Elizabeth Peer | |
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Born | Elizabeth Clow Peer February 3, 1936 |
Died | May 26, 1984 New York City, US | (aged 48)
Other names | Elizabeth Peer Jansson |
Alma mater | Connecticut College (BA) |
Occupation | Journalist |
Years active | 1958–1984 |
Employer | Newsweek |
Spouse | John P. Jansson |
Elizabeth Clow Peer Jansson (February 3, 1936 – May 26, 1984), often just Liz Peer, was an American journalist who worked for Newsweek from 1958 until her death in 1984. She began her career at Newsweek as a copy girl, at a time when opportunities for women were limited. Osborn Elliott promoted her to writer in 1962; two years later she would be dispatched to Paris as Newsweek's first female foreign correspondent.
Peer returned to the United States in 1969 to work in Newsweek's Washington, D.C., bureau. When forty-six of Newsweek's female employees filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Peer remained on the sidelines. She was passed over for promotion to senior editor in 1973 for reasons that remain unclear. Peer returned to Paris in 1975 as bureau chief, and became Newsweek's first female war correspondent in 1977 when she covered the Ogaden War. Her reporting there won her recognition, but she suffered a debilitating injury from which she never recovered, leading to her suicide in 1984.