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Women: International
Reporting on Gender in Journalism
‘Why do so few women reach the top?’
In a chapter written for inclusion in
an upcoming book, “Gender and
Journalism in Industrialized Nations,”
edited by Romy Froelich and
Sue A. Lafky for The Edwin Mellen
Press, Margaret Gallagher examines
gender trends in journalism as she
explores the progress women journalists
are making, the impact they
are having, and the reasons why so
few manage to rise to the top. What
follows is an edited excerpt from her
chapter.
By Margaret Gallagher
Wherever one looks in the
world, women still have relatively
little decision-making
power either inside the media organizations
themselves, or in the political
and economic institutions with which
these organizations must interface. This
is one of the reasons why female journalists—even
when they are a majority
within the profession—remain highly
vulnerable…. It can be argued that
survival and success in journalism—at
least in the market economies of Western
Europe and North America—are
dictated by the logic of commerce, to
which male journalists are equally subject.
Of course, there is an element of
truth in this. But particularly when it
comes to the most senior editorial jobs
another—perhaps parallel, perhaps
predominant—logic seems to operate.
As Canadian journalist Huguette
Roberge put it a decade ago: “One
woman at a time…. One at a time. We
barely manage to fill the shoes left by
one another.” In the years since then,
the situation has barely changed. It is
as if one woman at the top is as much
as the system can absorb without being
thrown into a paroxysm of professional
anguish about the potential effects—
on status, salaries, self-esteem—of
“feminization.”
In relation to the upper echelons of
journalism, the notion that feminization
could be imminent is risible. Even
in the United States, figures produced
by the National Federation of Press
Women (1993) show that women have
been increasing their share of management
posts by only one percent per
year since 1977. If that rate continues,
it will be another 30 years before there
is gender balance in top newspaper
jobs in the United States.
Of course, it cannot be assumed that
women’s existing rates of entry to any
hierarchical level will continue…. But
what of the women who entered the
profession in the 1970’s and 1980’s?
How have they fared in the decades
since? The studies analyzed by professor
David Weaver lead him to the overall
conclusion that those women who
are in American journalism have made
“significant gains in managerial
responsibility…and in amount of editorial
control” over the past two decades.
Nevertheless, given that since
1977 women have outnumbered men
in college and university journalism
courses in the United States, why are
women still a minority presence in
American newsrooms—especially in
senior editorial and decision-making
positions?
The same question is relevant
throughout the industrialized world.
UNESCO data show that in most of
these countries the predominance of
female students in mass communication
courses stretches back to at least
1980. It is true that in many cases the
percentage of practicing female journalists
has risen substantially over the
past 20 years…. It is also undeniable
that, in many parts of the world, women
are now a significant on-screen and onair
presence in the broadcast media—
as presenters, reporters and newscasters….
In her analysis of the rise of the
woman reporter over the past century,
journalist Anne Sebba argues that it is
no coincidence that a high proportion
of the women journalists who covered
the Gulf War in 1991 worked for television:
“They know that what the major
networks want is a frontline account
from a (preferably pretty) woman in a
flak jacket.”
Yet it is debatable whether this actually
constitutes a “feminization” of journalism,
in the sense of a take-over of
the profession by women. Indeed
women’s increased presence on the
screen almost certainly contributes to
a gulf between perceptions and reality.
In most European countries, women
are a clear minority of working journalists
in radio and television. The exceptions
are confined to countries formerly
within the orbit of the Soviet
Union, where the profession had an
altogether different status from that in
Western Europe. It is quite conceivable
that, as the media systems of these
countries move from a state-financed
to a commercially financed basis, the
proportion of women employed as
journalists will fall—as has already been
documented in the case of the former
German Democratic Republic.
Moreover, when it comes to senior
editorial and management jobs, women
are consistently under-represented. In
general, this pattern seems to hold
even in the new commercial broadcasting
companies—a finding that confounds
the view that market-driven systems
and audience goals will result in
an increase of women’s power at the
top…. Why do so few women reach the
top?
By far the most common obstacle to
career development reported by
women journalists is the problem of
male attitudes. One of the most important
implications of the male dominance
within media organizations is
that women are judged by male standards
and performance criteria. Often
this means a constant effort to be taken
seriously—a point made in a recent
study of French journalists: “It’s really
not easy to be taken seriously…. To
begin with they treat you as a bit of a
Nieman Reports / Winter 2001 63