The Gridiron Club is often called the most prestigious group of Washington, D.C. journalists. For years the exclusive club limited its membership to men, but in 1975 Helen Thomas became the first woman admitted as a member. The Gridiron Club abandoned its men-only policy after several years of feminist protest.
A group called Journalists for Professional Equality had repeatedly held demonstrations on the night of the Gridiron Club's famous annual dinner. In 1971, as the women's liberation movement was gaining ground, the equality activists asked the powerful men of Washington to boycott the dinner because of the Gridiron policy excluding women. Later, presidential hopefuls such as Edmund Muskie and George S. McGovern spoke out against the sex discrimination in club membership.
In April of 1972, the Gridiron Club invited women to attend the annual dinner as guests for the first time in decades, although there were still no female members. Previously, Congresswoman Jeannete Rankin was the only woman to have been invited to an annual Gridiron dinner, in 1917. In 1972, the Gridiron Club sent invitations to nineteen women; fewer than half of those attended.
A headline in The New York Times said the Gridiron dinner had been "snubbed" by those who did not attend. The influential newspaper also reported which invited women chose to attend. Among them were Representative Martha Griffiths of Michigan, a key proponent of women's equality in Congress; Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of former President Theodore Roosevelt; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman and Nancy Hanks, who chaired the National Endowment for the Arts. Outside the dinner, female and male reporters continued to protest the sex discrimination in club membership. The presidential hopefuls George McGovern and Edmund Muskie, along with Representative Shirley Chisholm, opted not to attend the 1972 dinner.
In November of 1972, Carl Rowan was elected the first black member of the Gridiron Club.
In December 1973, the Gridiron Club members rejected a proposal to admit women. Although there were more votes in favor of admitting women to the club than against, the proposal did not get the required two-thirds majority vote.
In 1974, Journalists for Professional Equality held a "Counter-Gridiron" event on the same night as the official dinner. The Counter-Gridiron event had a carnival-like atmosphere, with music, dancing and fun booths run by politicians and other public figures.
Finally, at the Gridiron Club dinner held on March 22, 1975, Helen Thomas became the first woman member. In 1976, White House reporter Frances Lewine became the second woman to be a Gridiron Club member.