Capital Gains:
Women Journalists Find Opportunities in Washington

The Civil War opened many new opportunities to women, including jobs in mainstream journalism. By 1879, women comprised 12% of the journalists credentialed for admittance to the press galleries in the United States Capitol. Others found work as political commentators and ghostwriters for politicians, securing a place in the fast-paced, politically-charged Washington press corps.

The career of Emily Edson Briggs began when she sent a well-reasoned and well-written letter to the editor of the Washington Chronicle . He hired her, and she wrote for that paper and for the Philadelphia Press . One of the first women admitted to the press gallery in Congress, she also was the first to report from the White House thanks to a friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln. Usually writing under the pen name “Olivia,” she was elected as the first president of the Women's National Press Association in 1882.

Portrait of Sara Clark Lippincott, or “Grace Greenwood.” Library of Congress LC-USZ62-125488

Sarah Clarke Lippincott, or “Grace Greenwood,” began her journalism career at age 19 as a contributor to several Philadelphia newspapers and Godey's Lady's Book . That same year, she was recruited to Washington to join the staff of Dr. Gamaliel Bailey's newspaper, the National Era. Additionally, she served as a Washington correspondent for the New York Mirror and in 1852 as a European correspondent for various American periodicals. She returned to Washington on the eve of the Civil War and contributed sketches and political commentary for the New York Tribune. In 1871, she wrote “Occasional Washington Notes” for The New York Times and a series documenting her experiences traveling in the American West.