This article compares the characteristics of 814 female and male Pulitzer Prize winners from 1917 to 2010. Borrowing the "compensation model" from political science, this study shows that female winners were more likely to have a metropolitan upbringing, a journalism major, and a graduate degree. These differences manifest the logic of compensation: some forms of social capital can be important for female journalists to overcome gender disadvantage in competing for recognition. The compensational model, however, is historically contingent. In more recent years, women journalists no longer needed the compensational capital to boost their chances.Gender disparities in the field of journalism are well documented. Despite progress in the past few decades, women remain a minority in the field. 1 Reports continue to show that women journalists earn less than their male colleagues and face greater hurdles climbing up the newsroom hierarchy. 2 Research on gender (in)equality within the
Robert Merton’s theory of cumulative advantage posits that the initial status advantages one acquires can successively lead to greater opportunities in career advancement. This study examines the cumulative effect of individual and institutional factors on the likelihood of one’s success in international reporting, an area commonly considered as the mark of an ultra-elite in journalistic stratification. Analyzing a sample of 814 Pulitzer winners whose life courses and career progressions are reconstructed using various archival data, our study shows that international reporting winners, compared with local reporting awardees, are more likely to be male, foreign born, cosmopolites, and Ivy League graduates. These initial advantages, however, mainly improve their chances of joining top news organizations in the first place. Being selected by those news organizations boosts disproportionally their successive probability of winning the Pulitzers. The process of advantage accumulation in journalism accentuates the social stratification in society at large.
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