Talk:Mildred Seydell

A fact from Mildred Seydell appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 February 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Mildred Seydell was one of the first women newspaper journalists in the State of Georgia while breaking the gender barrier in journalism?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2012/February. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Mildred Seydell.

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Lead sentence

Should that be "woman", "women" or "female" journalist? 7&6=thirteen (☎) 19:47, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

My guess (as I am generally poor on grammer) is "one of the first women" because the word "journalists" is just 2 words from "women" and looks good this way. Whereas "one of the first female journalist newspaper journalists" doesn't sound right. Maybe "one of the first newspaper female journalists" might be right, however like I say I am reallly poor on grammer. Need a copyeditor here.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 20:40, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We'll see if that attracts someone. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 21:21, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like "first woman journalists:. "...who broke the gender barrier:" I'd make the more specific addition "...the gender barrier that confined women in journalism to gossip columns, fashion and other 'women's subjects'".

Beyond grammatical error in the first line, perhaps what is needed is focus and clarity about the subject. As it stands the first line refers to a pen name and not the title of the article so we need to clear that up as well. I suggest using the article Mark Twain as an example as to how to incorporate the article title for now unless there is a better example such as an author who has a GA or Feature article.--Amadscientist (talk) 22:32, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Done

WP:orphan

We need to think about where to link this, and do something about it. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 20:03, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I notice 3 articles that link to this one, that probably you linked (if so, thanks!).

--Doug Coldwell ^talk 20:32, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Byname

I note that in some legal documents (the trust for example) she uses Mildred Seydel with one "L". While it is apparent in the references, we don't put that in as an express statement. Should it be there? Is there a redirect from that? Any opinions on that? 7&6=thirteen (☎) 20:32, 28 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bogus claim in lead - "broke the gender barrier"

I just noticed that the lead paragraph repeats a claim made in two sources (frankly, one of them probably copied the other) that Seydell "broke the gender barrier in the state" (of Georgia). Its possible that Seydell herself believed this, and the verbiage may have originated with her press bio. But the problem is it is nonsense. This article and its sources make it clear that Seydell began her career in 1922 and didn't work in Georgia until 1924. Here are several counter-examples I've found in my travels on Wikipedia, all are well sourced in their own articles:

Sarah Porter Hillhouse published a newspaper herself after her husband died in 1803
Zula Brown Toole founded her own newspaper in 1897 and wrote & published it for 40+ years
Nora Lawrence Smith wrote for her father's newspaper as early as 1905 and took it over and ran it for over 50 years
Emily Barnelia Woodward was the editor of the Vienna News in 1916, and owned it outright a few years later. She was the first woman president of the Georgia Press Association.

And there are others. So unless someone can explain to me what gender barrier that Seydell broke that these other women hadn't already smashed, I'm going to remove it. I will leave "pioneering female journalist in Georgia" as that part is demonstrably correct. --Krelnik (talk) 23:40, 22 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've discussed this with the original author of this article on their talk page, and there was no objection to rewording it. I'm doing it now. --Krelnik (talk) 11:09, 25 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]