Should women journalist be sent to cover conflict zones?

Should women journalist be sent to cover conflict zones?

Its relatively new that people have opened up to voice their opinions on whether female journalists should be sent out to cover conflicts or not?

Over the years writers and philosophers have called journalism, “The boys club” while women are asked to write about, “The pink topic”. It might sound like a feminist approach to the entire problem but its not so. I am well aware of the troubles that men suffer when sent to cover conflicts. But what I am putting forward is that gender should notbe taken as a basis so as to who goes to cover a type of news.

They say, in the spider-web of facts, many a truth is strangled. This line hits us all as a major set back. Until Lara Logan, broke the code of silence and explained to the world the hardships she faced in Cairo, where she was being sexually assaulted. Logan, who returned from Cairo recently, she chose to speak out about her ordeal to give courage to other women who have suffered sexual assault, especially female reporters who fear such admissions may impact their work. Kim Barker in her article about such assaults mentions “ I was hardly alone in keeping quiet. The committee to protect journalists might be able to say that 44 journalists from around the world were killed last year because of their work, but the group doesn’t keep data on sexual assaults and rape. Most journalists just don’t report it”

Some people might spout out a popular argument that a female journalist’s gender in and of itself places her in danger, citing the assault of CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan in Egypt this year. The argument is valid, but it also extends to all who report and cover conflict zones and dangerous situations. Gender might be one factor, but it is just one in a bundle of issues. Covering conflict zones has its risks. Men and women alike face dangerous situations and may be injured or killed. Arguments that women journalists covering sensitive stories pale in comparison to their male counterparts bear no weight. Women journalists have proven their skills time and again and The choice should belong to a woman reporter if she wants to cover a war, not an opinion based on an antiquated belief.

Another argument by finance columnist Susan Antilla, author of “Tales From the Boom-Boom Room: The Landmark Legal Battles That Exposed Wall Street’s Shocking Culture of Sexual Harassment,” said female journalists are less likely to get physically harassed at work, but they are still not getting the same career opportunities or salaries men are.Men make up 60% of newspaper employees, write 80% of newspaper op-eds and write most articles in “thought leader” magazines such as the New Yorker, she cited.

Tina Brown who runs The Daily Beast and Newsweek web site and as of March 2010, 39% of the people on the masthead were women, up from 25% in 1970. But men wrote 43 of the 49 cover stories the previous year.

Antilla finds this interesting that over the past 10 years,between 70 and 76% of all journalism and mass communications graduates have been women. What is happening to all these women?

The main problem may really be that women don’t have access. Which Columbia Journalism Review explains,“Access is one of the stock explanations for the media gender gap, and it’s a compelling one, when you look at the relatively few women who are given positions as columnists or television commentators, you feel remorse. After all, there is no shortage of females who can write and who have opinions.”

Or  are they going to take the right of having opinions from them too.

The question comes back to it, should women not be sent to cover conflicts or on war fronts.  Since safety cant take over ambition and staying silent wont cant stop assaults.

Its time we recall that old phrase , “Actions speak louder than words”

Miligan, a reporter from New York times recalls of an incident in Kosovo in 1999. "I was with two male reporters and a female translator. We saw a village being burned down, and stupidly drove to it. Then we were surrounded by super paramilitary with guns, who dragged us out and held guns to our skulls and threatened to kill us." Having both men and women in the group changed the dynamics , she says. "They were more willing to believe that we weren't soldiers or part of a movement. It was good to have a mixed group. I think that's why we got out of there alive."

There are ways to make it easier, its just that we have to start thinking.

We can now change our fixed mindset, to start something new. Cause reporting in a war zone is risky. Being a member of U.S. military is risky. Being a police officer is risky. But it's a risk that a few choose to take because it's an important part of democracy.

- Anvi Sarin