Abstract

Taking the cue from a guide for female journalists written in late ninenteenth century by the editor and novelist E. A. Bennett, the article points out the peculiarly ambivalent nature of the stances, discourses and practices that are brought into play by a male-dominated profession like journalism to accommodate women's entrance into the newsroom. I provide international evidences that still today the experience of female journalists is structured by the dialectic contradiction between progress and challenge, and in conclusion I call for a resumption of interest in doing research on the wide array of crucial issues related to gender and journalism that have been long overlooked in Italy.