Sallie Joy White

Sallie Joy White
Born	Sarah Elizabeth Joy 1847 Brattleboro, Vermont, U.S.
Died	March 25, 1909 Dedham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Known for	Journalism
Spouse(s)	Henry K. White, Jr.
Children	2

Sallie Joy White (1847-1909) was an American journalist. In 1870 she became the first woman staff reporter on a Boston newspaper when she was hired by the Boston Post, and she continued to write for local newspapers until her death in 1909. She co-founded the New England Woman's Press Association, and was an officer in several national press groups.

White was a strong supporter of women's suffrage and women's education. In addition to her regular work as a journalist, she wrote and lectured on the subject of career paths for women. Having had a valuable mentor in suffragist Mary A. Livermore, she in turn mentored countless younger women over the course of her long career.

Sarah Elizabeth "Sallie" Joy was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1847, the only child of Samuel and Rhoda Joy. She attended the Glenwood School for Girls. While still a teenager, she began publishing articles, poems, and short stories in local newspapers and journals, sometimes using the pen name "Flora Forrest." After graduation she moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts (now part of Boston), where she lived with family friends.

She worked for some time as a schoolteacher before being hired as an assistant for the Loring Circulating Library. The Loring was a gathering place for authors and intellectuals at the time, and it was there that she met two women who became her mentors: a magazine editor named Mrs. Bingham, and the suffragist Mary A. Livermore. During this period she continued to publish articles in New England newspapers and journals.

In the winter of 1869, when her employer increased her hours without raising her pay, she wrote in a letter to her mother that she planned to leave that job as soon as she could find something else, adding, "I will not be bullied by any man."

At Livermore's invitation, she went to work for the Woman's Journal in 1870. That was to be a temporary position, however, as Livermore and Bingham believed she would be more useful to the women's movement as a reporter for the mainstream press. Livermore introduced her to several editors, and in February she was hired by the Boston Post to cover the Woman Suffrage Convention in Vermont. She soon made a name for herself as "the bright particular star" of the convention. She was a fast and accurate reporter, and her writing style was engaging, with touches of wry humor.

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