At eighteen Elizabeth June Cochran casually came across an article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch titled, "What Girls are Good For", in which the author disdainfully wrote, "Housework and taking care of children are the only appropriate jobs for women".
After reading the article, Elizabeth readily rose to the occasion. Standing up for women everywhere, she responded in a formal letter of protest to the editor. This action landed her a job as a journalist.
Who Was Nellie Bly?
Since it was considered improper at the time for a woman to use her real name, Elizabeth was given the pen name of Nellie Bly by her editor.
Bly focused on women's rights issues and is said to have invented the art of investigative reporting.
Nellie worked tirelessly to forge a new societal norm for the lower classes, the women who had no voice. With her compelling journalistic style and bravado, her over-the-top involvement with those she wrote about while undercover is legendary.
Nellie Bly - Radical
What Nellie wanted more than anything was to work on the New York World newspaper staff. She had this radical idea for the publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, that she hoped would secure her place on the staff: she would get herself committed to the New York Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, and she would stay there for ten days undercover.
No one had ever dared to work on such a dangerous assignment, but this was Nellie's way of fighting her way to the top in a man's world.
Tales From the New York Women's Lunatic Asylum
After getting herself admitted by acting 'insane', Nellie was locked up for ten days and nights in the asylum. She wrote an astounding article depicting patients suffering various physical abuses at the hands of the staff.
Women were confined maliciously there by family members who, for example, wanted to be rid of a cheating spouse, or worse yet, an unwanted spouse.
Many women were found to have been locked behind the doors of Blackwell's Island for all the wrong reasons. They were treated with less than human consideration, allotted cold-water baths and beds of stone-cold floors with thin sheets in the middle of winter.
Nellie's Expose of Blackwell's Island
Because of Nellie's stay in the asylum, and her subsequent expose, one million dollars were appropriated to the state of New York to bring institutions out of the dark ages. Her undercover stunts helped launch Bly into the formally MEN ONLY club of journalism.
Nellie Bly Breaks World Record
Nellie's next jaunt into the world of competitive journalism came in 1889 when she rose to the challenge of traveling around the world in less than eighty days, alone. She brought much publicity to Pulitzer's newspaper through her daily journals on this trip, another first for a woman.
Nellie continued throughout her life to expose corruption, speak out for women's rights, and fight for social reforms. She was influential to her core, leading women out of the dark factories into the light of hope and equal rights.
Source:
Kroeger, Brooke, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist. Three Rivers Press, 1995.
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