A Canadian Woman Journalist Covers the Spanish-American War: 'Kit' in Cuba 1898.

Kathleen Blake Watkins Coleman, known to her readers as "Kit," was a late nineteenth-century journalist who tried to escape the limitations of the woman's sphere in journalism through travel writing, while still complying with the expectation that she describe her adventures from a "woman's point of view." Among her many accomplishments, "Kit" went to Cuba to cover the Spanish-American war for the Toronto "Mail and Empire," a stunt the newspaper hoped would boost circulation. Coleman's work in Cuba was recognized because of her determination to overcome almost insurmountable opposition by American authorities and many male colleagues who refused to recognize her as a professional and allow her to travel with the troops as most correspondents did. She was pressured to produce stories from a woman's angle, which meant that her work was seen as marginal. It also appears that her newspaper did not pay her full remuneration for her services. While (like her male colleagues) paying some lip service to American military interests, "Kit" was able to condemn the war from a "female" perspective--expressing concern, for example, for the soldiers on all sides of the conflict. "Kit's" enduring appeal throughout her 25 years as Canada's most successful woman journalist was due to her combination of "masculine" and "feminine" characteristics--she was outspoken, intellectual, emotional, and maternal. (Seventy-five notes are included.) (SR)