Although women have come a long way in the news business, they experience both advantages and costs when reporting in danger zones, according to a panel discussion sponsored by the Commission on the Status of Women Saturday morning.

At the session, “Women Reporters in Danger: Have We Made Progress?,” Kim Landon, associate professor of journalism at Utica College in New York, led the discussion on women in these types of situations.
Landon said she began her reporting career in 1976—a time when women were sheltered from reporting in dangerous areas.

“That’s changed,” Landon said.

And her panel agreed.

“The pool of reporters…changed (during Sept. 11),” said Suzanne Huffman, professor of journalism at Texas Christian University “The women were down there—right there on it. There was no big policy discussion.”

As a result, Huffman said she co-authored a book with panel colleague Judith Sylvester, associate professor at Louisiana State University titled, “Women Journalists at Ground Zero: Covering Crisis,” to record the stories and experiences of women reporting from New York’s Ground Zero after Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

“Women were not being stopped or told ‘no,’” Huffman said. “They went on the job and stayed on the job,” she said.

In addition, Sylvester said for the book she interviewed a number of embedded female journalists working in Iraq..

“(They were) being allowed to go to the front with the men,” Sylvester said, “even when female military personnel couldn’t.”

Dana Hull, staff writer for “The San Jose Mercury News,” said she went to Baghdad as an unembedded reporter and experienced similar advantages.

Hull said she teamed up with a female Iraqi translator and visited the homes of local women, to find out if reconstruction was actually taking place.

The Iraqi women were more comfortable talking to women, Hull said. They told her: “The worst thing about the occupation is that our husbands are unemployed…and they are home driving us crazy.”

Nevertheless, Huffman said women experience conflict and stress related to their job and family duties.

You don’t have to be at Ground Zero to be in danger,” said Gretchen Dworznik, broadcasting instructor at Ashland University in Ohio.

Dworznik said reporters can psychologically suffer from the impact of other stories, such as fires, murders and car accident scenes.

Professionals who have constant contact with victims can suffer from something called, “compassion fatigue,” Dworznik said. And reporters are often reluctant to face it, she added—women especially.

Dworznik said women don’t express their feelings on the matter, because they are afraid they will look incompetent. But, Dworznik said that even health professionals and firefighters at Ground Zero had to get counseling for compassion fatigue.

In addition to compassion fatigue, Hull said that war reporting can take a toll on relationships. A lot of foreign correspondents are either single or divorced, she said.

“Their relationship with war (is) their relationship,” Hull said.

Hull said a 23-year-old Lebanese freelance photographer recently died on the scene in Beirut.

But, overall, Hull said she’s impressed with women reporters in the United States and Middle East alike.

“We’ve come a long way,” she said.