Dorothy Thompson (2) (1893–1961)

Dorothy Thompson was a formidable force in American journalism in the 1920s to the early 1940s. She began working for women's right to vote and then went to Europe to pursue journalism as a career. In 1939, she was named by Time magazine as the second most influential women in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt. In fact, many called her the “First Lady of American journalism." During the World War II era, she successfully straddled the mediums of radio and print: In addition to her three times a week newspaper columns and a monthly column in the Ladies Home Journal, she was also a regular on NBC radio news. She became Berlin bureau chief for The New York Evening Post in 1927. She became a leading opponent of fascism and Nazism and was expelled from Germany in 1934 after the Nazis took offense at her articles and her book I Saw Hitler.

She returned to the U.S. where she became the most syndicated woman journalist in the country. Her radio broadcasts made her one of the most sought-after female public speakers of her time.