“Food, Fashions, Family, and Furnishings” — these were the topics women were limited to writing about in the New York Times’ one-page section, “The Four F’s,” from 1955 to 1971 (Svachula, 2018). While the New York Times is one of the highest regarded newspapers of our time, and consistently sets the standard for fair, quality journalism today, its history as an organization is not quite so exemplary. In 1974, after more than twenty years of mistreatment and discrimination in the office, the women of the New York Times filed a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against the organization (Svachula, 2018). This action went on to drastically change women’s opportunities at The Times, where now nearly half of the staff are women with the freedom to explore and write about any topics they desire. Using the feminist approach to organizational communication, I will analyze the ways that this era of change at The New York Times coincides with key theoretical assumptions of feminist organizational scholars. This approach will allow me to better understand the ways power and gender intersect within organizations, and how this intersection has changed over time.  

Analytical Approach 

To analyze the organizational communication context of The New York Times, I will be using the feminist approach. In the seventh edition of Organizational Communication Approaches and Processes, author Katherine Miller (2015) argues that the feminist approach to organizational communication begins with the assumption that “organizations — in their traditional and bureaucratic forms — are inherently patriarchal” (p. 112). For example, “In such a bureaucratic workplace, the most valued commodities are the stereotypical male characteristics of logic, aggressiveness, and competitiveness. In contrast, stereotypical female characteristics — such as emotion, empathy, intuition, connectedness, and cooperation — are likely to be downplayed in organizational life,” Miller (2015) says (p. 112). She highlights how organizations are constituted in gendered ways by referencing Ashcraft’s key theoretical assumptions of feminist organizational communication scholars, including “the belief that gender is a primary way in which identity and power relations are configured,” “the belief that work is a key site where gender identity and power relations are organized,” “a belief that dominant systems of gender privilege men and masculinity relative to women and femininity, although these systems are not rigid or neatly drawn,” and “a belief that gender, power, and organization are continuously created and changed in ongoing everyday life and that communication is the process through which this is accomplished” (Miller, 2015, p. 112). The first two assumptions will be useful in analyzing The Times’ original organizational model, and the last two assumptions will help me examine the ways that the women of the office paved the way for equal opportunity in the newsroom.  

While these assumptions provide the framework for the feminist approach to organizational communication, Miller (2015) also emphasizes the approach’s inextricable ties to the feminist movement “beyond academia,” and argues that we must also consider different methods of real-world activism under this approach (p. 112). Miller cites several types of feminism, such as liberal, radical, standpoint, postmodern, and pluralist. Liberal feminism will be the most useful lens to analyze The New York Times case, as it is based on the belief that “remedies for female subordination should come from within the system and that women should work to gain their fair share of control in institutions currently run by men” (Miller, 2015, p. 112). As I analyze the case, it will become apparent that change was created by women from within the system in which they were placed.   

Analysis of Case 

In Andrew Rossi’s 2011 documentary, “Page One: Inside The New York Times,” journalist Gay Talese recounts the vast influence The Times had in the world of journalism throughout the 1950s, which he referred to as the “glory days” of journalism (Rossi, 2011, 0:22:28).  “Hard news was a phrase the Times almost owned. NBC, CBS, ABC — the first thing the director of their shows would look at [was] the New York Times,” Talese said (Rossi, 2011, 0:22:28). James McQuivey, a writer from the documentary, highlighted the “New York Times Effect” to give viewers a true sense of the paper’s impact during this time. “In the world of analog newspapers, there was an observable effect. If on day one The New York Times ran a piece on a particular story, political or business issue, on day two, the tier two newspapers would all essentially imitate the story,” he said (Rossi, 2011, 0:23:45).  

While the men of The New York Times were living out their “glory” and gaining lots of recognition during this time, women working for the office had a much different experience. According to Svachula, the small team of women who worked in the “Four F’s” were restricted to working by themselves on the ninth floor of the office, away from the men on the main floors (Svachula, 2018). Phyllis Levin, now 97, who started writing about fashion for the paper in the mid-1950s, said, “It was as if we kept the measles up on the ninth floor” (Svachula, 2018). The lack of power and opportunity that the women had compared to their male counterparts from the 1950s to the 1970s exemplifies two assumptions of the feminist approach to organizational communication: “the belief that gender is a primary way in which identity and power relations are configured,” and “the belief that work is a key site where gender identity and power relations are organized” (Miller, 2015, p. 112). During this time at the paper, gender was certainly a primary factor in the configuration of power relations. The men of the office restricted the women to write only along themes of domesticity, or topics that they deemed “women’s news” (Svachula, 2018), and physically separated them from the rest of the office. These examples showcase the ways that workplaces are key sites where gender identity and power relations are organized.  

However, the case does not end there, as Svachula (2018) points out that the women on the four Fs team realized their column was being ignored by the rest of the newsroom and used this space to write about subject matter beyond furniture, food, family, or fashion. “The four Fs became a space for writers to experiment and push past what was conventionally considered ‘women’s news’ […] Eventually, the section outgrew its original purpose — what qualified women’s news had expanded,” Svachula (2018) says. The women’s ability to recognize and capitalize on an opportunity to change their circumstances at a male-dominated workplace and redefine the meaning of “women’s news” reflects the third assumption of the feminist approach to organizational communication, which is “a belief that dominant systems of gender privilege men and masculinity relative to women and femininity, although these systems are not rigid or neatly drawn” (Miller, 2015, p. 112).  

The women of the four Fs at The Times continued to prove that dominant systems of gender are not rigid by filing a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against the organization in 1974. According to Svachula, “the suit was settled in 1978, accompanied by an affirmative action plan requiring the hiring of a certain number of women in entry-level positions […] Much has changed at The Times in the meantime, and women now make up nearly half the staff” (2018). Had the women not had the courage to push boundaries through their writing and take legal action against the paper, who knows how much longer their voices would have been restricted on the ninth floor. By challenging the systems that the men had set up for them, the women exemplify the fourth assumption of the feminist approach, or the “belief that gender, power, and organization are continuously created and changed in ongoing everyday life and that communication is the process through which this is accomplished” (Miller, 2015, p. 112).  

Discussion and Conclusion 

After using the feminist approach to analyze the discriminatory operations of the New York Times from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the ways women of the office took action to create a more equal work environment, it is evident that while gender and power relations are often determined at work, these structures are not rigid. The men restricting the women to write only along themes of domesticity, and physically separating them from the rest of the office for about twenty years (Svachula, 2018) showcases the assumption of the feminist approach that workplaces can be key sites where gender identity and power relations are organized (Miller, 2015, p. 112).  

However, the “Four Fs” team’s decision to defy the boundaries placed on them by writing about the topics they desired and suing the news giant reflects the feminist approach assumptions that patriarchal work structures are continuously created and changed by our actions and communication. The feminist approach to organizational communication will be valuable for analyzing cases of similar nature in the future because many organizations still have a significant amount of work to do to achieve true gender equality. By using the key theoretical assumptions of feminist organizational communication scholars, we can better examine the ways systems of power are determined by gender in professional settings, and also examine the ways to change and dismantle these structures for a more equitable future.  

Bibliography 

Miller, Katherine. (2015). Organizational Communication Approaches and Processes. Cengage Learning.    

Rossi, A. (Director). (2011). Page one: Inside The New York Times [Motion picture]. USA: Participant Media.   

Svachula, A. (2018, September 21). When the Times kept female reporters upstairs. The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2022