteen. Despite some initial ideological pushback from male colleagues regarding quotas and a "blindness" to the inequity within their own ranks, Shields notes that the professional relationships remained functional throughout negotiations because management respected the women as essential "pros" who produced the magazine. While she considers the battle largely won, she emphasizes the need for continued vigilance against subtle "ghettos," such as assigning women primarily to "soft" news or concentrating them under a single female senior editor.
Note: This AI-generated summary (via Gemini AI and Adobe Premiere Pro) is for discovery purposes only. Please consult the original recording for historical accuracy.