Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Where are all the women in journalism?

Posted: 05 Nov 2012 03:02 AM PST

A recent study by Women in Journalism (WiJ) finds that British newspapers are still dominated by men.

So where are all the women in journalism?

One student magazine set out to address the issue in an inspiring panel session at the University of Warwick recently.

Reporting on WiJ's findings last month, The Guardian's Amelia Hill wrote: "Male journalists wrote 78 per cent of all front-page articles and men accounted for 84 per cent of those mentioned or quoted in lead pieces, according to analysis of nine national newspapers, Monday to Saturday, over the course of four weeks."

As part of their 'Breaking Into Journalism' conference in October, The Student Journals – of which I'm deputy editor – hosted an all-woman panel discussing 'Access to journalism and breaking through the glass ceiling.'

Organised by our (male) editor, the panel featured Dawn Foster, from The Guardian's Comment is Free, and Fatima Manji, a reporter from Channel 4, and was chaired by our deputy culture editor, Anishka Sharma.

The three women kicked off with a general discussion on the problems of breaking into journalism, with the emphasis on the intersection of gender, class and race issues.

"A lot of the discrimination is very subtle now – it's the fact that you'll get passed over for a story, passed over for a promotion," Fatima said.

"Women are less well represented across the industry," she said. "Male voices are often the ones that get heard."

Nevertheless, both journalists conceded that women are not always necessarily helpful to each other.

"It's not just men who are oppressing women. There are women who get to the higher levels who feel that they have to behave in a more masculine manner," Fatima said.

Dawn agreed, adding: "Once you get to a senior level, [women] worry about not being taken seriously."

Another problem blocking women's progression in journalism is the perceived lack of female experts.

"If you know female experts, then encourage them to offer their views, quotes and interviews," Fatima urged. "There is a lack of confidence among women and minorities," she said.

A new project which aims to counter this is The Women's Room, a database of female experts launched by Catherine Smith, Caroline Criado-Perez and Yvonne Aburrow, in response to Radio 4's Today Programme repeatedly failing to find female experts to discuss women's issues.

Caroline Criado-Perez told The Guardian: "Too often, ‘expert’ is defined as a white middle-class man. That doesn’t reflect the huge expertise and variety of experiences we have in society. Instead, the media again and again draw on a small privileged group and the knock-on effect is that all those other voices aren’t heard."

Back to the panel.

Dawn and Fatima were split, for the first time in the discussion, on the question of quotas.

"It's quite helpful," Dawn said, referring to The Guardian's positive action schemes for disabled people and ethnic minorities, and the fact that Comment is Free makes a point of commissioning at least five women a day.

Fatima was more sceptical, however, saying that there remains a stigma around quotas because "it will allow others to see you as the person who only got the job because of their disadvantage."

A young woman in the audience asked: “How do we stop the demonisation of feminism [in the media]?"

Dawn said she thinks the problem is partly down to the media's prioritisation of middle-class feminism. "We need to have different kinds of women talking about feminism," she said.

Fatima added: "A movement against the establishment, calling for change, will quite probably be seen as negatively by many.  If feminism starts to be seen as a positive thing I'd be worried about it becoming watered down."

At the end of the session, the final question from the audience was from one of the many aspiring male journalists in the room: "There are a lot of male, white, middle class kids here – how can we avoid being scumbags?"

Faitma laughed. "Some of my best friends are white middle class males! And you may well be all of those things, but you've turned up to this seminar on the glass ceiling. It's about a state of mind – what you think rather than who you are."

"Try to be self-aware," Dawn added. "It's possible to discriminate without meaning to."

Judging by the reactions on Twitter, a lot of aspiring female journalists went away feeling as inspired, as I did, and a lot of aspiring male  journalists left with plenty to think about, too.

Fight austerity in north east England

Posted: 05 Nov 2012 01:00 AM PST

Networking campaign urges austerity-hit women to share experiences, put pressure on politicians.

The North East Women’s Network is urging women in the region to speak out about the hardships they are facing as a result of government spending cuts.

A recent report by the North East Women’s Network has revealed that cuts to jobs and public services are having a particularly severe impact on women in the north east of England compared to those in other parts of the country.

Members of the Network, which supports and represents women's organisations throughout the north east, presented their findings to MPs at UK Feminista’s Lobby of Parliament on 24 October.

Now they want more women to join them in pressing politicians and public bodies to tackle the disproportionate impact Government spending cuts are having on their lives, and they hope this pressure will lead to a debate in the House of Commons next spring.

Sue Robson, author of the report and co-ordinator of the North East Women's Network said: "We want to gather stories about the impact the cuts are having on women's lives, on their children, their jobs, their families.

"We want women to write to their MPs, email their MPs, spread the message on Twitter and Facebook and become involved with us.

"We want to make sure the voices of North East women are heard."

The report found that women's inequality, already exacerbated by the region's high levels of economic and social deprivation, has become further entrenched due to the recession.

The recent rounds of job cuts in the public sector, which employs a greater proportion of women in the North East compared to elsewhere, means the region currently has the highest female unemployment rate in the country.

The number of women claiming Job Seekers' Allowance is also at its highest since 1990.

The risks to the region's specialist women's services were also highlighted in the report.

And as Penny Remfry, a member of the North East Women's Network said: "Women's organisations could prevent problems from happening or from escalating, thus saving the government money and relieving the burden on public services.

"Yet these organisations are dealing with increased demand and diminishing resources and many in the North East are facing closure."

The report, which was produced in collaboration with the Women's Resource Centre, is also included as a case study in the shadow report being prepared for the United Nations Committee to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ahead of its review of the UK government next summer.

For more information on the North East Women's Network campaign, visit their website.