THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Madeline Karr Amgott

August 31, 1921 – July 19, 2014

“There were years when people didn’t hesitate to ask, ‘Are you married? Are you pregnant? Do you have children?’ I would say either, ‘It’s none of your business,’ which meant I wouldn’t get the job, or I would lie and say I didn’t have any kids.” – Madeline Amgott, the 1975 Matrix winner for Broadcasting, admitted to pretending she did not have a husband or children in order to get good jobs.

Television news and film producer. A pioneer of early television news. Worked with Muriel Fox and Betty Friedan as the press contact for national NOW’s founding announcement. Working on “Not For Women Only,” she put all major women feminists on Barbara Walters’ show in the 1970s. Honored at the Veterans Feminists of America Salute to Feminist Writers at Barnard College, New York on April 26, 2002.

Photo. Madeline Amgott, right, moderates a debate between Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman and Bess Myerson in 1980. (Photo: Sara Krulwich, The New York Times)