With his camera slung over his fatigues and a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Robert Capa

defined the image of the war photographer in the 1930s. Ever since, conflict photography has been seen, essentially, as a man’s job. The stories of women war photographers have been largely sidelined — among them Gerda Taro, Capa’s girlfriend and colleague on the Spanish civil war frontline. Her work, recently rediscovered, went on show with Capa’s at the Barbican arts centre in London last month. And there was Lee Miller, of course, but she was also blo-nde and beautiful, and mu-ch photographed herself.

Today, far more women work in war zones, shooting conflicts and their consequences. But if the situation is changing, it is changing slowly.Susan Meiselas -- the US photographer renowned for her images of Nicaragua’s 1970s civil war, which have just been republished in a new book — is still one of only seven women at the Magnum photo agency, out of a total of 79 international photographers.

British photographer Jenny Matthews sees a lot more women photojournalists now, “though we are still outweighed by men. It is much harder for women, because of the assumption that we don’t have the killer instinct.” Meiselas recalls working in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1970s and 1980s: “I had to learn how to move on streets that were dangerous. There were no fronts, as in Iraq today. When I was in the mountains (with the Sandinista guerrillas),

I was physically tested even though I was strong. Meiselas thinks women war photographers may be accused of letting their emotions override their journalistic objectivity. She doesn’t see this as a failing. In Nicaragua, she says, “it was important to balance and feel the emotion. I was interested in multiple perspectives. The ethos of objectivity is an illusion.”

The woman, Felipa, had just been reunited with her son, Ricardo, one of the many children who had been taken from their homes by the military 16 years before. “Felipa started crying, so I was feeling the moment and showing it. My own experience as a mother affected me, and I felt strongly for the aching she must have gone through. It affected the way I took

that shot.”