Eileen Shanahan, 77; Pioneering Female Economics Reporter

Eileen Shanahan, 77, a pioneering female economics reporter for the New York Times and a spokeswoman for the Jimmy Carter administration, died Thursday in Washington, D.C., after suffering from heart problems and rheumatoid arthritis.

In 1962, Shanahan became the first female reporter in the New York Times’ Washington bureau to cover anything but first ladies. She specialized in economics and edited annual Times sections on the federal budget before women were formally permitted to be editors.

In 1974, she was one of seven plaintiffs representing the newspaper’s female staff in a class-action suit seeking pay and assignments equal to those of men. The litigation revealed that, despite her veteran status, she was paid less than men of inferior experience. The knowledge caused her to leave the paper in anger in 1977, a year before the suit was settled.

After serving as public affairs officer for President Carter’s Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Shanahan became assistant managing editor of the Washington Star and then the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She was founding editor of Governing magazine and ended her career in 1994 as Washington correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times.