What Does It Take for Women Journalists to Gain Professional Recognition?

Abstract

This article compares the characteristics of 814 female and male Pulitzer Prize winners from 1917 to 2010. Borrowing the “compensation model” from political science, this study shows that female winners were more likely to have a metropolitan upbringing, a journalism major, and a graduate degree. These differences manifest the logic of compensation: some forms of social capital can be important for female journalists to overcome gender disadvantage in competing for recognition. The compensational model, however, is historically contingent. In more recent years, women journalists no longer needed the compensational capital to boost their chances.