A Case Of Identity

Anne Bernays weighs in on the dilemma of being a feminist

My mother, Doris Fleischman, was a feminist with regrets. I was determined to avoid her mistakes. Although, looking back, I have quite a few regrets of my own.

In 1915, my mother talked her way into becoming the first female journalist to cover a boxing match for a major newspaper, the New York Tribune. When she married my father, Edward Bernays, in 1922, she was intent on remaining Miss Fleischman. She made headlines for checking in under her birth name at the Waldorf Astoria on their wedding night, and then again, three years later, when she became the first married woman to obtain a US passport in her own name. For decades, she partnered with my father at their public relations firm. She published hundreds of articles and a book encouraging working women.