Without Women Journalists, We’re Missing Half the Story
Just one-third of the world’s reporters are women. How do we fix this gender gap?
We depend on the world’s women journalists to keep us informed of the hardest hitting stories of the day, from issues of violence against women, reproductive health legislation, and suppression of free speech. Using their nuance and unique perspectives, they can deliver these topics through a necessary gendered lens.
But without gender equity in the global community of journalists, how can we trust we are always getting the full story?
The International Women’s Media Foundation survey on the Status of Women in News and Media found that while more women are entering the media field than ever, women still only make up a third of reporters globally (though the exact number varies across regions).
This vast gap also severely underrepresents intersectional perspectives including race, religious backgrounds, and the perspective of women from non-western countries.
Women journalists also face significant barriers to conducting their work due to the prominence of harassment they often encounter while on the job.
A research project published by the International Center for Journalists in 2022 studying online harassment against women journalists found that over 73% of respondents reported receiving online targeted harassment, and 20% faced offline harassment in connection to these threats. The study also found that respondents identifying as Black, Indigenous, Jewish, Asian, Arab, and lesbian women faced the highest rates of harassment.
These frequent and often violent occurrences of harassment have caused many to physically relocate or withdraw from an online presence, hindering them from being able to operate freely in their communities and workplaces.
Without an equitable presence of women in journalism, we miss their perspective on how governmental policies, social systems, and cultural changes affect half the world’s population differently.
Take the story that sparked the current #MeToo movement in the United States. Reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, both women reporters, received critical acclaim after their exposé of disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein’s long history of sexual harassment and rape. Telling the painful stories that many women face, but often never tell, struck women across the globe to come forward and share their own stories, to let others know they were not alone.
Having two women lead this monumental story enabled it to be told from a perspective that understands the social implications women face when in these horrible situations (why they don’t report, fear of retaliation, how their families reputations could be affected, etcetera).
How could we expect men journalists to be able to accurately portray these nuances, when so often it is men themselves discouraging women from speaking out?
And it’s not just what men journalists fail to report, they can also cause direct harm through what they do choose to report.
In response to the misogynistic media narrative of femicide in Mexico, protesters and women reporters alike criticized the way the country’s journalists were covering instances of violence against women, often including overly-gorey details, pictures of the deceased against their family’s wishes, and writing in a way that lessens the blame of the perpetrators.
To combat this perspective dominating the news landscape, a group of mostly women journalists formed a coalition to address the way gendered stories are told in Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala, called #CambiaLaHistoria (Change the Story).
Through training and research, these journalists have been able to learn from each other about how they can best tackle systemic gendered issues through their journalism and reporting. They’re able to create a new narrative, one that gives women the dignity they deserve when their stories are told.
Lastly, we cannot forget what the women journalists of the world can tell us about the experience of violent conflict and political suppression, and how it can differ from those of men. It’s difficult to be able to really sympathize with those in an unfamiliar country on the other side of the globe.
As the world watched the Taliban quickly strip Afghan citizens of the human rights they spent 20 years fighting for, the majority of reporting now focuses on what the international community can possibly do to aid the country’s women.
The women journalists of Afghanistan continue to work under Taliban rule in order to give a voice to their country, even while facing harassment and death threats against themselves and their families.
They write about the daily experiences of women and girls, and the deteriorating conditions they are required to live in, with more Taliban restrictions on movement outside the home than ever.
This is why it is imperative we still have women reporters speaking up to let us know what is happening to them. To hear it from those actually suffering from such restrictions gives us a far more holistic point of view, rather than hearing from solely external journalists or male perspectives that cannot capture all the complexities of the situation women journalists experience themselves.
It can be difficult to really sympathize with those in an unfamiliar country on the other side of the globe– especially for women news consumers. However, they may be able to better relate to women journalists with that added layer of a gendered lens that speaks to their own experiences, and be able to engage with their daily news in a way that is more personal and engaging.
To be sure, as an average news consumer, the gender gap in reporting may not strike you as a systemic issue we should be fighting to change. You may think, I can’t do anything about the statistical employment of women journalists, so why should I care? How much could I really be missing?
But reflecting on this inequity should cause us to question what we value in our journalism, and the vital perspectives we stand to lose with the continued exclusion of women.
Read their articles. Demand their news outlets share more of their stories. And support the organizations that fight for their safety.
We deserve the full story, and women journalists deserve to tell it.
