15 Pioneering Female Journalists
14. Ida Tarbell
If it weren’t for Ida Tarbell and her indefatigable reporting, we may not have investigative journalism today. The fact that she was a woman, or that she was born in a relatively rural log cabin, did not slow her down.
Tarbell’s father, Franklin Summer Tarbell, eventually became a successful oil producer in Pennsylvania. Her family often hosted prohibitionists and suffragists, making her upbringing somewhat more progressive than other girls of her era. Ida later graduated from Allegheny College in 1880, with a degree in biology.
Though she began her career as a teacher, Tarbell soon changed course and became a writer. Furthermore, as a suffragist, Ida had decided that she would avoid marriage permanently. A career as a journalist was far more enticing (and profitable) than wife-hood would ever be.
To that end, she began to write for The Chautauquan, a teaching supplement publication. In 1890, she made a major move to Paris, intending to complete historic research “to rescue women from the obscurity of history”. She wrote features on the life of prominent French women, which attracted the attention of McClure’s Magazine. Tarbell would later become the magazine’s editor. She also wrote popular series on Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, and other historic figures.
However, Tarbell made her reputation on dogged investigative journalism focused on the oil industry. With the help of assistant John Siddall, Tarbell began to investigate Standard Oil in 1900. Through interviews and intensive research, Tarbell highlighted the unethical practices by Standard Oil, and in particular those of industrialist John D. Rockefeller.
While working on her expose, Tarbell developed major investigative reporting techniques still in use today. This included access public documents and combining the sometimes far-flung information contained therein. Combined with her interview techniques and powerful writing, Tarbell managed to help break the Standard Oil monopoly and dramatically changed Rockefeller’s reputation.