The ‘golden age’ of female journalism was won by the nameless
While women reporting today’s politics is commonplace, the first female political reporters have been sidelined to obscurity
When Nancy Astor first took her seat in parliament on 1 December 1919, she was greeted with a “buzz of animated conversation” from the men in the Commons according to reports. Astor, an American-born viscountess had won Plymouth Sutton in a by-election. Yet high up above in the wood-panelled press gallery, feminist history of a different kind was also being made. For the first time two female reporters were allowed to watch proceedings, effectively kick-starting female political journalism in Westminster.
The two reporters’ presence was covered in newspapers across the country. Marguerite Cody worked for the Daily News and Miss E Cohn for the Central News agency. Despite giving her account to the Daily Telegraph, in which she described the day as the “complete recognition of the right of British women to take their place in the government of the nation”, Cohn was not even afforded a first name, and nor is she given one in any of the write ups since. It remains lost to history.