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A groundbreaking “Global Report on the Status Women in the News Media” examining more than 500 companies in nearly 60 countries shows that men occupy the vast majority of the management jobs and news-gathering positions in most nations included in this study.

The International Women’s Media Foundation commissioned the study to closely examine gender equity in the news media around the world. The full report was launched at the International Women Media Leader’s Conference on Wednesday, March 23 at George Washington University’s Jack Morton Auditorium in Washington DC.

A powerful gathering of nearly 75 women media executives from around the world will analyze the report and vote on a plan of action to “level the playing field” for women in newsrooms in their home countries at the conference on Friday, March 25. The conference is hosted by the IWMF and George Washington University’s Global Media Institute.

In this long-awaited extensive study, researchers found that 73 percent of the top management jobs are occupied by men compared to 27percent by women. Among the ranks of reporters, men hold nearly two-thirds of the jobs, compared to 36 percent held by women. However, among senior professionals, women are nearing parity with 41 percent of the news-gathering, editing and writing jobs. The new global study shows women in 26 percent of the governing and 27 percent of the top management jobs.

Here is a link to the full report.

“For the first time we have scientifically collected evidence that offers a true picture of the very real challenges faced by women working in the media industry,” International Women’s Media Foundation Executive Director Liza Gross said. “Women in every region of the world still face many barriers — whether it is lower salaries than their male counterparts or lack of access to decision making jobs in the newsroom.”

The IWMF study covering 170,000 people in the global news media found a higher representation of women in both governance and top management within both Eastern Europe (33 percent and 43 percent, respectively) and Nordic Europe (36 percent and 37 percent, respectively), compared to other regions. In the Asia and Oceana region, women are barely 13 percent of those in senior management, but in some individual nations women exceed men at that level -- in South Africa women are 79.5 percent of those in senior management. In Lithuania women dominate the reporting ranks of junior and senior professional levels (78.5 percent and 70.6 percent, respectively), and their representation is nearing parity in the middle and top management ranks.

The global study identified glass ceilings for women in 20 of 59 nations studied. Most commonly these invisible barriers were found in middle and senior management levels. Slightly more than half of the companies surveyed have an established company-wide policy on gender equity. These ranged from 16 percent of companies surveyed in Eastern Europe to 69 percent in Western Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In partner with the researchers from China, South Korea, Japan and Philippines, Cai Yiping, Executive Director of Isis International was the regional coordinator of this study for Southeast and East Asia.

 

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