FY 2000-2001 Annual Report
Connecting in the US
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IWMF's Diversity Program Concludes
"I'm tired of seeing young white women five to eight years younger then me, with less experience, getting promoted to senior producer and management jobs. I'm a talented and creative producer and journalist. However, I've come to realize that I'm not the kind of 'black girl' they want. I'm smart, highly qualified and have solid experience. Many newsroom managers and colleagues find all of that a threat."
-- 39-year-old television journalist
In 1999, the IWMF surveyed women journalists of color and their newsroom managers.
The result was Women Journalists of Color: Present Without Power, a comprehensive
and sometimes surprising portrait of where women of color stand in newsrooms.
At the turn of the century, all was not well for women of color in the journalism
profession.
"The typical American news organization faces a crucial challenge, one
that could literally help foster long-term success or signal yet another step
toward obsolescence," IWMF Co-Chair Cynthia Tucker and Diversity Chair
Maureen Bunyan wrote in the report's introduction. "There is a sense that
more can and needs to be done to lower the barriers that have kept representative
numbers of women from moving into decision-making positions."
Over the next two years, the IWMF, with a grant from The Ford Foundation and
additional funding from IWMF board member and CNN Anchor Judy Woodruff, developed
and offered four leadership training workshops to women journalists of color
in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston and, finally, in April 2001, in Chicago. The
workshops were designed to give women journalists of color more of the skills
and tools that they need to break through the ranks in their profession.
"Often, when you are the only woman of color in your workplace, you feel like the only person in the world with these issues."
Emelia Cowans
News Producer, Indiana
All workshops included role-playing of real workplace situations. At the concluding workshop in Chicago in April 2001, an Hispanic journalist who recently became a manager used the role-playing exercise to find ways to deal with an employee who comes in her office and screams at her. Another journalist wanted to discuss ways she can articulate to her boss that just because she is Korean, doesn't mean she understands Japanese culture. He has assumed that because she is Asian she would be the best person to cover the local Japanese community.
Nuts and bolts issues - such as how to ask for a raise and how to negotiate
with difficult employees or bosses - were also discussed at every workshop.
The seminar sessions covered communications skills, assertiveness training,
self-promotion, conflict resolution, negotiating skills, management issues and
career mapping.
"Often, when you are the only woman of color in your workplace, you feel
like the only person in the world with these issues," said Emelia Cowans,
a news producer from Indiana who attended the seminar in Chicago. "The
IWMF conference showed me that women everywhere are going through the fire and
coming out like gold."
"I had limited knowledge of the International Women's Media Foundation
before attending the April workshop," wrote Raven Hill in an opinion piece
for the IWMF newsletter, the IWMFwire. "Yet, those two days sufficiently
illustrated to me why organizations like the IWMF are vital if women - especially
women of color - are going to achieve better representation in journalism's
upper management ranks."
The Chicago workshop was the final in this series. Diversity will be a key component
for all future IWMF programs, including a new series of leadership development
programs and programs for young women journalists that will begin in 2001-2002.