An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I

by Chris Dubbs, Judy Woodruff (Foreword by)

Overview

When World War I began, war reporting was a thoroughly masculine bastion of journalism. But that did not stop dozens of women reporters from stepping into the breach, defying gender norms and official restrictions to establish roles for themselves—and to write new kinds of narratives about women and war.

Chris Dubbs tells the fascinating stories of Edith Wharton, Nellie Bly, and more than thirty other American women who worked as war reporters. As Dubbs shows, stories by these journalists brought in women from the periphery of war and made them active participants—fully engaged and equally heroic, if bearing different burdens and making different sacrifices. Women journalists traveled from belligerent capitals to the front lines to report on the conflict. But their experiences also brought them into contact with social transformations, political unrest, labor conditions, campaigns for women’s rights, and the rise of revolutionary socialism.

An eye-opening look at women’s war reporting, An Unladylike Profession is a portrait of a sisterhood from the guns of August to the corridors of Versailles.
 
Purchase the audio edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640123069
Publisher:	Potomac Books
Publication date:	07/01/2020
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Chris Dubbs is a military historian living in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and has worked as a newspaper journalist, editor, and publisher. He is the author of numerous books, including American Journalists in the Great War: Rewriting the Rules of Reporting (Nebraska, 2017) and America’s U-Boats: Terror Trophies of World War I (Nebraska, 2014). Judy Woodruff is the anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour and is a founding co-chair of the International Women’s Media Foundation. She is the author of “This is Judy Woodruff at the White House.”
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations    
Foreword by Judy Woodruff    
Acknowledgments    
Introduction    
1. Mary Boyle O’Reilly, First on the Scene    
2. Among the First Reporters    
3. The Saturday Evening Post’s Women’s War    
4. Novelist Journalists    
5. Status of Women in Warring Countries    
6. As the War Dragged On    
7. On Other Fronts    
8. War and Revolution in Russia        
9. Covering American Involvement    
10. After the Fighting    
Appendix: Journalists mentioned in An Unladylike Profession    
A Note on Sources    
Bibliography    
Index    

Editorial Reviews

“Dubbs tells his story with an unerring eye for unforgettable anecdotes and dramatic situations, nicely balanced by careful attention to historical background. He is a master at distilling complex historical information into readable and intelligent works for an audience of academics and non-academics alike.”—Steven Trout, author of On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance, 1919–1941

Steven Trout

“This superbly written book brings to life the achievements and personalities of almost three dozen women who challenged conventions and sometimes risked their lives to report on the First World War. Each woman’s story is unique, and all of them are compelling.”—Edward G. Lengel, author of Never in Finer Company: The Men of the Great War’s Lost Battalion

Edward G. Lengel

“With a host of wonderful stories, Dubbs shakes the dust of history off these women, restoring them to their rightful place in the history of World War I journalism. Delightful and illuminating.”—John-Daniel Kelley, coeditor of The AEF in Print: An Anthology of American Journalism in World War I

John-Daniel Kelley

“With this, his third book about World War I reporters, Dubbs has become the authority in this field. From the perspective of both the history of World War I and the history of journalism, this book offers much new information and many new insights.”—Ron van Dopperen, coauthor of American Cinematographers in the Great War, 1914–1918

Ron van Dopperen

"Chris Dubbs’s An Unladylike Profession jumps into the trenches with the women reporters of World War I—groundbreaking journalists who explained the war to readers in the US, and who shared stories from the war’s brutal aftermath."—Foreword Reviews

Foreword Reviews

"Dubbs . . . delivers a rousing narrative of adventurous women, passionate about their careers, who broke free from oppressive gender norms to accomplish their goals. Hand this book to World War I aficionados and casual history buffs."—Michelle Ross, Booklist

Booklist - Michelle Ross

"This slice of World War I history offers insights into American journalism as well as into the terrible conflict itself. . . . [Dubbs] writes with a sure hand, drawing from published articles, memoirs, diaries and letters. He skillfully presents each woman’s story in a linked series of riveting—sometimes heart-breaking—narratives. . . . Near the end of An Unladylike Profession, Mr. Dubbs remarks on the reporter’s duty to report the truth no matter how uncomfortable it might be. The journalists profiled in this absorbing book lived up to that responsibility."—Melanie Kirkpatrick, Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal - Melanie Kirkpatrick

★ 2020-03-22
In American Journalists in the Great War (2017), Dubbs barely mentioned the women reporters of World War I. This follow-up book is an impressive corrective.

The author explores the careers of nearly 40 courageous women who covered the war for newspapers, news syndicates, magazines, and other publications. Most of the principals will be unfamiliar to general readers, but their bylines were widespread from 1915 through 1919. Two of the most well-known names are the journalists who also found success as novelists: Edith Wharton, who worked for Scribner’s Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post; and Mary Roberts Rinehart, “America’s most popular mystery novelist when she traveled to Europe in 1915 to be a war correspondent.” Other recognizable names—at least to readers versed in the history of journalism—include Nellie Bly and Louise Bryant. In addition to the rich anecdotes and samplings of their reporting provided by Dubbs, period photographs enhance the engaging portrayal of wartime drama. Another strength of the book is the author's decision to focus not just on Western European countries, but also on the battlegrounds of Turkey, Armenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia. Of the newspapers and magazines hiring women to report about the war, the Saturday Evening Post was perhaps the most prominent and aggressive (and women-friendly), and Dubbs covers it appropriately. “While the Post’s coverage included the military, political, and economic components of war,” he writes, “its women correspondents showed…the impact on the home, family, and individual lives.” In her foreword, PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff admirably ties the reporting of women journalists currently covering global conflicts to the work of those during WWI: “Today’s intrepid female reporters stand on the shoulders of women who pioneered the role.” Readers will be inspired by the nearly unimaginable obstacles these journalists overcame to perform their jobs with flair.

A welcome history suitable for World War I aficionados and budding journalists.

Kirkus Reviews

This audiobook fills a major gap in the history of war correspondents during WWI, and Bernadette Dunne offers a narration that matches its importance. That’s not to say she presents a pompous, overly inflated effort; rather, she matches her tone and pacing to fit the text, keeping the narrative flowing and listeners engaged. For example, her voice is even during much of the exposition, but at the points where double standards governing male and female correspondents are obvious she matches the author’s near incredulity. Toward the end, her voice reflects the tragedy of the Armenian genocide. In all, this is an important story, well told and well narrated. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile