Women Journalists of Color: Present Without Power
Facing Diversity Head-On

"Pick and choose your battles carefully...There are plenty of wonderful people and experiences along the journey."
32-year-old Hispanic reporter, Southern U.S.

As females and as ethnic minorities, women journalists of color face a double-edged challenge in America's newsrooms. Tensions are often amplified as much by gender as by race.

Vicki Torres, who is now a business columnist for a California newspaper, recalls that in 1977, the National Organization for Women had to threaten to sue the first newspaper she worked at before it would hire women. Upon her arrival, Torres saw that male staffers had plastered pin-up photographs of scantily-clad women on walls, typewriters and bulletin boards. "It was like a locker room, and they just didn't care," Torres said. "I didn't have time to worry about being discriminated against because I was a Latina. The sexism was just incredible."

After Peggy Peterman was hired to write for the "Negro Page" in 1965, she concluded that news about the black community should not be segregated. She wrote a 14-page memo on why the page should be abolished, which editors heeded. She was quickly transferred-to the "Women's Page."

The days of such blatant segregation of news content are in the past. What remains is an acute perception of physical separateness, as expressed by many of the journalists who responded to the IWMF survey. With few women of color to turn to as role models or mentors in many newsrooms, women journalists of color report sensing a measure of unwelcomeness in their newsrooms. To complicate matters, some of these women carry the added burden of trying to mediate tensions, to explain themselves or their ethnic backgrounds in addition to their daily work.

Joaqlin Estus explains it best when describing her experiences at a Midwestern public radio station. "People felt free to come up to me and complain about Native Americans, because I'm Native," she says. "They never considered that might be offensive to me. Or all they ever talked about around me was Native American issues. I could never get them to really see me for who I was."

Also, the women journalists of color surveyed say their interactions with co-workers and management are less than positive. Only 40 percent say their cultural and religious differences are respected by their co-workers, while 77 percent of managers say those differences are respected among co-workers. Just 32 percent of journalists say religious and cultural differences are respected by managers, while 88 percent of managers say they respect those differences.

Clearly, the interpersonal dynamics of any work environment that includes women and men from a variety of ethnic backgrounds must be weighed carefully. Of necessity, the burden of creating a newsroom where all employees feel comfortable and able to perform at their most productive levels ultimately rests with the manager. Because a manager's interaction with staffers may be limited, he or she may be wholly unaware of some of the challenges faced by women journalists of color. Mechanisms must be developed to allow managers and co-workers to understand how each perceives the environment in which they work.

But once these types of interpersonal hurdles are cleared, women journalists of color often report a strong sense of their role in the news operation, and many say they have developed a tangible strategy for negotiating their careers. They say they are determined to concentrate on their goals, to not walk into every setting expecting to be harassed or discriminated against, and to stay focused on career advancement. In fact, survey results show women journalists of color express a general satisfaction with their career autonomy.

Just over half-55 percent-of the respondents say they are satisfied with the types of duties and responsibilities assigned to them. Less than half-47 percent-said they are always or frequently satisfied with their authority to make decisions. Fifty-four percent say they are satisfied with their ability to act independently. On the whole, 60 percent said they are always or frequently satisfied with their job accomplishments.

But some troubling discrepancies remain. Only 15 percent say they are always or frequently satisfied with the investment by upper management in staff. A mere 14 percent say they are always or frequently satisfied with their newsroom's leadership training opportunities. Only 15 percent say they are satisfied with the frequency of promotions, and 28 percent say they are satisfied with their overall career advancement opportunities.

Cynthia Lozano says she knew it was time to leave the newsroom back in 1993, when she was working as a night police reporter for a Missouri newspaper. She says she knew instinctively that she would never be promoted from that beat because she had started out at that paper as a clerk. She was convinced editors would always see her as a clerk.

Though Lozano says she has never felt hampered as a Hispanic woman, she admits it is always something she deals with on one level or another-and that some colleagues will always be uncomfortable with her "ethnicity."

Eventually, Lozano leveraged her interest and expertise in computers into a different, thriving career as a New Media specialist for a major journalism syndicate. "I know I have a much better chance of advancing here," she says. "Race is something that will always be there, but my knowledge of technology can make that issue a little less prominent."

In short, women journalists of color say they are making the most of what career opportunities they find, while conceding that they may not have the opportunity to reach the kind of high profile beats that other journalists attain. Often, this is because women journalists of color say they are "left out of the loop." They are not included in important story meetings or editing sessions for big projects. While they may work several decades as a street reporter, many women journalists of color say they have resigned themselves to a perception that they will never have the opportunity to work on the national desk, or become photo editor, or host of the newstalk show, or lead news anchor. Or they say that while they might be very successful as an assistant editor, a shot at the top job may not come their way because they are not considered "management material."

One journalist respondent explained it this way: "It's not a conscious discrimination in promotion, but I believe we sometimes can't compete with the white male reporters who remind (senior managers) of themselves when they were young."

Contrast this with managers, who seem to have a more positive view of the situation. Sixty-nine percent said they give these women high-visibility assignments. Sixty-four percent of managers say their recognition of the accomplishments of women journalists of color is very effective.

On the other hand, while 83 percent of women journalists say they look for challenging or high-visibility assignments, 47 percent said they had no access to these projects. Also, only 27 percent reported receiving staff recognition for their efforts.

Once again, a noticeable gap between what women journalists of color say they experience, and what managers believe is occurring, denotes a serious communication problem. The results suggest that women journalists of color should be more proactive in their efforts to explain the challenges they face to managers, and managers should find a better way to evaluate the impact of the programs established to help journalists move ahead in their careers.

One respondent shares her philosophy on taking advantage of the opportunities that one finds: "You are what you make of yourself. Take responsibility and be answerable first and foremost to yourself. The industry is more prepared for women moving all the way to the top than it has been ever before. Take advantage of it and go after what you want to do."