Susan Faludi: Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist

Susan Faludi, at the book fair in Gothenburg, Sweden 2008.Jan Ainali via Wikimedia Commons

American feminist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Susan Faludi was born on April 18^th, 1959, in Queens, New York to Jewish parents Marylin and Stefánie Faludi.[1] Stefánie Faludi was born in Hungary as István Friedman and emigrated to the United States after the Holocaust to become a photographer. Fairly late in her life, Stefánie came out as a transgender woman; she underwent sex reassignment surgery at 76 years old.[2] Her transition inspired one of Susan’s most notable works, In the Darkroom.

Susan Faludi’s interest in journalism was sparked in the fifth grade after conducting polls to assess the political opinions of her classmates, such as how many of them supported the Equal Rights Amendment or how many opposed the Vietnam War.[3] During her time at Harvard, she was the Managing Editor of the university’s student paper, The Harvard Crimson. Following her graduation summa cum laude in 1981, Faludi began working as a copy clerk for The New York Times. She also worked as a reporter for both The Miami Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (then known as the Atlanta Constitution) and later The San Jose Mercury News.

In 1991, Faludi won the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for a report published in The Wall Street Journal on the leveraged buyout (or a company’s acquisition of another company) of the American supermarket chain Safeway Stores Inc..[4] The Pulitzer committee argued that the report “revealed the human costs of high finance.”[5]

Later that year, Faludi released her first book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. In the book she highlighted the wave of backlash against feminism in the 1980s, largely due to widespread negative stereotypes about career-focused women. In the decades since the booked has maintained its status as a must-read feminist text, with writers continuing to reference and reflect on its content as recently as 2022.[6] Feminism has been a consistent underpinning of much of Faludi’s work; she has written numerous feminist essays and reports throughout her career. Some of her feminist essays include ‘American Electra: Feminism’s Ritual Matricide,’ (2010) ‘Facebook feminism, like it or not,’ (2013) and ‘Feminism Made a Faustian Bargain With Celebrity Culture. Now It’s Paying the Price,’ (2022).

In her 2007 book The Terror Dream, Faludi examines the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, through a feminist lens; she argues that attitudes towards women in the U.S. became increasingly hostile in the aftermath of the attacks, as women were viewed as weak and in need of protection by men. The reception was mixed, with some praising Faludi for her research and analysis, and others criticizing her for “exaggerating and myth-making.”[7]

Faludi’s most recent book, In the Darkroom (2016), inspired by her father’s transition to womanhood. The book won the Kirkus Prize for non-fiction in 2016 and was a finalist in the Biography category of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize.[8]

Susan Faludi has dedicated her career to the advocacy for women’s rights and equality. Her work has highlighted the plight of women and offered analyses of ongoing patterns of inequality and misogyny.

To read more about Susan Faludi’s work and view her upcoming events, visit https://susanfaludi.com/index.html.

[1] Susan Faludi. [Online] Available https://susanfaludi.com/bio.html.2024.

[2] Faludi, Susan. Susan Faludi: ‘In My World, Photographs Lie’. [Online] Available https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/susan-faludi-in-my-world-photographs-lie/.2017.

[3] Susan Faludi American journalist and author. [Online] Available https://www.britannica.com/biography/Susan-Faludi.2024.

[4] Susan Faludi. [Online] Available https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Faludi.2024.

[5] The 1991 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Explanatory Journalism. [Online] Available https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/susan-c-faludi.2024.

[6] https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/the-real-backlash-never-ended

[7] Susan Faludi. [Online] Available https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Faludi.2024.

[8] Ibid.