Undaunted is about an incredibly interesting subject that I feel could’ve been more impactful if it were better organized and the writing not so dry. I can only imagine how hard it is to make nonfiction interesting for the masses, but I think if each chapter focused on one woman and her accomplishments, I think it would’ve made the information easier to digest and the book as a whole more impactful.

This book took me months to read, as I took copious notes, and savored its information, delving deeper into the minds and lives of these pioneers that paved the way for women in journalism. I hold such admiration for these pioneering women and the myriads of obstacles they had to face with adversity at seemingly every corner. Undaunted is a very in-depth study and clearly well researched deep dive on women in journalism. I really enjoyed many of the lesser-known names being highlighted and getting the recognition that they deserve but the jumping back and forth with so many names in the mix made it hard to follow for a large part of the book.

While I do feel like the author was trying to keep it to the most basic of facts, there is just so much information thrown at the reader that I often felt like I was reading a textbook of facts and found myself losing interest and skimming more often than not as reading became more and more daunting. I did appreciate the fact that there are photographs of the women and some of their various news articles. It gives faces to the names and adds a human touch to an otherwise dry essay on women in journalism.

Sadly, this book could not keep my interest, and I started dreading picking it up. I tried to get into it, and it’s clear that this is a labor of love and a subject that does deserve a spotlight, I believe it could’ve been better executed.

Undaunted is a well researched and put together traceable thread of women and their journey of breaking the barriers of journalism, from total exclusion to growing in numbers within the ranks of the most prestigious newspapers, television stations, and investigative reporting across the board. Brooke Kroeger has done a fantastic job of taking us from the beginning of the process to today, with selected women that time has forgotten, and is bringing them back to life in a way of remembering their struggles and hard work paving the way to today's women in the same field. Well thought out, well planned, well done!!! I certainly didn't know half of these women, and am grateful for the time and effort put into enlightening us all with their struggles.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

A great effort, however for me this fell a little flat and was hard to keep focused on. I picked it up and put it down quite a few times. While the story premise itself was interesting, at times it failed to hold my attention and was a little dry. A solid read, very factual and well researched, I was hoping for a little more excitement. I very much applaud the author for tackling it and bringing up the accomplishments of “The Girl Reporter”. I’ve been reading a lot of WWII history books and enjoyed hearing the stories of the women reporting on the front lines. I’ll give it a second read in time, it was very dense and I’m sure I’ll get more out of it with another read or perhaps and listen.

I really enjoyed this book but it felt very overwhelming and there was a lot of overlap. I struggled through it from about the middle to the end.

Undaunted by Brooke Kroeger highlights the exceptional women in journalism who have had to overcome incredible hurdles in a profession dominated by men. While the book is chronological, she also used twelve questions to guide her narrative - telling stories of what women dealt with, how the successful ones got in the door, who were the trailblazers, what contributed to their success, how well did they manage their successes and failures, were they "womanly" or "manly" in their reporting, impact they had on the profession, who has been honored and recognized by the journalism community, what qualities and characteristics brought condemnation or respect, what was the impact of newsroom politics and have women made a difference in the field of journalism. What was eye-opening for me is how many of these incredible women I had never heard of before. From journalists covering the Civil War to modern day "me-too" news. Women had to fight being marginalized to cover "women's topics" to battling sexism, harassment and unequal pay. This is a well-told and researched book and is an important addition to my book shelf on women's history and their incredible contribution to journalism.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

This is a well researched well told anthology of female reporters in riders and it’s so great to have all in one place. From great women like Margaret Fuller who despite her nasally voice would eventually when people over to Grace Hamilton who became the governess to six children just to get closer to an editor and it worked the stories in this book are plentiful and interesting like the one about Anna Benjamin a war correspondence who died young but lived large it was described as feminine her whole life which only lasted 27 years sadly. Anything does I want to talk a bottom day and how female reporters had to be told how their employer was once sued for sexual discrimination this is a very long but but an also interesting one and I don’t think they left anyone out including those who fought race as well as sexual discrimination they even have those who stood up for racial prejudice and the consequences they suffered because of it it is just full of interesting stories about the women who pave the way so that way we can have a time where women have to be told all the things they’re lucky to have , even though it should be their God-given right. I love this book and highly recommend it a definite definite five star read. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my free Ark copy in exchange for my unbiased review. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I am a woman with a degree in journalism. So, of course, when a book comes out written by an award-winning female journalist about other award-winning female journalists, I am going to want to read it.

Brooke Kroeger writes not as a researcher, although there is a lot of meticulous research in this book as the more than 100 pages of end notes attest. She writes as one who has been in the trenches, one who has fought the fight and lived to tell the tale. The tale, in this case, is the history and advancement of women in American journalism, with particular attention to the challenges they faced.

Undaunted provides a fascinating, well-organized exploration beginning in the 1840s with Margaret Fuller who became the first editor of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Dial. And, yet, sixty years later at the dawn of the 20th century, just over seven percent of journalists in the US were women. Despite their work in suffrage, females in the industry still found themselves relegated to the “women’s sphere” and lampooned as overly sentimental “sob sisters.” These remarkable women showed an indomitable spirit . . . and, for many, like Nelly Bly and Kate Masterson, it took a toll on the length of their lives.

Kroeger weaves together history with personal narratives, highlighting significant names and advancements all the way through the 20th century. Perhaps the most memorable parts for me include an account of Cissy Patterson trying to get an interview with Albert Einstein and an under-her-breath quote from Cokie Roberts.

Maria Shriver said in 2009 that the battle of the sexes was over. This book clearly proves, even into the digital age and the #metoo movement, that is not true. And, as Kroeger so eloquently points out, where any underrepresented group does not have that same opportunity, they cannot have the same level of influence. There is still more work to be done, and female journalists remain Undaunted.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an Advanced Digital Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism is Brooke Kroeger’s outstanding response to a request that she write a history of women in American journalism. With her strong academic career and five journalism books behind her, Kroeger was more than capable of meeting the challenge.

Starting in the 1840s and continuing through the #MeToo Movement, Kroeger chronicles the careers of women in a male-dominated field—their successes, their challenges, their accomplishments, and the criticism and praise with which they were met as women and professionals. When men such as Horace Greeley and Arthur Brisbane helped and praised one of them along the way, Kroeger readily gives the men credit and shows how their help impacted the women’s careers.

Readers will encounter journalist after journalist, starting with Margaret Fuller, Lydia Child, and Nellie Bly, who wrote on such topics as the disadvantaged, women’s position in society, the Italian Revolution of 1848, and Blackwell’s Island, with Bly famously going inside posing as a mental patient. Among the many others, Kroeger includes Ida Tarbell, who took on the Standard Oil monopoly; Ida B. Wells, who bravely tackled lynchings and the KKK, and the many women, such as Mary Clemmer, Anne O’Hare McCormick, Dorothy Thompson, Martha Gellhorn, Pauline Frederick, who covered the Civil War, WWI, and WWII, the latter mostly from Europe although Frederick also reported from North Africa and Asia.

The women’s journalistic work sometimes led to associations with famous historic figures that take on anecdotal form, such as Fuller’s persistent efforts to gain Ralph Waldo Emerson’s attention and Dorothy Thompson’s accusation that Theodore Dreiser had plagiarized portions of her book The New Russia in a book he later published. Such brief anecdotes help maintain readers’ attention, especially if those readers come to the book without a preexisting interest in the history of journalism. Kroeger’s description of Fuller’s unexpected and tragic death added a touching note.

All journalists, journalism students, and anyone interested in women’s and cultural history should add Undaunted to their “must-read” lists. As an occasional history reader with my only journalism experience on my high school newspaper and yearbook staffs, I found Undaunted informative and engaging. As a retired professor with my own research interests, I found Kroeger’s research thorough, admirable, and inspiring.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advance reader copy.

3.5 stars

An ambitious summary of women in journalism from the 19th century on. Clearly a lot of research and effort went into this but it's so much information that it seems uneven at times as to who and what get emphasized.

The overall picture is typically discouraging. Competent women thwarted at every turn by entrenched men. In the early days, even getting an opportunity to write under a woman's byline was difficult.

As she is documenting more modern times, the book did get more interesting but no less aggravating. Still politics, sexism, sexual harassment and pay inequity abound. But there are pockets of optimism, men and women determined to be more inclusive because they see that it produces a better product. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Beautifully written and well researched book. I truly enjoyed learning about the different way these women paved the way for women in journalism.

Undaunted, by Brooke Kroeger

Too Much Information

In rescuing women journalists lost to history, the author provides a roll call of dozens of women news writers from the 1840’s to the present.

The book is encyclopedic in its scope, and choices for emphasis must have been hard. It brings welcome recognition to some of the lesser known but highly regarded women of the past. However, the thumbnail sketches of those many who were not in the profession long, and whose impact was fleeting, draw attention away from their more established, but also little known sisters.

Encompassing more familiar ones, like Margaret Fuller and Nelly Bly, Dorothy Thompson and Martha Gellhorn, these formidable forgotten journalists include Sadie Kneller Miller – in 1895 a baseball columnist in Baltimore, Anna Northend Benjamin – covering Cuba in the Spanish-American War, and Genevieve Forbes Herrick – immersing herself in steerage from Ireland to report on immigration in the 1920’s. These women were known for their in-depth interviews, and for their focus on emerging social issues.

The last third of the book looks at the last decade, focusing on issues regarding women’s employment and roles, especially at the New York Times.

The author’s analysis of why women in the nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries succeeded against considerable odds focused on their backgrounds and connections: many were educated, from middle- to upper-class families in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, and had connections, usually a man, who could introduce them to vital contacts. Unfortunately, as her analysis of the recent past shows, there continues to be “persistent and pernicious” gender disparity in journalism, based on long entrenched preconceptions and prejudices about women’s capabilities and skills. This is reflected even in contemporary digital start-ups.

Clearly, there is still work to do in bringing parity of representation and income to women journalists (as there is in most professions). Toward the end of the book, the author includes some useful sources for following and understanding women’s roles and experiences in journalism: The Women’s Media Center for statistics, and the 19th*news.org for more about issues on women, race, gender, and other underrepresented groups.
https://womensmediacenter.com/ http://www.19thnews.org

In sum, this is a useful reference, but a daunting book to read. A chronological, annotated chart of most of the many women briefly noted would have streamlined the book and provided a deeper look at the most influential ones. In addition to those interested in gender and women’s issues, it might appeal to Young Adult readers, introducing them to women’s history in media.

This book is COMPREHENSIVE. I thought I knew a lot about women in the journalism field, but this book taught me SO MUCH. I commend the author for not only their extremely thorough research, but also for translating that research into a compelling book to just pick up and read.

Kroeger’s Undaunted is an ambitious undertaking of the history of women in the journalism medium, starting in the 1840s and working its way up to current times. In balancing out progress that has been made in the history of women being a part of the journalism profession, it seems like just as much progress is made as new problems crop up. In the beginning of the book, women have to fight to just be allowed to report the news. Then women can report the news but only if it’s soft news involving the home and fashion. Then they can report hard news, but as stringers without the security and pay of men. Then they can compete for the reporting jobs, but aren’t given the opportunities in management - or in the rare occasion they are, are held to different standards than men. It’s bracingly paced, and reflective of the battles that women face not just in the journalism field, but many other career fields even today. Since the field literature widens in the number of women involved, the book is a bit uneven in that the early years focus more heavily on the individual progress of specific women to trends within the industry itself as the presence of women becomes more pervasive beginning most prevalently in about the nineteen seventies. It’s fascinating to read the history of the women in the industry in the eighteen hundreds. It’s fascinating to read the history of the industry as it affects women into the latter half of the twentieth century into the twenty first century. I wish, with the exception of Abramson, that Kroeger had done a deeper dive into the more prominent women in journalism over the last fifty years. As a women, I appreciate Kroeger’s research while at the same time feeling frustrated that women seem to have substituted problems and discrimination for new problems and discrimination, made worse by the positing of those with the authority to make changes, not making them because of their foundations instead of having the courage to be progressive and promote equality and ability. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I went to school for journalism and worked in radio, television and print media for many years, so I was eager to read Undaunted by Brooke Kroeger.

I appreciate the fact that women in history are finally getting the attention they so richly deserve. Undaunted covers the history of female reporters starting in the 1820's in America to present day reporters. Along the way, there are familiar names like Ida Tarbell, Ida B. Wells, Nellie Bly, Martha Gellhorn, Gloria Steinem (although surprisingly little about her), Barbara Walters, Margaret Sullivan and Cokie Roberts. But there were so many more, it's hard to mention them all.

And maybe that's the problem I had with this book. There are so many stories to tell, so many women to cover, that I felt short-changed at times, even though I know the book was very well researched. At times I wanted to know more about a particular woman's story, but the author would move on to another reporter. Sometimes she'd later get back to reporters previously mentioned, but by then, so many other names had been mentioned it was hard keeping track of all of them.

With a heavy emphasis on print media, obviously since it's been around the longest, I felt the brief mentions of television and even less so, radio reporters like NPR's women short-changed the groundbreaking work they did. IT seems like they were thrown in because it was necessary to tell the whole story, but as an afterthought.

I liked the book, didn't love it. I'm glad I read it, but it was a slog to get through.

Undaunted by Brooke Kroeger is clearly a very well researched and in-depth look at the women of American journalism. Throughout I found women I was familiar with in the likes of Nellie Bly and Barbara Walters by learned about many of the other trailblazers in the industry. It is definitely a topic you will want to be interested in as it can be a bit dry in places, but overall I found it a flowing read full of interesting tidbits.