Chris Dubbs - An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I

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, 19191941

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 womans story is unique, and all of them are compelling.

Edward G. Lengel, author of Never in Finer Company: The Men of the Great Wars Lost Battalion

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

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, 19141918

Chris Dubbs

Foreword by Judy Woodruff

Potomac Books

An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press

2020 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska

Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover image is from the interior.

Author photo courtesy of the author.

Portions of chapter 8 are reproduced from American Journalists in the Great War: Rewriting the Rules of Reporting by Chris Dubbs and are used by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 2017 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska.

All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dubbs, Chris (Military historian) author. | Woodruff, Judy, author.

Title: An unladylike profession: American women war correspondents in World War I / Chris Dubbs; foreword by Judy Woodruff.

Description: Lincoln: Potomac Books, and imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, 2020.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019053513

ISBN 9781640123069 (hardback)

ISBN 9781640123175 (epub)

ISBN 9781640123182 (mobi)

ISBN 9781640123199 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH : World War, 19141918Press coverageUnited States. | Women war correspondentsUnited StatesBiography. | Women journalistsUnited StatesBiography.

Classification: LCC D 632 . D 83 2020 | DDC 070.4/499403092520973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019053513

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Judy Woodruff

In the early decades of the twenty-first century, Americans dont think theres anything unusual about women putting themselves at risk to report the news, from war zones and post-conflict arenas to countries where any truth-seeking press is considered a threat. On the PBS NewsHour, where I work, correspondent Marcia Biggs has been on the scene repeatedly in recent years as bullets flew and bombs exploded in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, while Jane Ferguson built a career reporting from hot spots in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Both, along with CNN s Christiane Amanpour and many other women, have been among the first reporters on the front lines when conflict breaks outnot to mention in places where theres profound political instability, making it unsafe for journalists to go poking around, asking questions.

Of course it hasnt always been this way. Todays intrepid female reporters stand on the shoulders of women who pioneered in the role. Women had to fight for a place in the ranks of the press covering World War II and even decades later in Vietnam. But it was during the Great War, World War I, that women began showing up, against all odds, laying the groundwork for women who would, much later, follow their example. Whether they wrote for news services and newspapers or womens magazines such as Good Housekeeping, a more common outlet then for female reporters, they had to persuade editors, colleagues, sources, and a skeptical public that they had what it took to report on some of the most dangerous places on earth at the time.

Despite the doubters and the lack of precedent, more than three dozen womenjournalists and writerstraveled overseas to be eyewitnesses. From 1914 until 1917, while the United States was neutral, and then, on different terms after the United States entered the war and became a participant, for the final year and a half, they made their way to the western front and all the belligerent countries and wrote dispatches that often told the backstory of the war, the hospitals, and even the homes where they found not only wounded soldiers but the lives of women and children turned upside down by conflict. Since the combined World War I death toll of military and civilians ran over sixteen million, there were countless stories to tell. These women reporters helped bring those stories to American audiences, shaping the narrative of this brutal conflict that ranks among the deadliest in human history.

They were not given the access to the front lines or the freedom to write about everything they knew: governments were determined to control what the public learned. But these women broke down barriers regardless: they showed up against all odds. They made it harder for news editors and publishers to turn women down two decades later, when World War II broke out. And they served as role models for women in years to come, giving them confidence to take on assignments that had been male dominated, from politics to business, from war zones to smoke-filled rooms. Every wave of women set the stage for the next wave. As women journalists today look back, we are grateful.

In An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I Chris Dubbs rediscovers the American women who reported World War I. His dramatic retelling of their stories captures their distinctive voices, their persistence against official obstacles, and their unique womens angle on the war. The veteran newspaperwomen, freelancers, novelists taking a turn at war corresponding, suffragist and pacifist reporters, the German American correspondent who thought Germany was being unfairly maligned, the mother reporting the war for other mothers, and the fearless Eleanor Franklin Egan intent on reporting the Armenian genocideafter a century they make another appearance on the stage, and we see just how rich was their contribution to the history of the Great War.

During the several years it took to research and write this book, I relied upon the encouragement and expertise of many generous friends and professionals. Archivists at universities and historical societies helped me sort through dusty tomes and obscure electronic files. People I met online warmed to the project and lent a hand. David Miller sleuthed out Nellie Bly photographs. Lucy London drew on her exceptional knowledge of women in World War I to answer many questions. Mark Fastoso connected me to people. Pamela Moore ventured into the National Archives to retrieve a photograph that hadnt seen the light of day for over a century.