The Good Girls Revolt (16 page)

The Editors:
We called them “the Wallendas” a joking reference to the high-wire circus act (clockwise from top left, in 1969: Oz Elliott, Lester Bernstein, Robert Christopher, and Kermit Lansner).

A key recruit:
Fay Willey wanted research—and researchers—to be more valued at
Newsweek
(1967).

Self doubt:
Trish Reilly was afraid to say she didn’t want to be promoted (1970).

Success stories:
Religion researcher Merrill McLoughlin (left) went on to co-edit
US News & World Report
and reporter Phyllis Malamud became
Newsweek
’s Boston bureau chief (right, with writer Ken Woodward in 1971).

On the move:
Elisabeth Coleman was given the first bureau internship in Chicago in the summer of 1970 (below) and became a reporter in San Francisco later that year.

No chance:
Mary Pleshette was given one of the first writing tryouts but her pieces just sat on her editor’s desk (1967).

Historic moment:
We signed our agreement on August 26, 1970, the fiftieth anniversary of the suffrage amendment (seated clockwise from top left: Eleanor Holmes Norton, Oz Elliott, Kay Graham, Kermit Lansner, Roger Borgeson, Rod Gander, me, Mariana Gosnell, Lucy Howard, Madeleine Edmondson, Fay Willey, Judy Gingold, and Mel Wulf from the ACLU).

Smiles all around:
After the signing everyone was hopeful, but the optimism didn’t last long (seated clockwise from left: Mel Wulf, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Oz Elliott, Kay Graham, Kermit Lansner, Roger Borgeson, and me; standing from left: Jeanne Voltz, Lauren Katzowitz, Sylvia Robinson, Harriet Huber, Abby Kuflik, Judy Harvey, Mary Alice Kellogg, Joyce Fenmore, and Lorraine Kisley).

Our Brenda Starr:
Reporter Liz Peer was a gifted journalist but the editors wouldn’t send her to Vietnam (1971).

My mentor:
Writer Harry Waters said that for women at
Newsweek
the elevator up “was out-of-order” (1978).

Civil rights:
“My attitude was, ‘Go for it,’” said star writer Peter Goldman (1968).