Not enough women are rising above the “glass ceiling”
By Iskra Panevska Posted Sun, Apr 1 2001
There is no easy way to measure the advancement of women in journalism. Do we count the numbers of women in management? Figure out the proportion of women and men in the newsrooms? Count the number of female journalists receiving service awards? We can do all of these things and not arrive at any clear conclusion. The numbers are easy to measure; the effect less so.
About 20 years ago, one could hardly find a single woman on the editorial staff of newspapers. Nowadays, some talk of the feminization of the media, giving the impression that the job has been done, and that fighting for more visibility for women in the media today seems like a form of rearguard action. Sadly, the increase of female journalists over time hasn’t led to equality in the media.
The United Nations Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, notes that women’s equal participation in decision making is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy, but a necessary condition.
Implementing the decisions of this conference, UNESCO called on media around the world to put women in charge of the news on International Women’s Day, March 8. The Women Make the News operations are designed to bring attention to the fact that although women are increasingly present in numbers in the media, not enough women rise above the “glass ceiling” to key editorial positions.
In creating the initiative, we examined the role of the media decision makers. Many media managers have deeply ingrained preconceptions about women and are unaware they are not giving fair consideration to female staff in assignments, positions and promotion.
UNESCO’s Director-General, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, emphasized that the issue of gender equality must remain at the forefront of each society’s agenda and the international community until gender balance is achieved at every level in the workplace.