In today’s media women are far less represented than men in the various jobs set out for journalists. In many other areas, not only in Journalism, women are not given the same opportunities as are presented to men. As for the women who are of equal education, experience, and skills, men are often chosen over women because of their gender. Women are subject to gender discrimination even when it isn’t a relevant issue. Women are seen as mothers, wives, maids, delicate, and replaceable. A woman may be passed over for a job or promotion if she becomes pregnant, or even because she may become pregnant at some point. The job may be offered to a male, even a lesser qualified man, simply because he is a man.
Women ae also scrutinized on their looks more than men are. They must dress or look a certain way to have a better chance of being hired. There is a balance women have to find between being pretty and sexy and being too provocative. Some women are too old or not pretty of sexy enough to some standards to get a position. Especially in sales, television, and public relations, women are told to dress and look a certain way, or they will not be hired and a man will be. Society doesn’t help this problem either. It portrays women in a way that makes it easier for women to be judged on the way they look or carry themselves.
Another term used in this subject to describe the discrimination against women is the “glass ceiling.” This is a form of gender discrimination referring to the invisible barriers put in front of women to prevent them from advancing in the ranks of management. They are not real policies but are very much followed in many industries practicing gender discrimination.
Women are passed up for opportunities which are automatically given to men all the time. In places like war zones or political events, men are seen as the better choice and superior to women in those areas. War zones are seen as dangerous and unsafe for women to go to. Men are also seen as more qualified to go to political events even if a woman would be a better choice for the job or interview.
Since the late 19th century, women have been fighting for the fight to be equal to men. From the ability to hold a job, to the right to vote, and now for the right to equal pay, women have been fighting for something that should already be equal. As society has become more accepting of different aspects in culture, women’s rights somehow seem to continually get lost in the growth.
There is now a fight for opportunities for people that never had them before. Opportunities that should be given to them like they already are with a different portion of the population. That portion is the male population. I wasn’t until 1739 that a woman became the publisher of a newspaper, her name was Elizabeth Timothy (Lucey). She became the publisher after her husband passed away and later passed it on to her son. Elizabeth paved the way for women in journalism to gain the confidence needed to pursue a career in the field.
Later, around 1936, Dorothy Thompson, a foreign affairs writer for the New York Herald Tribune, became the first woman to establish a regular presence on the editorial page with her column "On the Record” (Lucey). Her column made its debut on March 17, 1936 and by 1938 she reportedly was making over $100,000. This was a huge accomplishment for women during that time period.
In 1951, Murguerit Higgins became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for war correspondence (Lucey). At the time she worked for the New York Herald Tribune. Higgins ignored the objections from General Walton H. Walker and fought her way to the front lines in Korea. He told her "this is not the type of war where women ought to be running around the front lines” (Lucey). Murguerit was an inspiration for women in journalism who wanted to break through certain areas of journalism that were not seen as same or appropriate for women. War especially was still a male dominated area, even with the recent influx of women pursuing journalism. This is still prevalent today. You don’t see many women going out for war journalism, mostly men.
When 1960 rolled around, a woman name Miriam Ottenberg won a Pulitzer as an investigative journalist for her series "Buyer Beware" about unscrupulous used-car dealers and finance companies (Lucey). The introduction of federal legislation and the enactment of remedial laws was started after her series came out. She empowered women to expand into even more areas of journalism that they hadn’t before. Investigative journalism is a difficult area, but women today are interested in all different aspects of the field.
Today’s Culture
One of the major issues’ women face is the right to equal pay. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed by Congress (US NPS). They promised equal wages for the same work, regardless of the race, color, religion, national origin or sex of the worker. Yet, today there is still a wage gap between genders. Based on research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, it is estimated that women won’t receive equal pay until 2059 (The Wage Gap Over Time). Even with all the action women are taking now, at the rate we are going it will take 40 years for men and women to be paid the same for the same job. This is majorly prevalent in the journalism field as much as any other. It isn’t all about the mother, either. It goes beyond that to even more issues women face in out culture.
The women’s movement has created a lot of noise in the past few years and isn’t stopping there. In January of 2017, women marched for their rights to be heard, not only by the government, but by each other (Poo). Our society has been under the impression for years that it is okay to demean women and treat them as lesser than men. In journalism, women were not given the same opportunities as men, and it has been a major “boys club” mentality. The good old boys club is known as an informal system by which money and power are retained by wealthy white men through incestuous business relationships (Old Boys’ Club). Journalist have been predominantly male for centuries and has not changed much in the past years.
Sexual harassment and prejudice against female journalists is a major issue surrounding journalists today. A perfect example of the unfair treatment of women in the workplace is an incident involving Paula Zahn. After being promoted to an on-air hosting position, CNN ran a promo that labeled Zahn as “just a little sexy” and played what sounded like a zipper unzipping moments after (Moraes). Instead of a sophisticated professional introduction like the ones that are see promoting men, they sexualized Zahn because she is a woman. They saw an opportunity to raise their viewers by using her gender as a promotional tactic. This goes to show that female journalists are judged by the way they look to validate their worth.
Female journalists are objectified and one of the first women to break that was Katie Couric. She became an anchor on CBS and was defined daily by what she wore. In the Netflix documentary “Miss Representation” she talks about her struggles with not allowing the public to define her by her looks. She says, “television is a very visual medium obviously and it’s kind of, how do you walk the fine like of looking pleasing and attractive and also looking professional” (Newsom). Women in journalism are the only ones who are put into the media themselves because of what they wear, who their dating, things they say, and if they are showing too much skin in the media. Men aren’t objectified in such ways.
Women are also not seen as equal to men because of the stigma of being what being a good mother is. Having a career and children is not seen as adequate for women. They are expected to keep themselves out of harms way and safe so that they are there to take care of their children, unlike men who are allowed to do it without any backlash. Yvonne Ridley was a war journalist who was captured for a time by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Another reporter asked if she should have put herself at risk because she was a woman and a mother (Carter). Helen Carter claimed to be a friend of Ridley yet criticized her for putting her life at risk because she had a child.
Women in all different careers sometimes face criticism for not being home to take care of their children, but when it comes to female journalist being on the front lines reporting the war, they are seen as terrible people for not putting their family first because that is what they are supposed to do. Men with families can be on the front lines putting themselves at right without getting any criticism. This is another one of the major issues when looking at the gender equality in journalism.
There are so many different ways that women have grown up thinking that they aren’t good enough and shouldn’t be as successful as men. Women are changing the culture and changing the way women think more than ever before. Men still receive 62 percent of bylines and other credits and have 84 percent of the last century’s Pulitzer Prizes (York). Men are still dominating in today’s journalism field. They produced 62.3 percent of news reports analyzed during a studied period while women produced 37.7 percent of news reports (Media).
The problem we face is that knowing these stats is only half the battle. Doll stated, “which is why, if we hope to promote gender equality (and, really, the better word for this is fairness, a baseline that ignores gender and instead focuses on the quality of what's being produced) in bylines and writing and throughout the rest of society in general, we have to talk about not only what is but also why” (Doll). Because men have such a powerful hold in journalism, women sometimes lack the confidence to stand up to them.
References
Djerf-Pierre, Monika. “The Difference Engine.” Current Perspectives in Feminist Media Studies, 18 Mar. 2011, doi:10.4324/9780203720646-7.
Djerf-Pierre, Monika. “Plenary Session III. Media History. The Logic and Practice of Writing Journalism History.” Nordicom Review, vol. 23, no. 1-2, 28 Feb. 2017, doi:10.1515/nor-2017-0322.
Djerf-Pierre, M. (2007). The gender of journalism: The structure and logic of the field in the twentieth century. The Gender of Journalism, 8(4), 81-104. doi:10.1080/09663690120111609.
Moraes, L. D. (2002, January 08). CNN Caught In 'Zipper' Ad for Paula Zahn. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/01/08/cnn-caught-in-zipper-ad-for-paula-zahn/001d3e1d-ca22-4135-8587-9b2b0917ada7/?utm_term=.2c58e3e4304d
Beasley, M. H. (2015). Women in Journalism: Washington Press Club Foundation Oral History Archive. American Journalism, 32(1), 101-103. doi:10.1080/08821127.2015.999637
Carter, H. (2001, October 03). Just doing her job. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/04/gender.uk1
Lavie, A., & Lehman-Wilzig, S. (2005). The method is the message. Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, 6(1), 66-89. doi:10.1177/1464884905048953
Lucey, B. (2005, March 14). New York State Library. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/nysnp/womenlucey.htm
Equal Pay Act of 1963 (U.S. National Park Service). (2016, April 1). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.nps.gov/articles/equal-pay-act.htm
The Wage Gap Over Time: In Real Dollars, Women See a Continuing Gap. (1017). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.pay-equity.org/info-time.html
19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920). (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=63
Poo, A. (2018, March 08). How Women Are Demanding Gender Equality in 2018. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from http://time.com/5191419/women-leading-fight-equality-sexual-harassment/
Old Boys' Club. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from http://theoldboysclub.org/definition.htm
York, C. (2017, September 18). Women dominate journalism schools, but newsrooms are still a different story. Retrieved April 13, 2019, from https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2017/women-dominate-journalism-schools-but-newsrooms-are-still-a-different-story/
Media |. (2017, March 21). The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2019, from https://www.womensmediacenter.com/reports/the-status-of-women-in-u.s.-media-2017
Newsom, J.S. (2017, October 20). Retrieved April 13, 2019, from https://www.netflix.com/watch/70167128?trackId=13752289&tctx=0,0,7073ff29-a226-46ef-8b26-54f914f528ca-94194812
Doll, J. (2013, October 30). Do Female Journalists Have a Confidence Problem? Retrieved April 13, 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/do-female-journalists-have-confidence-problem/327490/
Borruto, A. (2015, April 1). Studies examine gender enrollment in communications. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://theithacan.org/news/studies-examine-gender-enrollment-in-communications/
Коментарі