Bugbee spent almost all of her journalistic career writing about thewomen's movement. She covered women's rights rallies, marches and legislation, but what made her famous was her stories on Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Roosevelt.
Roosevelt was so pleased with Bugbee and the group of female reporters at that time, she would hold weekly press conferences open only to women. Although she couldn't discuss what the President was doing, she spoke intelligently on things ranging from education and housing to labor and the economy. She sometimes even took a group of female reporters with her when she travelled to investigate things like coal mines and garment factories. Bugbee became so well-known for her stories on Roosevelt that when the United Nations dedicated a memorial to her the day after Bugbee retired, the New York Herald Tribune, where she had worked for 56 years, asked her to do one last story and cover the event.
Although Bugbee wrote for the city desk, she was not allowed to have a desk in the all-male newsroom at the Tribune, and was stuck in a corner on a different floor. But she was a good reporter, and like Nellie Bly, sometimes went undercover to get a story, like when she worked as a Salvation Army bell-ringer to report on the stingy people that ignored her.
When Bugbee first started working, female journalists were often asked to cover "women's news," which meant stories on fashion and recipes. But as the women's movement gained attention, Bugbee and many other female reporters wrote on that instead, and also did stories on famous women. She and her female colleagues fought for the right to cover women's rights marches for front-page stories, because important stories were often assigned to men, even if a female reporter had done previous smaller stories on the topic. As the women's movement grew and more events required newspaper attention, the female reporters who covered it gained more status and fame.
In 1922, Bugbee helped to found the Newspaper Women's Club of New York, and served three terms as its president. In 1936, she wrote a 5-book series on her experiences as a reporter, which encouraged many young women to try journalism for a career.
Bugbee enjoyed reporting on women's marches for equal rights. Today, many women march for feminist causes, too. Often, they aren't even covered by the national media, even if they take place on the steps of Congress.See if you can find news about women's marches. If you find one, see how it's reported. Is it a small or big article? Does it portray the women as concerned citizens, or as unreasonable and silly? Did the march attract the attention of politicians? Did any changes result because of their march?