The following resources have been compiled from IWMF publications and other resources. These studies and reports document the opinions of women journalists, examine how women are portrayed in the media, and measure how many women work in the worldwide media and what types of jobs they hold.
To suggest additions to the list, contact Elisa Munoz .
AFRICA
Glass Ceiling Two: An Audit of Women in South African Newsrooms, South African National Editors’ Forum and Gender Links (2007)
The project sets out to establish the realities facing women journalists, specifically senior women journalists, in South African newsrooms. What do they identify as obstacles, and which strategies can be implemented to redress the situation? Questionnaire was sent to 149 SANEF members.
Sample Statistics: While there are now roughly equal numbers of women and men in South African newsrooms, women, and especially black women, are still scarce in senior and top management echelons, as well as in the hard news beats. On average, women earn twenty percent less than men in newsrooms; and black women earn twenty five percent less than white men.
“Gender Review of Media Development Organizations Supported by SIDA.” Gender Links. September (2006) Colleen Lowe Morna, Agnes Odhiambo and Rochelle Renere Davidson.
“Gender gaps in the Southern Africa media are slowly closing.” (2006)
Gender Links’ survey shows women’s voices are missing in radio talk shows as hosts, guests, and callers. Conducted among 11 radio talk shows in four Southern African countries (Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe).
Sample Statistics: The survey finds that women constitute 32% of talk show hosts on average. In Lesotho, 62% of hosts were women, showing the highest representation, followed by South Africa with 40%. In Zimbabwe and Malawi there were no female hosts in the talk shows monitored. Only 9% of the 55 shows focused on specifically gender-related issues.
Gender Links cites various reasons as to why this is. One among them is how women’s voices are undervalued. Women on radio programs are more often interrupted than men and as guests are more often addressed in patronizing and demeaning ways. The survey found an increased number of women callers when the show’s host was a woman but the presence of women guests did not make necessarily attract more women callers.
Mirror on the Media: Who talks on talk shows? (2006)
Survey of eleven radio talk shows in four Southern African countries (Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe) conducted by Gender Links in partnership with country chapters of the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network from June-July 2005.
Sample Statistics: The survey finds that women constitute 32% of talk show hosts on average. In Lesotho, 62% of hosts were women, showing the highest representation, followed by South Africa with 40%. In Zimbabwe and Malawi there were no female hosts in the talk shows monitored. Only 9% of the 55 shows focused on specifically gender-related issues.
“Three Weeks of Activism on Gender and the Media Cyber Dialogue: Who makes the news?” (2006)
Members from Gender Links, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), and the Global Media Monitoring Project discuss women’s representation in the media and how it can be improved.
Gender and Media Baseline Study (2003)
Media Institute of Southern Africa and Gender Links examined the representation of women in the media in 12 Southern African countries.
Sample statistic: Women were 9 percent of news sources in political stories reviewed.
Federation of African Media Women - Southern African Development Community (1998) Survey of the status and roles of women in the media in seven countries in southern Africa.
Sample statistic: Women were 16 percent of the overall media workforce in Malawi.
ASIA/PACIFIC
New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation (2006) (52 pgs., relevant to media: pgs. 8, 40, 41).
The second New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation provides detailed figures and comparisons of women’s representation in leadership and decision-making positions and participation in different sectors of the labor market.
Sample Statistics: As of November 2005, women were found to make up about 19% of newspaper editors. All of the five were editors of provincial dailies, non from metropolitan dailies. On the media company boards, women made up 45% of public broadcasters, 6.25% of private broadcasters and 8% of print media. Reasons were not given as to the disparities in each form of media.
Yisook Choi, Linda Steiner and Sooah Kim. “Claiming Feminist Space in Korean Cyberterritory.” Vol. 13 (2006), No. 2, pgs. 65-84.
Abstract: “This paper analyses two Korean feminist webzines. We use the two cases to investigate the conditions under which feminist online media can survive, express alternative and feminist voices, and build a feminist community. The research is based on interviews with people involved in the zines’ production, and on qualitative and quantitative analyses of the zines’ contents, with particular attention to spaces provided for audience interactions…”
Status of Women Journalists in the Print Media, Pamela Bhagat, The Hoot (2004)
The study looks into issues affecting the role of women working in the print media. As part of a broader study on working women in India, it was executed by the Press Institute of India (PII), through empirical data that was collected from almost all the States and Union Territories of the country. The objective of the research was to examine the problems and issues confronting women working in the media, to gauge the extent of direct and indirect discrimination in the workplace and to identify contemporary issues that need to be addressed.
Sample Statistics: 20.5 percent of respondents said that women were discriminated against for promotion. 45.5 felt it was because of their sex, some felt it was because of age and a large proportion refused to comment - 21.2 percent. In fact 8.4 percent were forced to leave a media organization due to promotion discrimination. Sexual harassment, age discrimination, and whether they were under- or overqualified, were listed as other factors hindering women’s upward mobility in their organizations.
Pamela Bhagat. “Status of Women Journalists in the Print Media: Executive Summary.” The Hoot.
A survey conducted of 410 women in print news media, shows that women are less likely to be promoted and receive fewer opportunities to cover hard news than their male counterparts.
Sample Statistics: Conducted among 46% regional press in India and about 54% English press, the study showed that women journalists are often assigned art and culture or fashion beats, and not other topics, based on their organization’s concern that they won’t be able to work night shifts. 20.5 percent of respondents said they were discriminated against for promotion, of which 45.5 percent felt was because of their sex. 29.2 percent responded that having children affected promotion. Sexual harassment, age discrimination, and whether they were under- or overqualified, were listed as other factors hindering women’s upward mobility in their organizations.
Center for Policy Alternatives and International Media Support. “A Study of Media in Sri Lanka.” April 2005, 49 pgs. (relevant: pg. 8,26,40,46)
Sample Statistics: In a 2003 KAPS survey, among both Sinhalese and Tamil language viewers, men were more likely to use newspapers as the source of political information—25.5% compared to 13.7% of women—while women were more likely to look to television—67.3% compared to 55% of men. Using radio as a source did not differ greatly between men and women. Overall, men were about twice as likely to be “very informed” about developing peace proposals. Of those who were not informed at all, 43.5% were women compared to 25.9% of men. The comprehensive study also showed that in the 2004 General Election, coverage of women’s issues was about or less than 1% in 19 out of 26 Tamil newspapers examined. Furthermore, under “key problems,” was the lack of coverage on women in mainstream print media related to the conflict in Sri Lanka, of less than 5%.While party politics got high coverage, less reporting focused on democracy, human rights, minority and gender issues.
EUROPE
Survey on Women Journalists in Europe: Profession tends to feminization: European Federation of Journalists (2006)
Sample Statistics: The average number of women journalists in European news media is almost equal to that of men: 47.7%, an almost 10% increase since 2001. Participants gave an estimate that, in Russia, roughly 80% of journalists are women, while Italy gave the lowest estimate of 32 percent. Slovakia and Finland were among other countries that found more women working as journalists than men. The four key areas of the survey focused on the number of women in the profession; the issue of equal pay; the portrayal of women in the media; and European impacts on women journalists.
EFJ Survey: Women Journalists in the European Integration Process (2006)
This is a survey conducted by the European Federation of Journalists on women journalists working on the profession.
Sample Statistic: High representation of women journalists in Eastern European Countries, Russia, Serbia and Slovakia which were not part of the numbers in Europe in 2001.
NORTH AMERICA
Newsroom Employment Census (2008)
American Society of Newspaper Editors (2008) annual census examining the number of women and minority journalists in U.S. newsrooms.
Sample statistic: The percentage of women working at daily newspapers increased slightly to 37.23 percent after two years of decline.
Survey of Women and Minorities in Radio and Television News (2004 - 2007)
Radio and Television News Directors Association Annual survey of women and minorities in broadcast companies in the U.S.
Sample statistic: Women are almost 26.5 percent of TV news directors, which is a slight increase over the 2002 figure.
“The 2006 Racial and Gender Report Card of the Associated Press Sports Editors,” published June 22, 2006. 11 pgs. DeVos Sport Business Management Program
A survey that spans over 300 Associated Press newspapers finds that minorities reporting sports coverage are more underrepresented than in the sports themselves. White men make up 78.12 percent of entire APSE staff.
Sample Statistics: Women only make up 12.6 percent of total staffs; less than 7 percent are columnists at sport staffs; and combined with people of color, women make up only 16.4 percent of the columnists surveyed. The individual numbers for minority women are even more dismal. The area that shows the most racial and gender diversity is in support staffs/clerks but this doesn’t reflect positively on the industry as these are usually nonprofessional positions with little chance of upward mobility. During the survey period of March 6, 2006 to June 16, 2006, “there were no Asian males and no African-American, Latina, and Asian females who were sports editors among the APSE newspapers”. Other areas had some minority representation but still far less than white males. Editor of the study, Richard Lapchick said, in comparison to the lack of diversity in sports staffs, “more than 40 percent of the student-athletes [on high school and college levels] are girls and women”.
Journalism and Equity, Canadian, U.S, and European Perspectives (2006)
This book has an international comparative perspective and documents findings of several journalist surveys in Canada, the USA and Europe.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors. “ASNE Census Shows Newsroom Diversity Up Slightly,” published April 25, 2006.
Though more minority journalists are working in the newsroom, the media industry is falling short of the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ goal for 2025: to have the representation in newsrooms reflect the distribution of minorities in America.
Sample Statistics: As of April 2006, the amount of women in daily newsrooms increased slightly to 37.7%, while minority women made up 17.55% of female newsroom staffers. Of the 1,417 newspapers surveyed, men made up 58.5% of copy editors, 60.3% of reporters, and the greatest disparity, 72.6 % of photographers. “Most troubling” to ASNE Diversity Chair Sharon Rosenhause is that, with regard to the benchmark categories, “none are even close [to ASNE’s goals]”.
Media Management Center at Northwestern University. “Women in the Media 2006: Finding the Leader in You.” 2006.
Sample Statistics: The number of women in leadership positions has increased just 2 percentage points from 2003 to 2006: 11 in 2000, 19 in 2002, 25 in 2003 and 25 in 2006 based on a study of 137 newspapers with a circulation over 85,000. While the number of women publishers has not changed, the study shows an increase in the percentages of women in top news and production slots, showing women with more than one fourth of executive jobs at daily newspapers.
Bob Papper. “RTNDA/Ball State University Annual Survey of women and minorities in the newsroom.” Communicator. July/August 2006.
Sample Statistics: “The percentage of women TV news directors rose to 25.2% tying the third highest level ever,” according to this study, with a drop in women radio news directors from last year to 20.4%. Of all television news, 96.8% had women on news staffs. The ratio of males and females among ethnic groups was fairly similar, except among whites where men outnumber women 5:3. Asians were the only group where women outnumbered men. Among Hispanic stations men outnumber women 2:1. Women, who make up 40% of the television news workforce, were more likely to be news directors at stations with staffs of 1-10 people. In addition, the number of women general managers at broadcast stations fell from 17 to 15.2 percent this year.
Ruth Davis Konigsberg, WomenTK,
Former editor of Glamour Magazine began a website in fall 2005 monitoring the ratio of male to female bylines in national “general interest” magazines.
Sample Statistics: As of September 2006, Konigsberg found a general 3:1 ratio of male to female bylines. She also highlights incongruence between the number of bylines of women and the ratio of women readers to men readers. Research cited by Time Inc. in 2005 found a decline in the number of men reading magazines while female readership remained stable. Aside from the lack of women in bylines, Konigsberg questions the material that women are assigned to cover, finding that about a third of stories written by women cover gender, family, marriage, motherhood, and nannies.
Rasha Kamhawi, Maria Elizabeth Grabe. “Gender Differences in Negative News Reception: An Evolutionary Psychology Explanation.” Media Report to Women. Silver Springs: Fall 2006. Vol. 34, Iss.4, pg.15, 8 pgs.
Using a biological framework of responsiveness to “valenced stimuli,” this psychological experiment showed that women score lower than men on knowledge of current news events. Linking women’s reception of good versus bad news within the mindset of evolutionary psychology, the survey found that women were more likely to empathize with mediated characters in positively-framed television reports than in negatively-framed ones. However, this cannot fully explain for women’s lesser knowledge of current news events when both the recognition and comprehension of a story do not differ greatly between men and women. Neither gender studied exhibits superiority in processing the news over the other. The survey consisted of a total of 75 subjects from introductory communication classes at a large Midwestern university, where male and female participants were about half and half.
Sample statistic: About 44% of Americans say they are often depressed by the news; women make up 53% of this figure while a third of men (34%) acknowledge feeling depressed (The Pew Center for People and the Press 2004).
“Women Correspondent Visibility on Network Television News—A Twenty Year Longitudinal Study,” present August 2005 to the Commission on the Status of Women. Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication.
This twenty-year census examines the patterns of gender diversity in media from years 1983 to 2002, showing that the number of white male correspondents has declined.
Sample Statistics: During the period of 1992 to 1997, network news received what were then the largest levels in broadcast history, an increase in female correspondents to 23%. Though more women are appearing as news correspondents on evening news broadcasts (ABC, CBS, NBC), they are still underrepresented compared to men. Furthermore, women’s career spans proved to be much shorter: while men averaged an eight-year tenure in network news, women’s tenure averaged only five years.
Project for Excellence in Journalism. “The Gender Gap: Women Are Still Missing as Sources for Journalists.” Study. May 23, 2005, 32 pgs.
Despite rising numbers of women in the workforce and in journalism schools, the news of the day still largely comes from a male perspective, according to a new study of press coverage. A broad look across the American news media over the course of nine months reveals that men are relied on as sources in the news more than twice as often as women, a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism has found.
Sample Statistics: More than three quarters of all stories contain male sources, while only a third of stories contain even a single female source, according to the study, which was drawn from an examination of 16,800 news stories across 45 different news outlets during 20 randomly selected days over nine months.
Federico Subervi, Ph.D, “NAHJ Survey of News Professionals Working at Spanish-Language Media Companies in the United States. Advance Report.” National Association of Hispanic Journalists. August 2004. 12 pgs.
NAHJ’s online survey of news media professionals at Spanish-language companies found the age demographic skewed among men and women; 41% of the women journalists but only 15% of the men were under 30.
Sample Statistics: The percentage of women in the profession declined quickly after age 40, with fewer women 60 years or older as managers. In general, more than 92% of journalists and 87% of managers were born outside of the United States, with a third of respondents from Mexico. Most worked for Spanish-only media while others had some combination of varying levels of English/Spanish coverage. In Spanish-only media, 104 of 204 respondents were female; 29 of 94 females were managers; of Spanish/some-English media, women represented 7 out of 17 journalists, 8 of 18 managers; and of half-Spanish, half English: 12 out of 21; 10 of 12 managers. In terms of income, there wasn’t much difference in pay between male and female journalists, however males did earn more than females in managerial positions.
The Glass Ceiling Persists: The Third Annual APPC Report on Women Leaders in Communication Companies (2003)
Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania (2003) examines the number of women in top positions in U.S. media-related companies.
Sample statistic: Of those studied, women were 16 percent of presidents /CEOs in broadcast television and cable companies and 18 percent of presidents/CEOs in publishing companies.
The Great Divide: Female Leadership in U.S. Newsrooms (2002)
American Press Institute and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism (2002) surveyed men and women in U.S. newspaper management about their careers.
Sample statistic: Some 45 percent of the women surveyed said they expect to be offered a better job at another newspaper company or to leave the media industry entirely.
Women in Newspapers 2002: Still Fighting an Uphill Battle (2002)
Media Management Center at Northwestern University expanded on the 2001 Women in Newspapers survey by interviewing newspaper presidents and CEOs.
Sample Statistic: All of the presidents and CEOs, both male and female, saw the need to bring more women into top management in newspapers.
Women in Newspapers: How Much Progress Has Been Made? (2001)
Media Management Center at Northwestern University (2001) examines why women are not represented in high numbers in U.S. newspaper management.
Sample Statistic: Some 80 percent of the women surveyed said "exclusion from informal networks" kept them from advancing to top positions.
INTERNATIONAL
The Female Factor (2010)
Articles in this year-long series in the International Herald Tribune examine the most recent shifts in women's power, prominence and impact on societies around the world, and attempt to measure the influence of women on early 21st century development.
Women, men & news: Divided and disconnected in the news media landscape (2008)
This multi-authored scholarly volume explores the divide between men and women in their consumption of news media, looking at how the sexes read and use news, historically and currently, how they use technology to access their news, and how today's news pertains to and is used by women. The volume also addresses diversity issues among women's use of news, considering racial, ethnic, international and feminist perspectives. The volume is intended to help readers understand adult news use behavior--a critical and timely issue considering the state of newspapers and television news in today's multi-media news environment.
Women and Media: A critical Introduction (2006)
This book describes the history of research on women in media covering women in and as entertainment, the image of women in th4 news and in magazines, women as an audience and the role of gender in the political economy of the media production history.
Women’s rights and the Arab media (2006)
In December 2006, Arab media professionals, gender activists and experts from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian territories and Syria gathered in Amman for a three-day workshop and seminar on Gender and Media Advocacy in the Middle East and North Africa.
Making news: Women in journalism (2005)
This book is primarily based on inputs from 200 journalists in print media through one-on one- interviews and 35 responses through questionnaire. The book was recommended by Smruti Koppikar a senior journalist and professor. She is quite often quoted in the book too. The book traces the transformation of women journalism in India from the late 1960’s and 70’s to 80’s and 90’s.
Who Makes the News: Global Media Monitoring Project (2005)
The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) is the most extensive global research of gender in news media ever undertaken. Seventy-six countries took part in GMMP 2005 with hundreds of monitors coding. Almost 13,000 news stories on television, radio and in print.
Sample Statistics: Women are dramatically under-represented in the news. Only 21% of news subjects the people who are interviewed, or whom the news is about are female. For every woman who appears in the news, there are five men. Women's points of view are rarely heard in the topics that dominate the news agenda. As authorities and experts women barely feature in news stories. On television, female media professionals disappear from the screen as they get older. Overall, male journalists report at the so called 'hard' or 'serious' end of the news spectrum such as politics and government (where women report only 32% of stories).
Seeking Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education (2004)
This book talks about the role that journalism and mass communication as a societal institution has served in its past tradition, and as it is glimpsed today and tomorrow in the merger mania of globalization
Equality and Quality: Setting Standards for Women in Journalism
International Federation of Journalists (2001)
Survey of members of IFJ unions on the status of women journalists, portrayal of women in the media and the salaries of women journalists.
Sample statistic: Women were less than 1 percent of department heads, editors or media owners, but more than a third of working journalists around the world.
Women in Journalism on Women in Journalism: Female Journalists Making their Way: The Institute for Further Education of Journalists (2001)
Essays by women journalists from 36 countries on the status of women in the media.
Contact: Ann Lagerstrom, at the Institute for Further Education of Journalists.
Email: fojoinfo@hik.se
Who Makes the News? Global Media Monitoring Project (2000)
World Association for Christian Communication. Study of the representation of women and men in the news in 70 countries in 2000. Follow-up to Media Watch Canada study from 1995.
Sample statistic: Women were 18 percent of news subjects.
Global Media Monitoring Project: Women's Participation in the News: Media Watch Canada (1995)
Examination of the representation of women in the news media in 30 countries.
Sample statistic: Women were 43 percent of journalists in the countries surveyed.