Sallie Joy White (1847–1909) became the first woman staff
reporter on a Boston newspaper in 1870 and during the next
thirty-nine years served as a role model for women aspiring to enter the field of journalism. Like other newspaperwomen of the time, she wrote mostly about society, fashion,
and the home and toward the end of her career published a
popular advice column under the pen name “Penelope Penfeather.” She helped found the New England Woman’s Press
Association in 1885 and was thereafter repeatedly elected
to office in both women’s and mixed-sex press organizations. In 1894, a contemporary described White as “first as
well as foremost of ‘all-round’ women journalists in New
England… known not only throughout New England but
throughout the United States.”
Sallie Joy White was born Sarah Elizabeth Joy in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1847. The only child of Rhoda and
Samuel Sargent Joy, she lived a privileged middle-class
existence and was able to attend school through her teenage years, during which she published freelance articles in
Vermont papers. After her graduation and the death of her
father in 1865, she moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts,
where she found work first as a teacher, then as a librarian, continuing at the same time to publish numerous pieces
in New England newspapers and magazines. At the same
time, she became a member of the suffrage movement.
In 1870, Sarah Elizabeth was hired by the Boston Post
to cover the Vermont suffrage convention. Her success in this
assignment secured her a permanent position at the Post and
she was soon publishing articles on prominent women, women’s clubs, suffrage meetings, public lectures, society events,
and housing conditions in the Boston slums. She withdrew
briefly from her newspaper career in 1874 when she married
musician Henry K. White, Jr., with whom she had two daughters, though she continued writing as a freelancer during the
marriage. When Henry abandoned the family after the birth of
their second daughter in 1879, she increased the volume of her
work and in 1885, under the name Sallie Joy White, succeeded
in landing a permanent position at the Boston Herald, where
she was to remain for the next twenty-one years.
In that same year, White and five other Boston newspaperwomen established the New England Woman’s Press Association (NEWPA), and White was elected its first president.
After completing her five-year presidency at NEWPA in 1891,
White established and became the first president of the Boston
Woman’s Press Club. She also became active and held office
in a number of other press organizations, including the International League of Press Clubs.
White published several books on women’s work, including
Housekeepers and Homemakers (1888) and Business Openings for Girls (1899). The latter included a chapter on “Newspaper Workers” in which she advised young women to get as
much education and training as possible. Because it was difficult for young women to get education and training in news
reporting through the conventional methods open to men,
White established educational and mentoring programs in the
women’s press organizations she helped found. Upon her death
in 1909, White was remembered by her contemporaries for
three accomplishments: her success as a newspaperwoman;
her role in providing support and guidance for women following in her path, and her unswerving dedication to the field she
had chosen while still a teenager.
Further Reading
Beasley, Maurine H., and Sheila J. Gibbons. Taking Their Place:
A Documentary History of Women and Journalism, 2nd ed.
State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2003.
Blair, Karen J. The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood
Redefi ned, 1869–1914. New York: Holmes and Meier,
1980.
Burt, Elizabeth V. “A Bid for Legitimacy: The Woman’s Press
Club Movement, 1880–1900.” Journalism History 23, 2
(Summer 1997), 72–84.
——. “New England Woman’s Press Association.” In Women’s
Press Organizations, 1881–1999, edited by Elizabeth V.
Burt. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
——. “Pioneering for Women Journalists: Boston’s Sallie Joy
White,” American Journalism, 18 (Spring 2001): 39–63.
Lord, Myra B. History of the New England Woman’s Press Association. Newton, MA: Graphic Press, 1932.
Marzolf, Marion. Up From the Footnote: A History of Women
Journalists. New York: Hastings House, 1977.
Ross, Ishbel. Ladies of the Press. New York: Harper and Bros.,
1936.
White, Sallie Joy. Housekeepers and Homemakers. Boston: Jordan Marsh and Co., 1888.
——. Business Openings for Girls. New York: The Werner Company, 1899.
Willard, Frances E., assisted by Helen M. Winslow and Sallie
Joy White. Occupations for Women: A Book of Practical
Suggestions for the Material Advancement, the Mental and
Physical Development, and the Moral and Spiritual Uplift
of Women. New York: Success Company, 1897.
Elizabeth V. Burt