Gender, Race, and Place in Newspaper Coverage of Women “Firsts” after the Nineteenth Amendment

ABSTRACT Grounded in feminist theory, this study builds upon historical research regarding newspaper coverage of women in politics by analyzing how five trailblazers of different races, ethnicities, and regions were written about after the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. Using textual analysis, the authors identify three primary themes—erasure, marginalization, and selective legitimation—in local newspaper coverage of Cora Reynolds Anderson, Hattie Wyatt Caraway, Soledad Chávez Chacón, Crystal Bird Fauset, and Nellie Tayloe Ross during the 1920s-30s. The findings demonstrate intersectionality at work in how news discourse functioned to challenge or support the women’s legitimacy as political actors.