Osborn Elliott promoted her to writer in 1962; two years later she would be dispatched to Paris as Newsweek's first female foreign correspondent.

When forty-six of Newsweek's female employees filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Peer remained on the sidelines.

She started out as a reporter for the student newspaper, the Connecticut College News (whose faculty advisor was a young Paul Fussell),[5] before shifting to become its cartoonist as a sophomore.

In that year she also served as art editor for the Quarterly, the college's literary magazine, and began acting in plays.

[9] Newsweek, a prominent weekly news magazine, had no more than a couple women writers from its founding in 1933 and none when Peer arrived in 1958.

"[10][11] Nevertheless, Peer's adventurous nature–including a notable incident in 1960 where she hid under a table to eavesdrop on a meeting of the Civil Aeronautics Board–attracted the right kind of attention from Newsweek's editors.

Later, Peer reflected on the episode with bitterness: Few bureaucracies are perfect, and by a series of oversights on management's part, one woman was given a writing tryout between 1961 and 1969.

Still annoyed at Newsweek over the lack of a raise, Peer had them ship her extensive collection of French wine back to the States.

In Washington Peer's beat included the State Department, White House, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The article, "Women in Revolt", was written by Helen Dudar, a freelancer and wife of Newsweek writer Peter Goldman.

[17] Newsweek's management thought that Peer, still the only female writer on staff, was too "inexperienced" to write the story despite five years as a correspondent in Paris.

[21] Both Oz Elliott[20] and Katharine Graham, President of the Washington Post Company, favored Peer for the position.

After rejecting an offer to leave Newsweek to become assistant press secretary under Ron Nessen in the Ford Administration,[24] Peer returned to Paris in 1975 as bureau chief.

Riding in Somalia in a Land Rover with a poor suspension, Peer broke her coccyx, an injury which left her in constant pain.

She continued writing for Newsweek, serving as a senior writer and general editor, but constant pain from her injury (which was not fully diagnosed until 1981) interfered with her ability to work.

New editor William Broyles, Jr. met with Peer on April 22, 1983, to inform her that Newsweek was firing her, effective July 31, 1984.