The ‘girls’: women press photographers and the representation of women in Australian newspapers

Abstract

In 1975, Fairfax News commemorated International Women’s Year by appointing Lorrie Graham as its first female cadet photographer. Women only joined the photographic staff of newspapers in significant numbers from the 1980s and were more likely to be employed on regional newspapers than the metropolitan dailies. This article draws on interviews with male and female press photographers collected for the National Library of Australia’s oral history programme. It provides an overview of the history of women press photographers in Australia, situating their working lives within an overtly masculine newspaper culture where gender inequity was entrenched. It also examines the gendered and evolving photographic representations of women in the Australian press, including those of women in positions of social and political leadership. Although women press photographers have achieved greater recognition in the 2000s, the transformation of the media industry has impacted the working practices and employment of press photographers.