Breaking News (The Daring Women Who Transformed Journalism)

In the late 1880s and 1890s, women broke into the US newspaper business in an unexpected way: as "girl stunt reporters" who went places other reporters wouldn't, often in disguise, in pursuit of compelling stories.

From Nellie Bly's undercover investigation of a "lunatic asylum" to Helen Campbell's exploration of tenement conditions, their work was incredibly popular―and helped change laws and attitudes. Though sometimes dismissed as attention-seekers or gimmick-chasers, they highlighted real societal problems that hadn't gotten much media attention. Their careers dovetailed with the investigative reporting of other women, like anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells and Indigenous war correspondent Susette La Flesche, to shift how women participated in public life.