Women War Reporters

Patrick Bishop, a weathered Sunday Telegraph war reporter recalls an instance from 1986, six years into the Iran-Iraq War, when he was imparting his pearls of military wisdom to Marie Colvin, the new American journalist. He was explaining incoming and outgoing explosions to her when an incoming one exploded near them. He dove for cover while Colvin remained standing, looking amused. Colvin, a London Sunday Times foreign journalist went on to become one of the most well know female war reporters of all time. She was known for her eye patch after she lost the sight in her left eye due to a blast by a Sri Lankan Army rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) in 2001. She was later killed while covering the siege of Homs in Syria in 2012. The fact that female journalists are more willing to forsake the traditional roles of wife, girlfriend and mother for a year of living dangerously could also affect their reporting. The woman who chooses to be a war reporter is clearly moving out of a traditional female role. In …show more content…
Maggie Allison’s “Roles in Conflict: The Woman War Reporter” and “Women War Correspondents and the Battles They Overcame to Succeed” by Angela Ness are a few of the many papers that have been published on the topic. This subject though complex, provides a great insight into the psyche of reporters, men and women alike as well as the natives and the military in the country of conflict. How all these stakeholders engage with each other is truly fascinating and women play a big role in the entire process. The sociological and socio economic impact of women on the natives as already mentioned with the term ‘third gender’ is very interesting. With many young people taking courses in gender studies, sociology and political science, studying the lives of these women reporters in conflicted areas serves as a rich resource of