Virginia (Ginny) Sherlock was a "newsman" with the Associated Press from 1972 to 1978 who became a named plaintiff in the Title VII sex discrimination case against the Associated Press. She was interviewed for this project because she went to work with the AP at a time when women journalists on the wire services were not common, and she became one of the few women desk supervisors at the AP. She was also a highly regarded journalist and editor. She eventually sacrificed her career with the AP by becoming a named plaintiff. Her interviews are interesting not only for what they say about the role of women in journalism and the intricacies of Title VII legislation, but also for what they reveal about the mechanics of wire service journalism at what she calls "the best training ground in the world," the Associated Press.
Virginia Sherlock entered journalism at a time when most women journalists were limited to writing for the "women's pages," but in part because of the influence of her father, a well-known journalist in New York in the thirties and later a journalism professor at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, she had always wanted to be a journalist who reported the hard news-"fires and murders and riots," etc. After starting her career as "girl-type" reporter and working as an editor in Cincinnati, she became a newsman (now "newsperson") with the Associated Press in Boston, where she worked for two years before being transferred to the news desk in New York. There she worked as a supervisor for the AP, as well as writing "enterprise" stories of her own. She first became involved with the Wire Service Guild suit against the Associated Press while she was still in Boston and continued to work primarily behind the scenes, although becoming increasingly more active, in collecting information for the suit once she moved to New York. She became persuaded to become a named plaintiff in the course of the suit when she realized that the male newspeople working around her were making considerably more than she was. The economic issue was of vital importance to her decision to become a named plaintiff. Once she became a named plaintiff, however, it became clear that her opportunities for advancement were limited, if not nonexistent, and she also suffered from retaliatory measures from AP management. Finally in 1978 she resigned from the AP, moved to Maine, and became a columnist and editor with a newspaper chain there.
She became interested in the law while she was in Maine, and her columns reveal her efforts to bring the issue of the scarcity of women judges to the forefront. She and her husband, Patrick Sherlock, moved to Stuart, Florida, in 1986, where she worked for several years as a legal assistant before returning to Maine in 1988 and 1989 to attend law school for a year. Transferring to law school in Florida in 1989, she worked as a law clerk while she was in school, receiving her degree in 1991. In the interviews she comments several times on how the skills she learned as a journalist—the ability to conduct research and write copy quickly—have been beneficial to her in her law career.
We recorded the interviews in her law office in Stuart over two weekends in November of 1992 and February of 1993. Three of the interviews were audiotaped and the final interview was videotaped.
Before interviewing her, I conducted research in the available literature on women journalists and Title VII lawsuits of the 1970s and 1980s. She made her collection of papers—primarily articles and columns from her years as a journalist—available to me prior to the interview. I also had access to pertinent articles from the Women in the Media publication as well as copies of legal documents pertaining to the lawsuit from the Donna Allen papers at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri-Columbia. During the course of the interview I also gained access to Maureen Connolly's papers and Sherlock's deposition by the AP attorneys. In addition, I conducted research and had already recorded oral history interviews regarding the NBC sex discrimination case, therefore I was familiar with the legal requirements for filing such a suit, the progress of that suit, and the plaintiff lawyer who handled both the NBC and AP cases.
Virginia Sherlock changed her name legally at the time of her marriage, but her professional byline was always her maiden name, Ginny Pitt. Her interviews should be cross referenced under all of her legal and professional names, as well as her nickname, Ginny Sherlock.
Lesley Williams Brunet
October 1993
Sherlock, Virginia Page (Pitt), attorney at law, former journalist; born Huntington, West Virginia, February 21, 1945; B.A., Journalism and English, with honors, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, 1970; postgraduate: J.D., Florida State University College of Law, Tallahassee, Florida, May, 1991; Honors: Book Awards in Insurance Law, Arbitration, Copyright Law, Spring, 1990, First Prize, FSU Nathan Burkan Memorial Writing Competition, Spring 1990. Reporter, Cincinnati Enquirer (internship), 1968; reporter, editor, Cincinnati Post, 1970-1972; reporter, editor, Associated Press, 1972-1978; columnist, editor, Guy Gannett Publishing Company, Portland, Maine, 1978-1986; legal secretary, 1986-1988; paralegal, law clerk, 1988-1991; attorney at law, Stuart, Florida, 1991 to present.