Women Journalists in World War I

What do you know about women journalists during World War I?

Probably little.

Because there weren’t many.

Indeed, the most famous “name” from that era, roughly 1914-1919, was a mystery writer, Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Others may be familiar with Peggy Hull.

Why weren’t there many?

Some of it had to do with the nature of war and female journalists in general.

In 1914, most women journalists worked the “soft” aspects of a newspaper. They wrote society columns and covered more “feminine” stories.

Nellie Bly, who found her way into journalism before the turn of the century, was a brash investigative reporter, but few emulated her with any success.

It also became a question of did the Army want women reporting near the front lines?

Male reporters had a difficult time getting close; propaganda flourished. For the most part, British journalism reported what the Army told them.

Missing the story?

My agitated would-be reporter Claire reacted to Lord Northcliffe in A Poppy in Remembrance this way:

Lord Northcliffe grabbed the envelope, scanned the note, and shook his head. “This doesn’t even justify a formal response. Inform Meacham we trust the generals; they’ll tell us what we need to know.”

“Are they giving you the full story?” Claire asked. “Reporters need at least two sources.”

He looked down his aristocratic nose at her. “We are in a battle for our lives, miss. I don’t need an American girl telling me how to report our war. Improper information can be deadly.”

“But if other countries think you’re distorting the truth, they might question what else you’re not reporting correctly. You could undermine the whole effort if you limit information.” Claire couldn’t believe she had to remind him of basic journalism ethics.

Northcliffe threw her out of his office.

Many reporters snuck to the front lines but military authorities caught and returned them to safety.

Indeed, soldiers were not allowed to carry the new and clever Brownie cameras, or even keep a diary.

The armies on the western front held the information tight–for a variety of reasons.

Women journalists were not considered suited for viewing the wretched trenches, much less reporting on them.

Needing accreditation?

The military used the accreditation process as its first line of control over war correspondents, and the War Department refused outright to accredit women.

As Claire’s father explained to Claire when they worked in Egypt,

“The Boston News Service hasn’t paid a bond for you. Under military regulations all copy has to be sent in my name.”

Claire slammed shut the file drawer. “Why?”

“The government has to accredit war correspondents. The BNS paid a $10,000 bond for me to work here. I must prove I’m worth the money.”

My protagonist persisted (see the book cover!)

What did the job entail?

Any reporter job means hunting down the story, questioning the facts and watching carefully.

Women could make good journalists because of their intuition–if they backed up their thoughts with facts.

As described in A Poppy in Remembrance:

“Claire picked up her pencil as an answer popped into her mind. “It’s one of the oldest reporter tricks. You remain silent and wait for your interviewee to blurt out information.”

You had to know when to be quiet and let the interviewee spill something important.

The sex factor could play a role, too, as Claire’s mother pointed out.

“You’ll strike gold eventually. Maybe you should flirt with higher-ranking officers.”

Claire winced. While guilt stabbed when she pumped innocents for information, she resented how the majors and their superiors patronized her. She wanted to be taken seriously, and it especially galled her when she realized she knew more than they did.

Anne studied her latest manicure. “A pretty young face could elicit important information from vain old men.”

Mostly, though, it included routine journalism work, hunting for the answers to “who, what, when, where, why and how?”

Where did women journalists go?

Rinehart got to the front lines because she traveled as a nurse (her prior profession) to visit hospitals in Belgium.

She just “happened” to get a tour of the western front

Even in her book written after her trip, Kings, Queens and Pawns, An American Woman at the Front, Rinehart couldn’t explain how she got access to travel and meet notables.

With propaganda raging on both sides of No-Man’s Land, she acknowledged she might have been used for propaganda purposes.

Roberts traveled under the auspices of the Red Cross with letters of transit and visas. Roberts also carried letters of recommendation from British Lord Admiral Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Sir John French, which opened doors.

Women journalists took any opportunity during the war to write a story. So, they covered orphanages, hospitals, YMCA entertainment, and even clothing drives if they could get near the front lines.

What types of magazines or newspapers hired women to cover WWI?

Knowing Rinehart’s past and connections, the Saturday Evening Post financed her trip to Europe three months after the war began.

Reporter Peggy Hull used her connections as a friend of General John Pershing (she covered the story of his 1916 hunt for Pancho Villa in Mexico) to cover World War I for the El Paso Morning Times.

She was the first female journalist accredited by the American Expeditionary Forces to cover the war. Hull designed and wore a female version of the AEF uniform while working.

Harriet Chalmers Adams, a renowned explorer before the war, wrote for Harper’s Magazine in 1916 and reputably visited the trenches.

According to Kathryn Davis in The Forgotten Life of Harriet Chalmers Adams: Geographer, Explorer, Feminist:

“Adams was issued a permit to visit the trenches on the French front lines. She spent three months touring the front, hospitals and munitions plans where women working had replaced men who were fighting.

“Adams was not only the first woman war correspondent allowed at the front, but also one of the few, male or female, permitted by the French government to photograph actual battle scenes.”

Corra Harris, a novelist, wrote about the angle that seemed to work, as well as the frustration:

“Men’s sacrifice in war is at least recorded by history…while women’s story goes untold.” She recognized that “being banned from the front because of their sex proved to be the biggest obstacle to women journalists” for professional advancement.”

Three Canadian Women

Three Canadian women set aside their society news and traveled to Europe to cover some aspects of the war.

Firing Lines Three Canadian Women Writer the First World War tells the story of  Beatrice Nasmyth, Mary MacLeod Moore, and Elizabeth Montizambert.

Author Debbie Marshall explained:

“They were very concerned with intimate details — how they [the soldiers] were doing in the hospital, their loneliness that they suffered overseas, the sacrifices that they were making … And often they [the reporters] would hear the less savory sides of war too. Because the men would trust them — you see, as women, they weren’t so scary to the men, they weren’t seen as being as serious in some senses.”

When did it change?

Women journalists showed enough chutzpah to get the attention of editors as the world struggled to make sense of the Great War.

The great humanitarian disaster of the war followed by the Spanish flu meant women gained opportunities to tell the stories.

Given a chance, just as the feminist of the time argued, women could do as good a job as a man in reporting the news.

By World War II, women journalists were more present and given more opportunities to get that elusive byline.

Some of them just had to survive World War I–like my heroine in A Poppy in Remembrance.

Tweetables

The trials of female journalists in World War I Click to Tweet

Did any female journalists make it to the front lines during WWI? Click to Tweet

How do you cover the story if you can’t get near it? Women in WWI. Click to Tweet

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