More Than “Rations, Passions, and Fashions”: Re-Examining the Women's Pages in the Milwaukee Journal

Abstract

The Milwaukee Journal is an example of a Midwestern metropolitan newspaper that featured an unnoticed but progressive women's section in the 1950s and 1960s produced by a group of women who were doing more than giving superficial treatment to food, family, fashion, and furnishings, derisively known as the Four F's. They were focused on a fifth F—feminism—quietly laying the foundation for the women's liberation movement years before marches and demonstrations drew widespread media attention to the cause. A reexamination of the soft news of the women's pages reveals a process of social change and demonstrates how the women of these sections were finding their own ways of redefining women's roles.

Notes

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Ibid., 448.

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Ibid.

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Jacqueline Gray, “Journal Got a Quick Start on Fashion,” Milwaukee Journal, March 31, 1995.

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“Colleen ‘Koky’ Dishon: A Journalism Legend,” 2–17.

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Charlotte Curtis, The Rich and Other Atrocities (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 227.

Amy Rabideau Silvers, “Milwaukee Writer Loved a Good Story,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 5, 2007.

Ibid.

Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 143.

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Linda M. Scott, Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 166.

Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 146.

Ibid., 146.

Ibid., 224.

Ibid.

Jo Piazza, “Fashion's Calendar Keeper,” Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2012.

Jacquelyn Gray, “Journal Got a Quick Start on Fashion,” Milwaukee Journal, March 31, 1995.

Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 225.

Ibid., 341.

Ibid., 313.

Genevieve McBride, Women's Wisconsin (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2005), 303.

Bill Nelson, Works beyond Words: 50 Years, 50-Plus Stories of Milwaukee Area Public Relations (Milwaukee: Morgan & Meyers/The Barkin Group, 1996), 65.

Judy Klemesrud, “Milwaukee: Famous for Beer, Bratwurst—and Fashion,” New York Times, May 28, 1968.

Mary Kane, “A Fashion Wear-house,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 18, 1996. This assertion was verified by email with Sister Aloyse Hessburg, October 24, 2006.

Associated Press, “Aileen Ryan Receives Award,” Sheboygan (WI) Press, September 28, 1970.

Richard Karp, “Newspaper Food Pages: Credibility for Sale,” Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 1971, 36–44.

David Kamp, The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation (New York: Broadway Books, 2006), 10.

Kimberly Wilmot Voss, The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014).

Ray Irwin, “Newspapers Find Food Profitable News Subject,” Editor & Publisher, July 15, 1950.

“Top Honors for Women's Pages,” Milwaukee Journal, September 15, 1961.

Ibid.

Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris, Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate (New York: Gotham Press, 2008).

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Wm. David Sloan, ed., The Media in America: A History (Northport, AL: Vision Press, 2011), 294.

Peggy Daum, “Women's Pages Today: A Comparative Study of Six Newspapers” (Master's thesis, Marquette University, 1962).

Ibid.

“Services Set for Daum, Led Journal Food Section,” Milwaukee Journal, October 22, 1990.

Nancy Stohs, “Food Team Aims to Help Readers Do Recipes Right,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 31, 2012.

“Services Set for Daum, Led Journal Food Section,” Milwaukee Journal, October 22, 1990.

Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 341.

“Former Editor Tells Dorothy Dawe Story,” Milwaukee Journal, January 11, 1972.

Dorothy Dawe, “What's to Come in Lighting Shown in New York Exhibit,” Milwaukee Journal, December 13, 1945.

Dorothy Dawe, “Story of a Typical Milwaukee Bungalow Changed into Appealing Modern Home,” Milwaukee Journal, November 10, 1946.

Dorothy Dawe, “There's Hope of New Accessories, Metal Pieces,” Milwaukee Journal, January 13, 1946.

“Dorothy Dawe, Writer, Dead,” Milwaukee Journal, October 4, 1947.

“Dorothy Dawe Press Award,” Milwaukee Journal, January 3, 1949.

Lois Hagen, “Brussels World Fair through American Eyes,” Milwaukee Journal, June 5, 1958.

Lois Hagen, “Cream of Home Furnishings,” Milwaukee Journal, January 20, 1950.

Lois Hagen, “Ignorance Makes ‘Contemporary’ a Bad Word,” Milwaukee Journal, June 16, 1958.

Lois Hagen, “James River Plantations,” Milwaukee Journal, May 11, 1965.

Lois Hagen, “New Group to Defend Rights of Children,” Milwaukee Journal, July 27, 1971.

Stephen Byers and Genevieve G. McBride, “On the Front Page in the Jazz Age in Chicago: Ione Quinby, ‘Girl Reporter’” (conference paper, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, August 2012).

Genevieve G. McBride and Stephen R. Byers, Dear Mrs. Griggs: Women Readers Pour Out Their Hearts from the Heartland (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2015), 10.

Ibid., 11.

Chris Chan, “Milwaukee's Local Color,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 94, no. 4 (Summer 2011): 14–27.

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Dishon, “We've Come a Long Way—Maybe,” 95.

Genevieve G. McBride, ed., Women's Wisconsin: From Native Matriarchies to the New Millennium (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2005), 430–431.

“Colleen ‘Koky’ Dishon: A Journalism Legend,” 2–17.

Clarice Rowlands, “Chiropodist Enjoys Life, Home, Work,” Milwaukee Journal, March 17, 1946.

Clarice Rowlands, “Numerous Jobs Await All Graduate Therapists Now,” Milwaukee Journal, April 21, 1946.

Career Women: A Series of Vocational Articles (Milwaukee, Milwaukee Journal, 1947).

Ibid., 31.

Ibid., 72.

Clarice Rowlands, “Church Nursery's Special Problems of Child Care,” Milwaukee Journal, March 7, 1948.

Gwen Gilligan (daughter of Lois Hagen), interview with the author, January 19, 2011.

“Lois Hagen Manly,” Penney-Missouri Awards Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO.

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Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 257.

Barbara Salsini, “Fashion Pioneer,” Milwaukee Journal, April 7, 1983.

Ryan, “Women's World.”

Gordon Gottlieb, “Newswomen's PRESS-ure Club Batters on Men's Bastion,” Milwaukee Sentinel, September 20, 1966.

Gottlieb, “Newswomen's PRESS-ure.”

Voss and Speere, “Way Past Deadline,” 36.

“Ladies’ Day,” Milwaukee Journal, August 10, 1971, Box 3, Folder 3, UWM.

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Jean Otto, “State Status Group Seeks Answers,” Milwaukee Journal, March 12, 1969.

Jean Otto, First Love: Memoirs of a First Amendment Freedom Fighter (Oak Park, IL: Marion Street Press, 2008), 73.

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Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 451.

Mary Whitt, “Fashion and Feminism Come Together at Heritage-Milwaukee,” Post-Crescent (Appleton, WI), April 19, 1970.

“Former Editor Tells Dorothy Dawe Story,” Milwaukee Journal, January 11, 1972.

“Look for It Every Sunday in the Milwaukee Journal: Spectrum,” Milwaukee Journal, May 10, 1973.

Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 446.

“Food Editor Has the Right Recipe,” Milwaukee Journal, September 18, 1989.

Wells, Milwaukee Journal, 452.

“Food Is a Focus in 2011 A.P. Stylebook,” Associated Press, May 16, 2011. http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_051611a.html [Dead link].

“2012 A.P. Stylebook Adds Fashion, Expands Social Media,” Associated Press press release, May 30, 2012, http://www.ap.org/Content/Press-Release/2012/2012-ap-stylebook-adds-fashion-terms-expands-social-media-section.

Mills, A Place in the News, 110.