An Improper Profession: Women, Gender, and Journalism in Late Imperial Russia

Journalism has long been a major factor in defining the opinions of Russia’s literate classes. During the 19th and early 20th centuries women participated in nearly every aspect of the journalistic process. And yet, female editors, publishers, and writers have been consistently omitted from the history of journalism in Imperial Russia. An Improper Profession offers a more complete and accurate picture of this history by examining the work of these early women journalists and showing how their involvement helped to formulate public opinion in a variety of ways. Contributors examine these underappreciated professionals’ contribution to changing cultural understandings of women’s roles and how class and gender politics meshed in the work of particular individuals. They examine how the female journalists adapted to - or challenged - censorship as the political structures in Russia shifted and discuss their attitude toward socialism, Russian nationalism, anti-semitism, women’s rights, and suffrage. Covering the period from the early 19th century through to 1917, the collection includes essays that draw from archival as well as published materials and that range from biography to literary and historical analysis of journalistic diaries. By disrupting conventional ideas about journalism and gender in late Imperial Russia, An Improper Profession should be of interest to scholars of women’s history, journalism, and Russian history.