Many women are in the field of journalism. A journalist is a professional who researches, investigates and writes articles, reports and news stories for newspapers, magazines, television and other media outlets.” There are many women in our world changing the world. Female journalists are recognized globally,and can be seen very commonly on  news channels and radios. According to PBS, a report done in 60 countries with more than 500 companies shows that men take up two-thirds of  journalism roles, whereas women occupy a mere 36% of the journalism positions. 

Journalist Autumn Linford studied at University of North Carolina (UNC) and has dedicated her studies to understanding the effect that women in journalism has made in our society.  Linfold started her career as a local reporter at a regional newspaper in Wyoming. 

Linford says, “If you want to get at the roots of any inequity, you have to understand how deep those roots run.”

 Linford finds that women journalising in the late 19th and early 20th century were seen as women stepping out of their aprons and feminine roles to go on to write articles, which would change the face of women to the public, something that many people were uneasy about. 

Women have been undermined in society for many centuries, especially in journalism where they were not treated as women of the workforce, but as future wives and mothers. Women were also given ‘softer articles,’ and were asked to write stories about feminine topics, such as housekeeping, and sewing.  In contrast to this, men were treated like entrepreneurs  who chose what articles they wanted to write. Although the views of people during the 19th and 20th century were quite narrow, there are women who have disregarded the view of society like Nellie Bly who was an investigative journalist.

Cristiane Amanpour is one amongst thousands of female journalists in our nation, having previously worked with CNN, and then joining ABC in 2010, where she now has her own show, “This Week.” 

Amanpour was born in London, and grew up in Tehran, Iran. In an interview with Mediabistro, Amanpour mentions how being born and brought up in a well established household helped her know exactly what she wanted to become, and what moving to the US could do for her education. She came to America wanting to be a foreign correspondent and majored in journalism at the University of Rhode Island, where she mentions her other courses such as American Literature, and political science. In this interview, Amanpour talks about her first job with her local NBC affiliate where she was doing the graphics (making the titles of people as they talk and the weather). Within this she talks about her struggles, and her first time being held accountable as it was her first job. During this time, in 1983, it was the time of the Iranian revolution and being from Iran she knew about the political situation. Being a foreigner, she got a position for being a foreign correspondent, her dream job! 

Although women around the world are still being undermined, many have made history, and are impacting the world.