Filmmaker Michèle Midori Fillion's documentary explores how women broke through the gender barriers of wartime journalism during World War II. Before the 1940s, the thought of a woman reporting on any large-scale conflict was beyond comprehension. But there were some who had worked their way up through the journalistic ranks and weren't just ready but also willing and eager to go. Although winning initial approval, these women were then informed that they wouldn't be allowed to report from the frontlines. Fed up with writing articles focused on makeup tips, a few women broke the rules to get the story they wanted, and in the process changed the way we look at combat. Narrated by Julianna Margulies, No Job For a Woman focuses on wire service reporter Ruth Cowan, magazine journalist (and wife of Ernest Hemingway) Martha Gellhorn, and photographer Dickey Chapelle. Three actors read from the written words of the main characters, while historians and women working the war beat today offer perspective. The documentary boasts impressive archival footage, including photos by Chapelle, who went on to the frontlines in Vietnam, where she was killed by a landmine. Gellhorn and Cowan are both recognized for seeing what most of their male counterparts didn't: namely, that the true cost of war isn't measured in a body count, but in all of the lives destroyed and disrupted in the wake of battle. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (H. Seggel)
No Job For a Woman: The Women Who Fought to Report WWII
(2011) 61 min. DVD: $89: public libraries & high schools; $295: colleges & universities. Women Make Movies. PPR. Volume 27, Issue 5
No Job For a Woman: The Women Who Fought to Report WWII
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