Courageous Women Photojournalists

Photojournalists are extraordinary and go through many lengths to show the reality of the world and different people's lives through images that tell a story. More specifically, women photojournalists are courageous in their efforts to capture images throughout the years in many different situations from war to social movements. Women as a whole have a tendency to see things emotionally while capturing the beauty in it like with images in photojournalism. Sadly, there are plenty of trials and triumphs of female photojournalists which in turn leads to even broader discrimination when thinking of careers for women as a whole. 

    Photo by Isabel Ellsen

The female photojournalist I chose to talk about is Isabel Ellsen who was known for being a French photojournalist during the times of hardship like with the Gulf War as depicted above in the picture. She was born on December 18, 1958, and started her career young with only being 18 trying to pursue photojournalism. Isabel mainly specialized in war photojournalism such as with the Gulf War and other different conflicts that happened worldwide such as in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, etc. When doing my research according to a website I found that during these times Isabel faced significant trials with having to have her career in war zones which is extremely physically demanding putting her life on the line. Another trial I would say she faced was having to deal with the emotions that came with being in such dangerous territory too. A few of her victories/triumphs consist of being a photojournalist as well as a novelist and being able to tell her own personal story. In module 9 it states, "along with three other male photojournalists, she was abducted in Libya. While the men were beaten, she was subjected to sexual violence. She bristles at the suggestion that women shouldn't cover war." This was important because it strongly relates to Isabel and how she covered multiple wars throughout her time as a photojournalist and never got sexually abused but still was looked down upon for covering wars. 

             Photo by Guy Smallman

Photo by Lynn Grieveson

Even though being a female photojournalist has its own trials, other non-photojournalist jobs such as in healthcare have similar problems that have to be faced like with discrimination in the workplace amongst women. According to an article, female doctors tend to not receive the same pay as male doctors even though they go through the same education process and work in the same field. In the module 9 content it states, "news report from the Associated Press about women receiving less pay than men." This further goes to show that even with photojournalistic and non-photojournalistic jobs there is still that discrimination amongst women when it comes to men and pay transparency. Another quote from the module 9 content states "' I need to be an Asian woman to get a job', a white male photographer told me in the late 1980's, venting his frustration about not finding a staff job with a Boston newspaper." This shows how just because a man didn't get a job one time, he voices his frustration, but in turn that is the reality for most women today having to face gender discrimination.

Photo by John Moore

Women in photojournalism as well as other women in different career paths tend to go through the same struggles of discrimination while in the workplace. It is a constant problem in trying to fix that has been ongoing for plenty of years. But, with the proper attitude and people fighting against workplace discrimination in any field, it will benefit all.