Joan Riddell Cook (January 5, 1922 in Portland, Oregon – February 5, 1995[1] in New York City) was an American newspaper journalist and editor, a trade union leader, and a founding director of the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS).
She was one of seven named plaintiffs in a class action Title VII sex discrimination lawsuit against the Times that was filed in 1974.
[5] Cook served as head of the Times unit of the New York City Newspaper Guild labor union and was only the second woman ever elected to the post.
Cook first joined JAWS (Journalism and Women Symposium) in 1989 and became a member of the first board of directors.
[5][6] Cook appears by name in The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men, and the New York Times by author Nan C. Robertson and A Place in the News: From the Women's Pages to the Front Page by Kay Mills.