Survey: Women vastly underrepresented in British newsrooms
By Leah McBride Mensching, Friday 28 December 2007 at 23:09 :: Labor & Employment :: #1030 :: rss
Male journalists are making most of the key editorial decisions at newspapers and broadcast media across Britain, while women are overwhelmingly underrepresented in the country's national newsrooms, a survey by the Fawcett Society has found.
Two out of every 17, or 12 percent, of top national daily and Sunday newspaper editors are women, while all 17 deputy editors surveyed were men and one in 10 opinion editors were female. And while on-air journalists appeared to be evenly balanced between men and women, those in power behind the scenes are mostly men, according to the survey.
While 44 percent of on-air broadcast journalists and 37.5 percent of political programme presenters are women, editorial decisions for those programmes are nearly always made by men, as only six percent (one out of 17) of TV and radio news editors are women, according to the survey.
“Today's survey shows that the media is missing out on the huge pool of female talent,” Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society, told the Independent. “Women need to play an equal role in setting the political agenda, both in parliament itself and within the political media.”
Out of 17 national newspapers in Britain, only two have female editors, the Sun's Rebekah Wade and the Sunday Mirror's Tina Weaver. The only female deputy editor is the News of the World's Jane Johnson, MediaGuardian reported.
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