Barbara Walters is the most unexpected of television pioneers. The daughter of a nightclub owner, she possessed a pronounced Boston accent and a slight speech impediment making her an unlikely candidate for a career in the polished world of television journalism, especially at a time when jobs for women in television news were few and far between. Yet, in her nearly 50-year career, Barbara Walters has broken barriers for women journalists everywhere. As the first female cohost of the Today show and the first coanchor of a nightly news show, she has helped to reshape not only the role of women in television news but also the perception of women in society at large. Read more about this pioneering role model for generations of female journalists in Barbara Walters: Television Host and Producer.