Australian Women War Reporters Boer War to Vietnam

Why do Australians know the names of Charles Bean, Alan Moorehead and Chester Wilmot, but not Agnes Macready, Anne Matheson and Lorraine Stumm?

 

This is the hidden story of Australian and New Zealand women war reporters who fought for equality with their male colleagues and filed stories from the main conflicts of the twentieth century.

 

In Australian Women War Reporters, Jeannine Baker provides a much-needed account of the pioneering women who reported from the biggest conflicts of the twentieth century. Two women covered the South African War at the turn of the century, and Louise Mack witnessed the fall of Antwerp in 1914. Others such Anne Matheson, Lorraine Stumm and Kate Webb wrote about momentous events including the rise of Nazism, the liberation of the concentration camps, the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the Cold War conflicts in Korea and Southeast Asia. These women carved a path for new generations of female foreign correspondents who have built upon their legacy.

 

Jeannine Baker deftly draws out the links between the experiences of these women and the contemporary realities faced by women journalists of war, including Monica Attard and Ginny Stein, allowing us to see both in a new light.

Jeannine Baker is a postdoctoral fellow at Macquarie University. The thesis that was the starting point for this book was awarded the Dennis-Wettenhall Prize for the best Australian history postgraduate thesis at the University of Melbourne. She was the 2004 Nancy Keesing Fellow at the State Library of NSW. Jeannine is a former TV and radio producer herself.