Life as a female business journalist in the 1960s

Marge Speidel writes on Senior Correspondent about what it was like to cover business stories for the Palo Alto Times in California in the 1960s when Silicon Valley was just beginning.

Speidel writes, “Despite being in the minority, I felt well treated by news sources and other reporters, but now and then this situation backfired. Sometimes a corporation invited business reporters to a luncheon or press conference at an exclusive club. More than a few times I got a call later from an embarrassed public relations man: ‘Marge, I’m sorry, but the club does not allow women.’

“I’ll bet that doesn’t happen today, when women’s bylines are common on business pages, women hold CEO positions, and newly announced management positions are often held by women.

“Sylvia Porter was the one eminent woman journalist writing about business then. At a meeting in San Francisco where she had spoken I had a few seconds to ask her why so few women chose this field. ‘It’s wide open!’ she said as she hurried away.

“An uncomfortable incident came my way one Sunday afternoon when the founder and president of a Southern California savings and loan company invited me to lunch at his hotel, hinting that a big announcement was forthcoming. When I called him from the hotel lobby, he said lunch would be in his room because he needed to take phone calls. That didn’t sound quite right, but I was not experienced enough to object. There was no story, no lunch and after his unsuccessful come-on, I learned some valuable hints on how to handle such situations in the future. This was before the term sexual harassment had come into use.”

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