This paper examines the career of the photojournalist Dorothea Lange when it was a newly-forming profession and a field that
was dominated by men. It analyzes how she did not start out to become a powerful force for social justice, but her compassion led her in that direction and away from the
commercial photography that she began with. It looks at her considerable success in government, with her work for the Farm Security Administration and then with Life magazine in the 1940s, documenting people in their environments, including people in other countries. It evaluates how her accomplishments paved the way for other women journalists and photographers.