“I've always had the feeling that nothing is impossible if one applies a certain amount of energy in the right direction. If you want to do it, you can do it.” Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was a groundbreaking journalist who put her life on the line to help women, including pushing for better working conditions in factories and going undercover at an asylum where women were being detained against their will.
Growing Up Female in the 1880s
Born in Pennsylvania in 1864, Elizabeth Cochrane (Nellie Bly was her pen name) was the thirteenth of fifteen children. Her father died when she was six years old and she was forced to drop out of college after one semester due to lack of funds.
When she was 19, she read an article in her local paper titled, “What Girls Are Good For,” that said that women were made for birthing children and keeping house, not having careers. She was livid and wrote a scathing response. The editor of the paper read her response and placed an ad in the paper, asking the author to identify themselves. She did and he hired her as a journalist. In her first article, she argued that not all women get married and that what was actually needed was better jobs for women, not telling them to get back in the kitchen.
Starting Her Career in Journalism
Nellie wrote many articles for her local paper, including an investigative series about the lives of women who worked at local factories and the dismal conditions at those factories. Though her articles were popular, the factory owners complained and over time, Nellie’s editor relegated her to a narrower scope–women’s matters, meaning fashion and housekeeping.
But Nellie was not deterred, at 21 years old she decided to move to Mexico and write dispatches as a foreign correspondent. She spent six months in Mexico, learning and writing about the lives and customs of Mexicans and eventually, her reports were published in book form, titled Six Months in Mexico.
Pioneering Investigative Journalism
Nellie then moved to New York to pursue hard-hitting, investigative journalism, eventually landing a job at the New York World. There, she pitched a dangerous story idea—Nellie had heard that perfectly sane women were being committed to psychiatric institutions, often by their husbands who were trying to “teach them a lesson” so they would become more subservient wives and mothers. She wanted to go undercover, pretend to be mentally ill, so she was committed and then interview the women and find out the real story. If things were really as bad as she’d heard, she hoped to improve the conditions in these facilities and help to free the women who were sane.
Her editor was skeptical at first but eventually, Nellie was allowed to write the story. She did her best to feign mental illness and after being examined by a doctor, a police officer, and a judge, she was admitted to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island (now known as Roosevelt Island). What she found there was monstrous, especially for immigrant women who did not speak English.
“Here was a woman taken without her own consent from the free world to an asylum and there given no chance to prove her sanity,” Nellie explained. “Confined most probably for life behind asylum bars, without even being told in her language the why and wherefore. Compare this with a criminal, who is given every chance to prove his innocence. Who would not rather be a murderer and take the chance for life than be declared insane, without hope of escape?”
Even though she acted perfectly sane after she was admitted, she was still subjected to awful treatment in the asylum.
“My teeth chattered and my limbs were goose-fleshed and blue with cold. Suddenly I got, one after the other, three buckets of water over my head—ice-cold water, too—into my eyes, my ears, my nose and my mouth. I think I experienced the sensation of a drowning person as they dragged me, gasping, shivering and quaking, from the tub. For once I did look insane.”
After 10 days in the asylum, her editor ensured her release and Nellie wrote her article, detailing the horrendous conditions and how women without mental health conditions were being detained against their will. She also called for the doctors, who were, of course, defensive after her article came out, to take a hard look at themselves.
“I would like the expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability, to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and make her sit from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. on straight-back benches, do not allow her to talk or move during these hours, give her no reading and let her know nothing of the world or its doings, give her bad food and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane. Two months would make her a mental and physical wreck.”
As a result of her reporting, the asylum was revamped, doctors and nurses were fired, and many of the women were freed.
World Traveler, Inventor and Industry Leader
Soon after, Nellie decided to take on another groundbreaking challenge—she wanted to travel around the world in less than 80 days, breaking the fictional record from the novel Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. Thanks to her newfound fame from her asylum piece, her trip garnered major media attention across the globe. With stops in several countries, including England, France, Sri Lanka and Japan, she arrived back in New York after 72 days, beating the fictional record.
Nellie continued to work as a journalist in her twenties, pushing for equal rights for women and fair working conditions for the disenfranchised.
In her thirties, she married the President of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, Robert Seaman. Her curious, brilliant mind lit up at the chance to learn about her husband’s industry and how she could best contribute to it. Nellie visited the factory floor, interviewing engineers and workers, and learning everything she could about the business. Eventually, she even worked on two patented inventions that bear her name—a novel milk can and stackable garbage cans.
After her husband died, Nellie took over the business and provided health benefits and recreational facilities for the employees. Unfortunately, the men in charge of the finances embezzled money from the company and ran it into financial ruin, and it closed.
Nellie then returned to journalism, reporting from the Eastern Front during World War I. She was the first woman and one of the first foreigners to visit the war zone between Austria and Serbia, and she was even arrested when she was briefly mistaken for a British spy. Upon her return to the United States, her health gradually declined and she retired.
Nellie Bly died of pneumonia at the age of 57 in New York.
Nellie Bly pioneered the art of investigative journalism, and boldly pursued justice for women and the disenfranchised. Instead of accepting the status quo for what women were supposed to be and write about in her time period, she wrote about the immense challenges and issues affecting people who didn’t have a voice, and she wasn’t afraid to put herself in danger to do so. Nellie was brave, forthright and true to herself and her values.
As Nellie said, “I have never written a word that did not come from my heart, and I never shall.”
At Strong Female, we’re telling the stories of unsung heroines, bringing light to their challenges and how they overcame them. Women like Nellie Bly, who pushed the boundaries of convention and blazed a trail of equality and achievement for not only the women of their generation but for generations to come. We’re also supporting nonprofits that help women from underserved communities. When you purchase from Our Shop, 100% of the profits go to our campaign for a nonprofit helping women learn, grow and thrive.