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Abstract

The main objective with the artide is to discuss the different choices of tactics female journalists make to survive everyday life in the newsroom. The discussion is based on a study of 33 British journalists that were interviewed about their professional and personal lives in 1992 and again in 2002. The study is made from a combination of feminist and cultural studies perspective, which enriches the research theoretically and methodologically. In the theoretical discussion of the article, I have chosen to discuss the main concepts relevant to the article: Pierre Bourdieu's social field and doxa, and Michel de Certeau's strategies and tactics. The concepts are exemplified with empirical findings from the study, as a background for the main discussion. There are differences in how female journalists react to the very masculine dominated British journalist culture. They choose different tactics. Two are more oppositional in nature: to be "one of the girls" and to be "one of the boys" question the dominant group's right to dominance. A third tactic, to be "a pretty marionette", does not question the subordinance of women, and is thus allowed to get on with their job in peace. The fourth tactic is even more passive; it is about leaving the newsroom altogether. I use four women's stories to exemplify the four tactics. The conclusion is that British journalist culture, its doxa and strategies used, have remained the same during the 1990s. There are however changes as well on individual, organisational and field level. Mainly as a result of the resilient work ofwomen and men in oppositional groups, including journalist lecturers, trade union workers, and many ordinary journalists.