Lynn Barber

When sexism was routine: the life of the female reporter in 1970s London

Julie Welch describes how a few feisty women forged successful careers in the hard-drinking, male-dominated world of Fleet Street

Mary Kenny, one of the first women to make a career in Fleet Street. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 19 September 2020

This book made me almost weep with nostalgia, but heaven knows what today’s snowflakes will make of it. Fleet Street working conditions were horrendous — the offices were filthy, and covered in a thick pall of cigarette smoke. There’d be frequent wastepaper bin fires when someone threw a smouldering cigarette into a bin full of paper and a male journalist would pee on it to put it out.

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