After nearly five decades on the air as a political reporter, “PBS NewsHour” anchor and editor-in-chief Judy Woodruff will retire at the end of 2022. Woodruff has been a fixture of political journalism, shaping coverage contemporary television of American politics has looked and felt like for a generation while also being a literal face of women in journalism. Before receiving the Lifetime Achievement in Television News Award at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards on Sept. 28, Woodruff spoke with The 19th about the ways she thinks about gender, politics and journalism.
Jennifer Gerson: We’re very close to the midterms, and the 2024 presidential election will be here before we know it. What do you see as the role of journalists in this political moment, and how do you think gender is affecting what we’re seeing in our politics and what it means to cover politics right now?
Judy Woodruff: I don’t think there’s ever been a midterm election as consequential as this one because we’re at such a divided time politically in our country, for so many reasons. The Senate is evenly split and the House — just a few seats could make the difference, one way or the other. There’s just so much going on. These media sessions are huge, and I don’t think we can do enough as journalists to pay attention.
The Dobbs decision [that ended a federal right to abortion] this early summer has really shaken up these races. It’s motivating Democrats and especially women to get out and vote and work for a candidate to see them elected and get engaged. Without the Supreme Court decision this summer, I think you’d be looking at a very different political landscape right now. Everything has changed.
The media, and especially politics, has not always been a hospitable environment for women, but what do you think is the role of gender in journalism today and how do you think that role has evolved?
The role of women in this industry has changed enormously. When I started as a journalist, there were very few women journalists covering politics, in print or news; we were very much in the minority. I won’t say we had sore thumbs, but we stood out.
In the early days, I was very conscious of the fact that I wanted to be taken seriously as a reporter and did not want to be pigeonholed into what news directors frankly perceived as a less serious area of news: “women’s issues.”
Today we define “women’s issues” very differently. They are women in the working world, women who need help with childcare, women who deal with their children’s school and educational issues whether they work outside the home or not. It’s the economy, education, the environment and how women are affected by these issues. It’s about issues like abortion and equal opportunity in the workplace and having pay equity and the chance to get ahead and the chance to get what you deserve. Many more issues today fall under this heading of “women’s issues.” And today, women’s issues are everyone’s issues and journalists feel much more comfortable covering all of this. It’s a welcome change.
There are now many more women journalists joining the ranks of political reporters in print, television, radio and online, at all levels. Women journalists today embrace and welcome the opportunity to cover issues that affect women.
What do you think helped bring about this change? Looking back and then seeing where we are today, what caused this sea change?
I think I was just reaching a critical mass. I will never say that there are enough women covering politics. We always need more women as news writers in print, in broadcast, at all levels. We need more women in management who are accountable for what is being covered and how it is being covered. But the change came when there were enough women in this field that we reached a comfort level.
Frankly, I also think it just came from the fact that more women are in the workforce, they also play a role in the economic well-being of their families, the financial well-being of their families. It’s not just women who are in the workforce, but women who stay at home to raise a family showing that they are still interested in many issues around them, especially education and healthcare.
We simply realized that without the voice of women and the recognition of the active role that women play in society, we would not be able to solve these problems. It didn’t happen overnight. There’s no day that you can point to and say, “Oh, that’s when things changed.” But a big part of the reason women today feel more comfortable addressing these issues and being more vocal about them is not worrying about being seen as talking about something that’s so-called.” women’s problem’ for fear that people will take us less seriously. .
I remember that we called 1992 the “Year of the Woman” because there were so many women running for office and many of them were elected. But there was a bit of a backlash after that too. We’ve gone up and down as to how many women are elected to office. We have so many more women in the House and Senate and so many more women being elected at the state and local level. Now it feels like women are everywhere in politics, not to mention political journalism. We’ve reached critical mass, but it’s taken a long time to get here.
When we look at what issues are really felt on the ballot this year, how would you describe what this moment feels like in understanding how gender is affecting how our society works and doesn’t work?
Women voters could be the deciding factor in many of these midterm races. We won’t know, of course, until the vote is taken. But at this point in the polls, there’s an apparent divide between what men say is their biggest problem and what women say is their biggest problem, and we want to continue to monitor that. I think, again, with the Supreme Court ruling on the Dobbs decision, essentially overturning Roe v. Wade, and bringing the issue of abortion back to the states is a big factor now.
I also think that education has become a much bigger issue because of the pandemic and what it has meant for families and women. Women have been fiercely committed to education as an issue: what about their children’s education. We already see it in the way women get involved in school board races and organize around electoral issues related to the issue of education. I don’t see education as an issue that benefits one party over the other. But it’s a clear example of where you see women raising their hand and getting involved in an issue in a way that we haven’t always seen in the past, and we as journalists need to pay close attention to that.
You’ve built an amazing career and you’re also a mom. How do you see the role that having these other identities outside of who you are as a journalist affects your work?
I salute any mother who is able to combine parenting with journalism. It is difficult. It’s just hard. I have three children who are now adults, and when they were little, we were very lucky to have help. But no matter how much help you have or don’t have, you are still the mother. You are the father and it is an unbreakable bond, and an unbreakable commitment and involves responsibility 24 hours a day. It took me a long time to realize this.
At first I thought, “Oh, I can do it all! I can have my career! I have all this energy! I can raise kids too!” – but the fact is that you can have it all, but not at the same time. There is literally no way you can give 100 percent to your work and also 100 percent to your family and children. Sometimes there will be exchanges. There will be school events you’ll miss, stories you’ll pass on to someone else. Do I wish it were different? Absolutely.
I celebrate the fact that more fathers are now openly accepting the role of father. They are more open to having to take a day off to take a child to the doctor or leaving early to go to a school event. Perhaps your employer supports this and offers time off after the birth of a baby or to care for an elderly parent who needs help. But we need much more.
We have to make it comfortable for mothers i parents to take the time they need. Our job picture in this country is much tougher on mothers than it is on fathers, and as long as that is the case, women will have additional responsibilities. So my point is that I encourage women to make their own decisions about what they want to do, knowing that there will always be trade-offs. It’s just the way it is. It’s not always fair, but these are real things. If you want a family, that’s a huge responsibility and one of life’s great joys. And if you want to be a great journalist, that’s another great joy in life!
Twenty-five years ago my husband was the Washington bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal and he had managed to arrange—and this was in the 1990s—for two of his female reporters who worked in the bureau to continue working after having children offering them to work a three-day week. She really wanted them to have a chance to be mothers and have a family and have a chance to continue their work after having babies, and she was incredibly successful. There are all kinds of ways to do it. We need to give more support as a country and as employers to mums and dads to make it all possible.
What advice would you give to journalists right now, both those starting out in their careers and those well established in their careers, about what’s most important to consider right now as we think about the future of journalism ?
If you’re smart, curious, if you care about what’s happening in the world and your country, your state and your community and want to be a part of reporting it, we need you.
Curiosity means always wanting to know more. Understanding what the facts are around any story is, to me, absolutely essential. There is so much opinion in American journalism right now. We have seen how it has overtaken journalism by and large. But I’m old fashioned. The first thing we have to worry about as reporters and journalists is covering the news. We have to cover the facts. As a journalist, you need to get as much information as you can and doing so is the best foundation you can lay for your future. If you learn about the importance of facts and information, you can worry about opinion later.
What we need are journalists who show up ready to come in and roll up their sleeves to do the hard work of finding out facts and information and then sharing it with everyone in a way that people are comfortable reading, watching and listening to. This is the most valuable thing I think you can do.
Originally posted on September 21, 2022 by The 19th.
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