"The women is this book are truly courageous. That doesn't mean they didn't feel fear, or anxiety, or darkness. It means they went ahead anyway and did what they believed they had to do. It was their journalism that was fearless, and through it, each of these women changed the world in some way."
I like these books that give a taste of the lives of the people they are describing. They are well-researched and provide pertinent and important glimpses into those lives. In this book we meet ten women whose business is journalism and writing. They have risked much to tell their stories and to keep the world attuned to events that impact world communities. They work in radio, television, print media and on the Internet. They show us the importance of journalism to our society, and their stories force us to come to terms with the difficulties they face in trying to bring them to light. They all take risks. Too often we are bombarded with celebrity and sports gossip that has little impact on us, but encourages the feeling that we are entitled to know the most intimate and personal details of those lives.
These women show strength, tenacity and bravery, while facing ridicule and giving up much personally, as they bring us news from all corners of the world.
The stories begin in 1823 with the birth of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an abolitionist who worried not a whit about making people angry. She seemed to glory in doing so. She was the first black woman editor in North America and she stood tall and proud as she strove to abolish slavery and make life better for her people. Nellie Bly was adventurous and daring. She went inside an asylum to report conditions there. She proved that she could go around the world in 72 days, because she said she would. Margaret Bourke-White decided early that she wanted to do everything that women of the time were not allowed to do. Her photographs of the despair on the faces of the people of the Dust Bowl led to her work with Life magazine.
Doris Anderson was not a young woman who 'knew her place'...she wanted a voice at a time when women were encouraged to be seen and not heard. She became editor of Chatelaine magazine, changing its focus and encouraging its female readers to learn to take care of themselves. Barbara Frum (can it be almost 20 years since her untimely death?)asked for a pony when he was 6, her mother said 'no' the neighbors would not like it. She promptly marched up and down the street to check her mother's story, returning with a paper signed by all saying they didn't mind if she had a pony. Now, that's feisty and a sign of things to come. Her advice for interviews was to 'use as few words as possible to ask your questions and then get out of the way'...wise advice for the ages. Katie Couric was the first woman to host morning TV. When she was interviewing Barbara Bush in 1992 and a genial President George Bush offered an impromptu visit and talk, she made national headlines...a first! Russian Anna Politkovskaya's words did not win favor with her country and its government and she was murdered for speaking out against what she believed was an unjust war...of racial hatred and abuse. Pam Oliver helped pave the way for women who were interested in sports journalism. She worked tirelessly at reporting and once refused a job with ESPN, thinking she did not have the experience needed. She has achieved great success as a sideline reporter in the NFL.
Afghani Farida Nekzad fled her home, never to return, when the Taliban came to power. Five years later, she returned home hoping to help her people. Life as a journalist in Afghanistan is full of threats and constant danger, but she will not back down. She runs an independent news agency and fights for her daughter so that she will have the freedom of speech so many do not have. Thembi Nugbane from South was a black woman who recorded her own fight against AIDS, chronicling what she was experiencing and thinking as an AIDS sufferer. She thought her writing and speaking would encourage others to let go of the shame and deal with the illness.
What a truly worthy group of women!
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