Dec
28
…is apparently not at the top.
Survey: Women vastly underrepresented in British newsrooms
I’m not sure the picture would be any less depressing on this side of the Atlantic, either.
A blog on journalism, media-related matters and some occasional personal stuff, by Mark Hamilton, a journalism instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, in the suburbs of Vancouver, B.C. You can email me or follow me on Twitter.
not a bit surprising to me–being on the other side of 40, I see how the battle for position among people in their 30′s plays out. And how many women simply decide that it’s far more rewarding to stay home with the kids and/or pick another related career than it is to battle the various levels of testosterone-laden management in order to get ahead. I don’t think that it’s a matter of making work environments more family-friendly or giving flex-time. Rather, it’s the petty p*ssing matches and billious battles over semantics and philosophies that often tire women (who are usually balancing more than just a career.) It’s a shame, though. I think the lack of women’s perspectives at higher levels are a part of what may be keeping journalism from moving forward.
I find this interesting, but probably true. When I worked at a real city paper – the staff was depressingly male dominated – only two women in the whole newsroom. But at the TV stations I worked for – the staff was much more balanced. The bosses were, however, always men.
But at both the college and high school level, I find j-students dominated by girls. At the high school level it is nearly 80% girls. Boys don’t want to seem to let anyone know that they can write – not manly enough. In college, the girls out numbered the guys, but only just a little.