Over the past few years, there’s been an ongoing (and much needed) conversation about diversity in journalism. Mainly, there’s just not enough diversity in the field (Vox isn’t a stranger to this conversation). When it comes to topics like the racial tension in Ferguson or Caitlyn Jenner coming out, it’s valuable to both readers and news organizations for people who have a deep understanding of these issues to be the ones writing about them.
The gender gap in American newspapers, in 2 charts
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.
But there’s still so much work to do.
Case in point: the gender gap in media. The Women’s Media Center (WMC), a nonprofit media advocacy group, just released its annual report on the status of women in media, and the organization found that journalism still has a lot of inequality in who is writing. In a survey of major newspapers across the United States, only the Chicago Sun-Times had more stories written by women than by men. The rest all trailed, with the New York Times and the Denver Post tying for the worst gender gap:
(Women's Media Center)
To be clear, studying an organization’s bylines might not paint the full picture of its editorial structure. The approach tells us a lot about the gender gap in reporting and writing, but it doesn’t tell us about women (or lack of women) in editorial and managerial positions.
“Our research shows that women, who are more than half of the population, write only a third of the stories. Media tells us our roles in society — it tells us who we are and what we can be,” president Julie Burton said in a statement about the report. “This new report shows us who matters and what is important to media — and clearly, as of right now, it is not women.”
Women aren’t just underrepresented in overall bylines. They’re also underrepresented when it comes to the spheres of politics, foreign policy, business, technology, sports, science, and myriad other subjects. In fact, it’s easier to list the four subjects — education, health, religion, and lifestyle — that do have gender equality than to name the ones that don’t:
(Women's Media Center)
To see the full report, head over to the Women’s Media Center.
