This Week in National Press Club History: First women members sworn in

MARCH 3, 1971: Twenty-four women are sworn in as the first female members of the National Press Club, after a historic January vote in favor of their admission, 227 to 56.

Forty-two Januarys later, Angela Greiling Keane is inaugurated as the 11th woman elected president of the Club.

Many distinguished women of great accomplishment in many fields have spoken at Club luncheons. Among them, in 2012, were Kathleen Turner, film and stage star and chairman of the Planned Parenthood Board of Advocates; Billie Jean King, tennis great and longtime advocate for sexual equality, Danica Patrick, champion NASCAR auto racing star, model, and advertising executive;, and Sister Mary Hughes, past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, about the current strained relationship between her organization and the Vatican.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s history through lobby displays, events, panel discussions and its oral history project.

For further information about the Committee and its activities, or to join it, contact Gilbert Klein at [email protected].

Compiled by Elizabeth Smith Brownstein with materials from the Club’s archives, the Wire, and Reliable Sources: 100 years at the National Press Club.