by
Women and Journalism
Journalism is a broad profession that presents itself in many shapes and sizes. It’s an art that has been around for centuries; helping the spread of news, informing people on significant stories, and exposing the truth on important matters. In this day and age the spread of information is faster than ever before. Whole news articles and stories can be found with the click of a button. But who are the people behind this information? Who are the journalists that stick their neck out for the sake of the truth? There are a plethora of faces behind the paper but evidence has come to show that the journalist community is a significantly male-dominated one.
American journalism is known within the writing world for its lack of diversity. Scholars have many reasons as to why this is the case for women. They state that gender enculturation; where women are brought up believing they are not eligible for such jobs nor their opinions relevant enough to be spread through writing, is one of the leading causes for this imbalance.
Fewer Opportunities
Not to mention women are traditionally offered fewer opportunities in the newsroom than men. A survey done by Christine Ogan found that even once the women were hired into manager positions they were found to be treated much differently than the men who were in charge. And most of the time found to be paid less than the men also in charge.
At the same time, women choose to opt out of the time-consuming positions such as journalism due to family related responsibilities.So it’s a combination of womens preference as well as the inability to get quality positions that leads to the lack of women within the journalist enviroment. The issue, in turn, is a very complicated one.
History
In the past, however, it was more apparent. The women’s rights movement from 1960 and well into the 1970s raised a lot a questions on gender equality and its apparentness in the newsrooms. Women were outraged by this blatant gender discrimination. A recent article, The Bulletin, revealed an unwillingness to accept women into management roles from 1925 to 1988 in the American Society of News Editor. Women were simply not respected. Joey Senat’s study from 1967 to 1974 showed a multitude of examples of women being referred to as “girls”. The magazine was also noted to point out female employees physical description, but never the male employees.
All in all, the journalism industry has made small progresses toward a gender equal working space. However, there is still work to be done. As the years go on, quality journalism is put at higher stakes. To simply weave out women from this industry hurts it rather than helps it. In the end, a quality worker is a quality worker no matter what lies between their legs.