Maureen Dowd facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Maureen Dowd
Dowd in 2008
Born	Maureen Brigid Dowd (1952-01-14) January 14, 1952 (age 73) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Education	Catholic University of America (BA)
Occupation	Journalist
Years active	1974–present
Employer	The Washington Star (1974–1981) Time (1981–1983) The New York Times (1983–present)

Maureen Brigid Dowd (born January 14, 1952) is an American journalist and writer. She is famous for writing columns for The New York Times, a major newspaper.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Dowd worked for The Washington Star and Time magazine. She wrote about news, sports, and other interesting topics. In 1983, she joined The New York Times as a reporter. By 1995, she became a writer for the newspaper's opinion section. Later, in 2014, Dowd also started writing for The New York Times Magazine.

In 1999, Maureen Dowd won a special award called the Pulitzer Prize. She received it for a series of columns she wrote about a big political event known as the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.

Dowd's columns often talk about politics, Hollywood movies, and topics related to gender. Her writing style is sometimes compared to political cartoons. This is because she often uses humor and exaggeration to make points about politics and culture. Some people have criticized her writing about famous women, saying it was unfair.

Early Life and Career in Journalism

Maureen Dowd was born in Washington, D.C., on January 14, 1952. She was the youngest of five children. Her mother, Margaret, was a housewife, and her father, Mike Dowd, was a police inspector in Washington, D.C.

In 1969, Dowd finished high school at Immaculata High School. She then went to the Catholic University of America. In 1973, she earned a degree in English.

Dowd began her journalism career in 1974 at the Washington Star newspaper. She started by taking dictation, which means writing down what someone else said. Later, she became a sports columnist, a reporter for city news, and a feature writer. When the Washington Star closed in 1981, Dowd worked for Time magazine.

In 1983, Dowd joined The New York Times. She first worked as a reporter covering the New York City area. By 1986, she became a correspondent in the Times' Washington office.

Dowd received several awards early in her career. In 1991, she won a Breakthrough Award from Columbia University. She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her national reporting. In 1994, she won a Matrix Award from the New York Association for Women in Communications.

Maureen Dowd as a New York Times Columnist

In 1995, Maureen Dowd became a regular columnist for The New York Times' op-ed page. This is a special section where writers share their opinions. She took over from another famous writer, Anna Quindlen.

Dowd has received many honors for her work. Glamour magazine named her a Woman of the Year in 1996. In 1999, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her excellent commentary. She also won the Damon Runyon Award for journalism in 2000. In 2005, she was the first speaker for a special lecture series at the University of Texas at Austin.

Her columns are known for their sharp and often strong opinions. She often writes about powerful people, especially politicians, like former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. She also likes to give nicknames to the people she writes about. For example, she called former President Bush "W" and former Vice President Dick Cheney "Big Time." She even called former President Barack Obama "Spock" and "Barry."

Some people criticized her early in her career for focusing too much on politicians' personalities. They felt she didn't focus enough on their policies.

Dowd sees her columns as a way to explore politics, Hollywood, and gender topics. She often uses popular culture, like movies, to help explain her political ideas. For example, she once said that the North Korean government acted like characters in the movie Mean Girls. She meant they were like high school girls who wanted attention.

Her columns are often compared to political cartoons. They capture a funny or exaggerated view of what's happening in politics. For instance, before the 2000 presidential election, she wrote about Democratic candidate Al Gore in a very exaggerated way.

In August 2014, it was announced that Dowd would become a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. Her first article for the magazine was published more than a year later.

Criticism for Portrayals of Public Figures

Maureen Dowd has faced criticism for how she wrote about some public figures, especially women. Clark Hoyt, who was the public editor for The New York Times at the time, once said her writing about women could be seen as unfair.

For example, a study in 2009 looked at how Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were written about during the 2008 election. It noted that Dowd had described Palin as a "Barbie" because of her past in beauty pageants.

Other people have criticized Dowd for focusing a lot on Hillary Clinton. During the 2008 Democratic primary election, Dowd wrote an article titled "Can Hillary Clinton Cry Herself Back to the White House?". A study in 2016 said this article seemed to suggest that showing emotions was a sign of weakness for women. Dowd also wrote a column where she compared Hillary Clinton to the "Terminator". This made Clinton seem like a tough, unstoppable robot. In 2013, a researcher named Jessica Ritchie said that these descriptions made Clinton's attempt to become president seem wrong or unnatural.

According to Clark Hoyt, Dowd's columns about Clinton often used language that made her seem like a "50-foot woman" or a "conniving film noir dame." An analysis in 2014 by the group Media Matters looked at 21 years of Dowd's columns about Hillary Clinton. They found that most of her columns (72%) that mentioned Clinton were negative.

During the 2016 presidential election, Dowd wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times called "Donald the Dove, Hillary the Hawk." In it, she suggested that Donald Trump was against the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. However, before her article was published, other reports showed that Trump had actually supported the invasion. Later, during Trump's presidency, critics said his actions did not match what Dowd had written about his foreign policy views.

In the 2020 presidential election, Dowd wrote a column about Geraldine Ferraro. She incorrectly stated that the last time a man and a woman ran together on the Democratic ticket was in 1984. Hillary Clinton joked about this mistake, saying that she and Tim Kaine must have imagined their 2016 campaign. The New York Times later corrected the column. It clarified that 1984 was the last time a male Democratic presidential candidate chose a woman as his running mate.

Personal Life

Maureen Dowd is single. She has dated some well-known people in the past. These include Aaron Sorkin, who created the TV show The West Wing, actor Michael Douglas, and her fellow New York Times columnist John Tierney.

Honors and Awards

In 2004, Dowd received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement. This award was presented by Neil Sheehan at a special summit in Chicago.

In 2012, the NUI Galway university in Ireland gave her an honorary doctorate degree.

Besides winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for Commentary, she was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her national reporting.