The event is going to be held in conjunction with Women's History Month.
The Ohio University Women’s Center will host a book party on Wednesday to celebrate the release of a professor’s biography on a revolutionary woman journalist.
Marilyn Greenwald, a professor of journalism at OU, wrote her book, Pauline Frederick Reporting: A Pioneering Broadcaster Covers the Cold War, which was published in January 2015. The event celebrating the book's release will be held at 4 p.m Wednesday.
The book, a biography of Pauline Frederick, centers on the groundbreaking journalist who covered the United Nations and international events for ABC and NBC television and radio for nearly 30 years.
Little Professor Book Center, 65 S. Court St., will be at the event selling the books, which are sold in its store for $34.95.
Frederick covered events such as the trials at Nuremberg, the signing of the United Nations charter and the first visit of Fidel Castro to the U.S. She also was the moderator for the Ford-Carter Presidential debate, making her the first woman to do so.
Greenwald felt the need to write about Frederick because there were no other books centered fully on her.
“I had read about Frederick in journalism anthologies, but no one had ever done a book about her,” Greenwald said. “I felt she truly paved the way for other women in journalism, she started out as a print journalist, but when radio started coming of age, she began writing for radio.”
Greenwald said radio journalism at the time was totally controlled by men because many felt women’s voices could not have an authoritative tone, therefore, women could not deliver the news over the airwaves.
After the age of the television dawned, Frederick became a network correspondent for NBC News.
Jeanne Gleich-Anthony, an OU history professor, said in an email Frederick defied what it meant to be a woman in journalism, one who would not just cover “soft” news.
“Frederick was a trailblazer because she refused to accept the limitations that her male bosses attempted to place upon her,” Gleich-Anthony said in an email. “She instead fought her way into reporting the types of news stories that interested her. If that meant acting as a freelance journalist or changing network affiliation, then she did it.”
As far as why this book is particular interest to people, Greenwald said knowing how pieces of history can help make important connections to today’s time.
The event also honors Greenwald herself, who has written four other books including a biography of Charlotte Curtis, the first woman associate editor of the New York Times and a book on Canadian journalist Leslie McFarlane, who wrote the first 19 Hardy Boys books under the pen name of Franklin W. Dixon.
Susanne Dietzel, the director of OU’s Women’s Center, said she is excited for the event because the topic is unchartered territory for her.
“Broadcasters during the Cold War is a new field to me so I’m looking forward to being educated,” she said.
Greenwald said some people don’t realize how critical generations that came before truly are.
“If we are struggling to achieve a goal, it helps to know that others before us fought battles also to achieve their goals,” Greenwald said.
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