Geraldine Brooks is a former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and the author of several books, including Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over. She is a current Radcliffe Institute fellow.
"For a dozen years, war was the permanent condition of my beat," Brooks begins. "I was fortunate to have an inspiring model in Martha Gellhorn, a pioneering woman war correspondent. Her career shows that there can be many hurdles standing in the way of a woman who wants to do an unconventional job."
Both Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway wrote about World War II for Collier's Weekly Magazine. Brooks's colorful account of their experiences and perspectives depicts not only the difference between how male and female war correspondents were regarded but also the differing ways that male and female correspondents look at war. "Gellhorn filed a report that focused on the cost of the invasion and was full of vivid accounts of the wounded. Though she actually went on the beach as a stretcher bearer, she barely mentions herself in the piece." In contrast, Brooks reports "Collier's ran Hemingway's dispatch as their cover story. A six-page spread begins with this half-page photo of Papa Hemingway with the troops. He never went ashore, but you wouldn't know that from the piece, which is a self-aggrandizing account of how he virtually directed the landing and saved the day."
Brooks shares some of her own experiences as a war correspondent around the globe. She shares with irony her observation that, in countries not noted for gender equality, "the first right a woman generally is granted in a society that affords so very few is the right to fight and die as a soldier." She goes on to give examples of how that kind of sacrifice is often betrayed once the fighting ends.
She concludes "In war women may have won the right to be in the foxhole. But perhaps it's one right we should approach with extreme caution. If we want to test our courage and serve our country in the current climate, then I would argue that perhaps a woman's place is at the barricades, arguing for peace."
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