Opening Plenary: Global Report Unveiled
by Miranda C. Spencer
Photo by Anthony Tilghman
March 23, 2011--The opening plenary of the IWMF’s International Conference of Women Media Leaders this morning literally shone a spotlight on women journalists, as those from the top of their field in the US and globally took to the stage of the Jack Morton Auditorium at the George Washington University Media and Public Affairs Building to share findings, experiences, insights, and recommendations geared to achieving gender parity in the rapidly changing news business.
The centerpiece of the event, attended by some 150 invited delegates and guests, was the unveiling of the “Global Report on Women in the News Media, “a groundbreaking two-year study of the status of women in journalism that gleaned information from 522 outlets in 29 countries, spanning seven regions speaking 40 different languages. Approximately half of the outlets surveyed were newspapers, the remainder about evenly divided between radio and TV outlets. Based on face to face interviews, the study examined the extent to which women have entered the media workforce, their status and positions in terms of newsroom power and control, their compensation compared to their male counterparts, the terms under which they are employed, and the extent to which companies have added pro-equality polices to address gender imbalances.
The study offers” a comprehensive view of where women stand in journalism,” said IWMF Board Chair Barbara Cochran, who welcomed the attendees following a brief “hello, hola, bonjour” from Executive Director Liza Gross and an introduction by Steve Lerman, GWU’s Provost and Executive VP for Academic Affairs, who marveled how reporters are some of the handful of professionals who “ head for rather than away from trouble “ and the role of new media in promoting democracy even in closed societies.
IWMF board member Judy Woodruff, co-anchor of PBS NewsHour, explained how the report fits within the context of the conference -- as the foundation of its deliberations. Through feedback and insights gained in a series of three facilitated group discussions over the course of the conference, during which women media professionals can speak freely about their challenges and offer strategies, delegates will create a declaration of principles and a plan of action. “Your contributions are going to be crucial for the ongoing project of achieving equality in the global news industry,” said Cochran, “improving our work environment and career path now and for future generations.”
Katty Kay, a DC-based reporter for the BBC and co-author of the book Womenomics, about women’s work/life balance, then provided a tantalizing glimpse of the report’s executive summary. Its systematic methodology, which required developing a questionnaire that accounted for great diversity across many news organizations, “ provides a baseline” to judge women’s equality in the media workplace. Kay, who is British but was raised in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, by one of that country’s first women journalists, told of findings that were both discouraging and inspiring:
• Seventy-three percent of top news-media management positions are occupied by men; moreover, “the glass ceiling is real”: Men are paid more than women. Fortunately, however, having “women at the top changes the situation for women down the pipe.”
• Country-by-country breakdowns reveal sometimes surprising differences. For example, the Nordic countries are doing very well in terms of equity, while others, like some Asian nations, are “falling behind.” (Later, Carolyn Byerly, a professor at DC’s Howard University and the study’s principle investigator and author, noted that the situation is exemplary in some of Eastern Europe’s former Soviet-bloc nations, where now, under democracy, women journalists are flourishing.)
• Many companies the world over do “have good track records on gender equality,” Kay said.