Eleanor Josephine Medill “Cissy” Patterson, 1881-1948

The announcement that Patterson is the new editor-in-chief. Photo credit - WWP team

The first woman to serve as editor in chief and publisher of a major US daily newspaper.

Born as Elinor Josephine Patterson, she later changed her name several times with the nickname Cissy becoming most associated with her. She was born in Chicago and grew up in a 90-room mansion of her wealthy and influential family, which had strong ties to the US newspapers industry. Her grandfather was one of the founders of the Republican Party, editor, and owner of the Chicago Tribune.

Prior to joining the publishing business, she lived the life of a “socialite” – traveling with her diplomat uncle to Eastern Europe, having a short and infamous marriage to a Polish count, saving their daughter after he kidnapped her, and starring in gossip columns.

She entered journalism when she was 49 years old and studied the profession “on the job”. Thanks to her family ties, her first post was as the editor of the Washington Herald. She later bought the newspaper and merged it with the Washington Times. Shortly after her takeover, Washington Times-Herald was the most popular newspaper in the capital city. She had a highly personal style of editing, expressing her political views unapologetically.

In addition to her scandalous personality, she was an innovative publisher who promoted female writers and advocated for social issues, such as hot lunch for schoolchildren. In a famous incident, she dressed up as a street beggar for a story on inequality. She was called “the most powerful woman in America.”

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“The craziest woman in Washington, D.C.” - Gossip columnist Walter Winchell about her.

“The craziest woman in Washington, D.C.” - Gossip columnist Walter Winchell about her.

Fun Facts

  • She was both a hunter and an environmental activist, especially attached to her horses and puddles.
  • Her second marriage to Elmer Schlesinger left her as a widow.
  • She objected to the US intervention in World War II and thought that the Holocaust was a lie. Later, when she saw documentation of concentration camps, she burst into tears.
  • As Eleanor M. Gizycka she published two novels.
  • She would arrive at work dressed in riding costumes and evening clothes.

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Category: Business & Entrepreneurship and Media
Tags: Editor, Journalist, and WDC Metro Area Women

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Abigail-Smith-Adams-WWP
Activism & Feminism

Abigail Adams, 1744-1818

A Founding Mother of the United States, a Women’s Rights Advocate, and the Second First Lady.

Abigail Smith was born and raised in Massachusetts. Her father was a liberal minister, her mother was a member of the famous Quincy family mother, and she had two sisters. At a time when women were not allowed to receive a formal education, she was homeschooled and satisfied her appetite for knowledge at the family’s library, forming progressive views. After a two-year courtship, she married John Adams, a country lawyer, and became his closest advisor and partner. They settled in the house John had inherited from his father in Braintree, MA. When his practice expanded, John had to frequently travel while Abigail managed their finances, investments, household, and growing family. For a while, they even moved to Boston next to his practice. Between 1784 and 1788, Abigail joined John in his diplomatic missions in Paris and London. On March 4th, 1797, John became the second president of the United States, and she was the first lady. They lived in the Presidential Mansion in Philadelphia and later in the White House in Washington, DC. She was a politically active first lady, made frequent public appearances, and was involved in the decision-making process, paving the way for future first ladies to be proactive figures. When John lost presidential re-election, the family retired to Peacefield in Quincy in 1800. During his frequent travels before and during the presidency, the couple corresponded in more than 1100 letters, where Abigail demonstrated her talent for writing and opinionated spirit. In one of those letters, she urges her husband to consider women’s rights in the new legislation after independence, warning that if not given equal representation: “women will rebel.” He dismissed her suggestion by writing back that it makes him laugh, but her words “remember the ladies” became an iconic feminist slogan. Before her death, she wrote a will favoring her female relatives. It was an act of protest against the laws prohibiting married women from owning assets. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Adelaide-Johnson-WWP
Arts

Adelaide Johnson, 1859-1955

A feminist artist and sculptress, known as “The sculptor of the women’s suffrage movement.”

Born as Sarah Adeline Johnson in Plymouth, IL, to a family of farmers. She received her education attending rural schools, and after graduation, she began her art training, taking classes at the St. Louis School of Design. She was only 18 years old when she exhibited her artworks at the 1877 St. Louis Exposition, and thanks to the prizes she won, she was able to move to Chicago and make a living from her art. At 23, on her way to her studio, she fell 20 feet into an open elevator shaft. She was severely injured, but the compensation fee she was awarded enabled her the financial freedom to study sculpture and painting in Europe. As a feminist and women’s rights activist, she expressed her political views in her art. Among the many individual busts she sculptured, were busts of the Suffrage Movement’s leaders – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott, which she presented in the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 (The busts are currently located at the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument Museum). She wanted to put the busts as a group monument at the US Capitol Rotunda but did not get the support at that time. After the 19th Amendment was ratified, she got the funding from the philanthropist Alva Belmont and the commission from the National Woman’s Party. She went to Italy to bring an 8-ton piece of marble to her studio and created her most famous artwork – “Group Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.” The statue was dedicated in a special ceremony on Susan B. Anthony’s birthday, February 15th, 1921, in the US Capitol. This was the pick of Johnson’s career. During the 1930s, her career declined, and she had financial problems. In 1939, 80 years old Johnson invited the press to witness how she destroys her own artworks as a protest against her living conditions as well as against her shattered dream of opening a studio-museum honoring the suffragists and women’s rights organizations. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Alice-Dunbar-Nelson-WWP
Literature & Poetry

Alice Dunbar Nelson, 1875-1935

A poet, journalist, playwright, and political activist. Associated with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Alice Ruth Moore was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of a Creole seaman and a former enslaved black seamstress. After graduating high school at 14, she attended a teacher-training program at Straight University, and at 17, she began teaching at an Elementary school in New Orleans. She became involved with activism at the Phyllis Wheatley Club and wrote for the Woman’s Era Club newspaper – the first newspaper created for and by African American women. In 1895, she published her first collection of poems, essays, and short stories titled “Violets and Other Tales.” That same year she moved to NYC, where she helped establish the White Rose Mission – a settlement house for colored girls. Furthering her education, she took courses at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Her writings for the Woman’s Era newspaper caught the attention of the poet and journalist Paul Laurence Dunbar, and in 1898, after two years of correspondence, she moved to live with him in Washington, DC, and they got married. Their relationship fertile their writing but was also disruptive and abusive. He raped her before they got married, and after three years of violent behavior, she left him and moved to Wilmington, Delaware. There, Dunbar taught at various institutes, including Howard High School, the Hampton Institute, and the State College for Colored Students. She never stopped studying, and at 32, she received her M.S degree from Cornell University. In 1913, Dunbar worked as the co-editor and writer for the A.M.E. Review – the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s newspaper. She met poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson, and they got married in 1916. Although she was always involved in political activism, supporting the women’s rights movement and working toward the empowerment of women of color, it was only in 1918 that Dunbar-Nelson was appointed to an official role in the movement as a representative of the Woman’s Committee of the Council of Defense. In 1920, she became the co-editor of the progressive black newspaper, the “Wilmington Advocate.” In that same year, she published a literary anthology, aiming at black readers, titled “The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer.” At 45, Dunbar-Nelson was a successful and popular writer, consistently publishing articles, columns, and essays in newspapers as well as in academic journals. Dunbar-Nelson became a speaker at various events, including the 1928 American Negro Labor Congress Forum in Philadelphia. After she moved with her husband to Philadelphia in 1932, her health declined, and two years later, she passed away at the age of 60. Dunbar-Nelson is a representative of the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Her writing is characterized by complex understandings of race, gender, and ethnicity. In her work, Dunbar-Nelson explored issues that she dealt with as a woman of color, especially her mixed-raced experiences, not belonging here or there. She wrote about her perspective of education opportunity, workplace environment, and social oppression, inspiring generations of black writers to come. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Alice-Paul-WWP
Law

Alice Paul, 1885-1977

A leader for women’s rights and famous for promoting a federal constitutional amendment for woman suffrage.

Alice Paul was born to a wealthy Quaker family on a small New Jersey farm. As Quakers, her parents supported gender equality, including education for women. From a young age, she developed a passion for reading and learning. After graduating high school, top of her class, she studied biology at Swarthmore College, where she was a member of the Executive Board of Student Government. It sparked her interest in political activism, and she moved to NYC to complete a fellowship at the College Settlement House social work. She went on to study and gain multiple degrees, including a Ph.D. in sociology and three law degrees. During a fellowship in England, Paul became involved with the militant Women’s Social and Political Union in London, first selling Suffragist magazines on street corners and then, alongside fellow American suffragette Lucy Burns, organized events, campaigns and established the Scottish branch of the organization. She learned militant protest tactics, such as picketing and hunger strikes, and became known as one who put herself in danger in public events to increase the visibility of the movement. Despite the violent experience of 7 arrests, 3 imprisonments, and 4-week force-feeding, campaigning for the cause of suffrage became her life mission. Upon her return home in 1910, Paul joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). She became a central figure in organizing the 1913 Women March in Washington the day before President Wilson’s inauguration, in which about 8000 women marched through Pennsylvania Avenue, viewed by a half million people, many of them harassing and heckling the marchers. In 1916, Paul’s militant approach created tension between her and the NAWSA, and she left to found the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The following year, she stood wearing a white dress and holding purple and gold banners as part of the Silent Sentinels – the first political picket in front of the White House. She was arrested but did not receive the special treatment she was supposed to as a political prisoner, living in harsh conditions and poor sanitation. With her fellow suffragist prisoners, Paul embarked on a hunger strike, for which she was transferred to the prison’s psychiatric ward, being tied up and forced fed. Her methods led to the end of the long struggle of the US suffrage movement, with the ratification of the 19th amendment, granting the legal voting right for women. After women’s suffrage was achieved, Paul moved her efforts to the international arena: co-founding the World Woman’s Party and lobbing for gender equality. She then went back to national politics, drafting the Equal Rights Amendment, which is still in the process of ratification during the 21st century. In 1945, she lobbied for the inclusion of the equality for women clause in the United Nations proclamations, and at the age of 79, she ensured that the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had a ‘protection for women’ paragraph. Paul was considered professionally demanding and personally conservative, including being criticized for elitism and racism within the suffragist movement. Among the many biographies of her life, little is mentioned about her personal life. Paul passed away at 92 years old in New Jersey. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
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