At URY, we have an amazing team of women with a variety of roles ranging from technical, to content producing and to presenting. As it’s International Women’s Day, we want to celebrate our heroes of the day and find out a little more about their roles in URY, their perspectives on the media industry and their top tips as women in the media.
Mariella Bevan — Head of Music
In a nutshell, Head of Music at URY involves managing the team and making sure all tasks get completed each week. These tasks include writing the Album of the Week which is voted for on our Twitter, picking music for and producing the New Music Show, producing the Flagship Music Show, curating playlists, and finding gig and interview opportunities. All these tasks are distributed among the team to get everyone involved as much as possible.
As a woman, it is definitely harder to be perceived as an authority figure because society has conditioned us to be less assertive as we are more likely to be seen in a negative light for behaving in the same way as our male counterparts. I have been called ‘bossy’ before just for doing my job, which is discouraging and is not a word attributed to men very often.
Two women in media spring to mind first when I think about who have inspired me: Alice Levine and Jamila Jamil. Levine is a highly intelligent women which shines through in her quick wit — she is one of the funniest women I know of — as well as being hard-working and diverse in her accomplishments. Not only is she is a talented radio presenter, but also a TV presenter, model, business owner and co-host of the celebrated podcast My Dad Wrote A Porno. Jamil is a wonderful actress and radio presenter but has also become known for her activism on the topic of body positivity, speaking out frequently against the pressures women face in society to look a certain way. Both women are beautiful and show that women can be as multifaceted as men.
SJ Callender — Assistant Station Manager & Head of Speech
As a woman with a high position in URY as well as other student media outlets at undergrad and a woman applying for journalism jobs after I graduate, I am no stranger to sexism in the media industry and indeed in many other job sectors.
As Assistant Station Manager, I manage and lead the URY family, ensuring that everyone can get the most out of their experiences with us. And as Head of Speech, I lead a team of Speechers, manage the URY Speech blog, Facebook and Twitter. My focus points for this year have been pushing for more podcasts, producing a radio play and developing a radio show about Culture.
Unfortunately throughout history and still in today’s society, being a leader is often associated with masculine qualities and I find it hard to battle between adopting these traits (becoming a sheep) or adopting my own way of being the leader I want to be. This is a particular problem I have struggled with in the past and have spent a significant amount of time coming to terms with. It’s especially disconcerting when you find that student media is more than likely to be a male dominated environment, and if it isn’t, it’s disheartening to see your own work going unrecognised in favour of your male peers. Now, I focus on how I want to be my own leader, how to produce the best content I can and what strengths I can bring to the table.
Women that inspire me are often close to home rather than celebrities or experts in the field. I’m inspired by the two strongest women I know and those are my Mum and my Auntie Joyce and it is their drive and determination that keeps me going. I’m also inspired by my female friends who are constantly sharing their knowledge with me, their humour and their kindness. I feel like it is only by surrounding myself with these people that I become a better leader and become the person I want to be.
TOP TIP: Give yourself more credit, remember how far you’ve come.
Numi Gildert — £40K Project Coordinator
Hello, I’m Numi! I’ve been URY since 2014 and I’ve done all sorts here from being on committee as Social Secretary and then Programme Controller to presenting an award nominated entertainment show. I’m currently a project coordinator for our £40,000 project refitting the studios as well as a presenter.
URY is a very welcoming society so I’ve been lucky to have never struggled being a woman here, but the industry is notorious for being male dominated. It can be disconcerting applying for a job and seeing a small station’s entire executive board is male, and it can be disheartening to see male-centred shows dominate awards. However change is definitely in the air. At Radio Tech Con this year, Dr. Yvonne Thompson, chair of the Radio Academy said “radio must diversify or die” and its her words and the work of so many extremely talented women like her in the industry who inspire and empower me.
My advice to other women in media is to collaborate with and support other women, build each other up and never give up, even if it seems impossibly hard to keep going. And to quote the very underrated Disney move, Oliver and Company: “Keep your dream alive. Dreaming is still how the strong survive.”
Rosie Hamilton — Head of News and Sport
I am a bisexual, white, cis woman in a position of authority and that means I benefit from some privileges and I suffer from a moderate degree of discrimination. As a woman I am victim to the everyday examples of sexism that I believe are familiar to many women; I am talked over, my ideas are not taken seriously and the one that annoys me most: that I cannot be both vulnerable and strong.
In my position at URY there are many events that I am responsible for organising, such as Candidate Interview Night for the YUSU elections and the radio’s Roses commentary. Being in charge of both of these events means that I take on a significant amount of responsibility, and I present myself as both willing and capable to meet these demands. Yet, something which I have spent a long while learning — and still have a ways to go with — is asking for help and understanding that needing help does not make me a weak woman. In the media we often hear phrases such as “strong, independent woman” or “boss-ass-bitch” and these phrases serve to lift women up and empower us, but they are also harmful because it makes us feel like we need to do it alone, otherwise our achievements don’t matter, and you aren’t the Michelle Obama of student media. A powerful lesson I have learned is that asking for help not only means that you are strong enough to admit your own limits, but also asking for help, especially from other women, allows you to grow your network, and puts power and responsibility into the hands of more women.
Something which I was unprepared for when I joined student media was that it’s a male heavy environment, especially higher up the authority ladder. Walking into meetings to discover that I was the only woman there has been a reoccurring nightmare and a pleasure all at once. I am often ecstatic to realise that without me there, this room might have been devoid of all female voice, but I also know that being the only woman there means that I am the representative of my whole gender. My advice to anyone who has found themselves in this situation is to remember who you are and the ways that you have succeeded in order to be in that room in the first place. At one point in time there was no room at the table for women, so remember that you have forced the door open, created a space for yourself and brought your own chair.
My typical answer to the question “who inspired you?” might be Kit Taylor, my mentor and friend, but I would instead like to argue that my inspiration is drawn from the women who are in my News Team. I watched these women come to the radio station nervous and worried; that they wouldn’t be taken seriously, or that they wouldn’t be good enough. I have never seen Imposter Syndrome on the same scale that I do at URY. Yet I know that by providing an example for these women I can challenge their self-deprecating habits and insecurities. I am inspired and encouraged by any women who has progressed to power ahead of me, and so it is important for me to remember that I am that woman for the ladies of the News Team, and that my greatest responsibility is to help them see the beauty and strength that comes from being a woman in power.
Natalie Harris — Show Coordinator
Hi I am Natalie Harris. I am current Show Coordinator and former Assistant Head of Computing here at URY and plan to get a job in the media — hopefully as a radio producer.
As part of my job, I help create content whether that be for other shows or for my own show Time Machine. Honestly, I have not experience many struggles in my current role. however in my previous role as Assistant Head of Computing, there were quite a few. Computing and Engineering are highly male dominated departments and this causes a stigma when a woman joins the team. I feel there is an expectation that she will lack knowledge or would not be equal to her male counterparts. I suspect this is why I was only the 2nd woman to become Assistant Head of Computing in the whole of the URY 50 year history.
A woman that has inspired me is my elder sister, who did Radio Production as her degree. Due to visiting her at her placements and listening to her shows/podcasts, this sparked my interested in radio.
Becky McKay — News Editor
We are in the amazing position that the News team at URY is a majority female team at the moment, meaning that, as News Editor most of my day to day work at URY involves interacting with incredible and inspiring women.
Most of my job entails supporting Rosie as Head of News, organising interviews and writing stories for our weekly news shows, and helping to organise the big events like Roses and Candidate Interview Night for the YUSU elections.
The biggest struggle I’ve faced in media is the feeling of being an imposter. It can be incredibly daunting going to do interviews, especially if the topic in question is not a typical ‘girly’ subject. As a woman, if you come across as confident and knowledgeable, people can get defensive. However overwhelmingly I have felt supported and encouraged in everything I have done at URY.
I am inspired by so many women in my life but my inspiration for being a woman in media came from listening to Fearne Cotton on Radio 1 as I was growing up. Her show always appealed to me being the only weekday daytime show with a female presenter at the time. Following leaving Radio 1 she has dedicated time to talking about mental health and helping to make it less of a taboo subject through her podcast and on her social media, something which I’m massively passionate about.
My top tip for women looking to get into media would be just to go for it, ignore anyone who says that you can’t or shouldn’t! Look out for other women in similar positions that you’d like to be in and reach out to them, women supporting and helping other women is incredibly powerful!
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For those women that work in the media, especially radio, and are looking for safe spaces to express their views and opinions, Sound Women, provides a space for all women who work in audio (radio, podcasting, music, streaming, management, engineering and beyond). A place for to talk, share what we are doing, ask questions and post job opportunities. Charities and groups like Sound Women are places where women network, get advice and can feel empowered by other intelligent, experienced women in their field and is definitely worth looking into if you get the chance.
Collaborated by SJ Callender
