Wartime Wednesday: Those Who Have Gone Before
As men headed overseas or moved into the defense jobs
during WWII, a void was created in every industry from agriculture to
manufacturing. Initially, employers were reluctant to hire women, instead using
prisoners of war, interned Japanese-Americans, and males too old or too young
to go into the armed forces. Eventually, companies realized that without using
women, production goals would never be met.
However, there was one industry that seemed to have no
shortage of men: journalism. Nearly every newspaper and magazine in the U.S.
from tiny weekly periodicals to national publications employed a man who covered
the conflict on location. In order to
be allowed in a war zone, a reporter had to be accredited. Accreditation was a
long, tedious process, but by the end of the war over 1,473 men and 127 women
had achieved that coveted status.
 |
| Martha Gellhorn and then husband Hemingway |
Despite their approval, many female correspondents
faced scorn, derision, and opposition in the form of refusal to transport them
to the front, as was part of the “deal” of being accredited. Instead, they had
to coerce, bribe, or charm their way onto jeeps, trucks, or ships. Collier’s journalist Martha Gellhorn
wrote in a letter to military authorities, “I have too frequently received the impression
that women war correspondents were an irritating nuisance. I wish to point out
that none of us would have our jobs unless we knew how to do them, and this
curious condescending treatment is as ridiculous as it is undignified.”
 |
| Dickey Chappelle |
Unable to get to Normandy on D-Day any other way,
Gellhorn stowed away on a hospital ship. When told by one hard-nosed general
that he didn’t want his Marines to have to pull up their pants because she was
around Dickey Chappelle responded, “That won’t bother me one bit. My object is
to cover the war.” And ex-fashion photographer Lee Miller managed to make her
way to Dachau where she captured pictures of the camp’s liberation. These women
the other 124 correspondents exhibited grit and grace to get the job done.
My forthcoming release, Under Fire, features War Correspondent/Amateur Sleuth Ruth Brown.
It is my hope that her story will honor those correspondents who forged the
trail for future generations of women who can now choose to do or be anything
they want.
