Leading in a Different Language: Will Women Change the News Media?
Barriers to Success

In the 2000 IWMF survey, a clear majority of respondents (98 percent) said that women journalists face professional barriers that their male colleagues do not, at least some of the time. An overwhelming majority of women journalists -- more than 75 percent -- completing a 1997 IWMF survey agreed. What makes this even more of a challenge, they said, is that their male colleagues do not believe this to be true.

Cultural and Social Obstacles

Perhaps the most substantial obstacles women face stem from the cultural and social stereotypes about what roles are and are not appropriate for women. The most difficult of these challenges to overcome is that women should not work outside the home. Women who do take on professional positions must often confront pre-conceptions of how a job should be done or what qualities are necessary for a specific position, notions established by decades of male-dominance in the profession.

This system has a tremendous impact on women journalists trying to move up the ladder. Susan King, vice president of public affairs at the Carnegie Corporation of New York and co-chair of the IWMF conference in May, explained that when a man reaches a top position, it is usually assumed that he has the credentials for the position. Yet when a woman reaches the same level, there are often doubts expressed about her abilities.

Respondents to the 1995 IWMF survey consistently said that they felt they had to work harder or take on more assignments in order to prove they could do their jobs. In the last five years, not much has changed. More than half of the respondents (62 percent) to the IWMF's survey in March 2000 agreed that the top obstacle for women in management is continually proving abilities to colleagues and supervisors. A typical comment came from a Brazilian editor. "Women still need to work harder…to demonstrate that they are the equal of their male peers," she said.

"[Mentoring gives] women more strength and confidence to fight and win, when they know that they are not being stopped by other women, but rather supported by them."
Saida Hamad
Bureau Chief Al-Hayat, Jerusalem

Even when women do forge opportunities for themselves in the media, the challenge is far from over. The climate of the newsroom can sometimes turn hostile when women achieve top posts. At an IWMF program in Johannesburg in 1998, Zubeida Jaffer, group parliamentary editor of Independent Newspapers in South Africa, described the day top management informed the all-male staff of her promotion. "I was sitting in this room with only men. …No one came up and congratulated me. For me that was such a shock." Jaffer recounted this story more than six months after her promotion, but her colleagues' lack of acceptance was still fresh for her.

Inhospitable environments can mean that some women skip informal gatherings with colleagues. This can lead to missed opportunities, because social gatherings are often where professional relationships are strengthened and where co-workers share information about training opportunities, job openings, important assignments and fellowships. These out-of-the-workplace contacts can be crucial for journalists seeking to advance in the profession.

Balancing Work and Family

While these obstacles alone might be enough to keep some women from moving up in their profession, time after time women journalists tell the IWMF that one of the most daunting barriers that women journalists face is the dual challenge of balancing work and home responsibilities.

In the 1995 IWMF report, it was the leading obstacle reported by women journalists from 44 countries and in the 2000 IWMF survey, 64 percent of respondents said balancing work and family is the top obstacle they face.

Only African women journalists did not rank balancing work and family life as a major obstacle to their success as journalists. This may be because African woman can rely on a network of extended family for support, explained Emily Nwankwo, general manager of the Nation Media Group in Kenya. "You don't marry one person, you marry into a family. …We have an instant support system that we can draw on."

While extended families may be the answer for African women, women from other regions note continual problems with juggling these responsibilities. As women attempt to move into management, they must fight to gain acceptance in a new professional role and, at the same time, create an acceptable balance for themselves between their lives at work and at home. In facing this ongoing dilemma, women consider the beliefs of their families and their communities, as well as their own personal beliefs about the responsibilities of a wife or mother.

A Sri Lankan journalist told the IWMF that she is unable "to work long hours…due to pressures from family and society." And a South Korean editor-in-chief who attended an IWMF program in the Philippines in 1998 said that she works twice as hard as her male colleagues in order to combat the prejudice that "women are reluctant to sacrifice their family life for their career."

The Glass Ceiling

The news media are not exempt from the glass ceiling recognized in so many industries. Lamees Al-Hadidi, managing editor of Al-Yam Al-Youm in Egypt, explains: "We [women journalists] are stuck in middle management. We never go up to the top and in my society it's even harder…We have all of these traditions that hold us back."

As Al-Hadidi implies, women might have trouble reaching the top rungs of a journalism career because people in their societies believe that women do not have the capacity for leadership, cannot make tough decisions, and cannot form visions for and inspire the people they lead. A Bangladeshi journalist put it this way: "The social taboo…is that women are not the proper persons to depend on for the right news or the proper opinion."

In some countries, women have been able to make small strides. In the Philippines, for example, three of the 10 major daily newspapers are run by women. Many other women journalists are still struggling. For example, an editor from Zimbabwe told the IWMF that when she received a promotion to deputy chief sub editor at her paper, she was the first black woman to be named to such a high post at a major English-language daily in her country.

Lack of Training Opportunities

In order to advance their careers at most media companies, journalists need to take advantage of professional training opportunities. Still, women journalists who have responded to IWMF polls and those who have attended IWMF programs have consistently said that they must struggle to gain access to leadership and career development training.

Time and again journalists from around the world have declined an opportunity to participate in training the IWMF has offered free of charge, because their supervisors would not grant them permission to attend. Countless others have waged fierce battles just to take unpaid leave in order to participate.

Many women journalists have also reported that the type of assignments they receive inhibits their advancement potential. Respondents to the March 2000 IWMF survey identified lack of access to high visibility projects as one of the top five obstacles they face in advancing their careers. They said that men are directed toward careers covering hard news stories in politics, finance and technology, all of which carry respect and significance in the newsroom. Women are assigned to soft topics - social affairs, culture and arts reporting.

A journalist from Ghana reports: "Bosses tend to create the impression that women are incapable for certain assignments." A colleague from Slovakia agrees that there is "the perception that women should stick with family and women's affairs and not be involved in social issues at important levels."

A Zambian journalist described to the IWMF what happened while she was sitting in her newsroom and the report of a major airplane crash came over the wire. Senior government officials had been traveling on board the plane, making the disaster a top news story. The female journalist had just wrapped up a report, so she was available to rush to the scene. Still, her editor looked right past her and pulled another reporter -- a man -- off an ongoing assignment and told him to run to get the story.

In journalism, getting good assignments goes hand in hand with career advancement. Covering hard news stories provides journalists with important career credentials -- not to mention the exposure and recognition, that can come with having a byline on the year's hottest story. So if women are continually relegated to beats with less visibility, does that mean women are being denied equal opportunity?

Lack of Support Mechanisms

"There is power where women, news and the Internet come together."
Tara Sonenshine, President, Womensnewslink.com, US

In the IWMF's 2000 survey, there was an even split between those who said many women take steps to help other women (36 percent) and those who said that only a few women take such steps (38 percent). While many women journalists said they should support other women at work, there is a gap between what women journalists said they should do and what they actually do.

Some women talk of feeling alienated by other women once they have been promoted. Others mention female supervisors who do little to help female colleagues gain the skills they need to move ahead. Women journalists might want to engage in support of and for other women, but often cannot realistically take on such a role. For those dealing with the pressures of a decision-making post on top of continuing to prove themselves, taking the time to work on behalf of others is another demand on their schedule.

Yet, women journalists aspiring to leadership can become easily discouraged without the example of other women journalists who have reached management. Nearly half of the women journalists under the age of 30 who responded to the IWMF survey earlier this year indicated that a lack of role models is a major obstacle to their advancement.

One of the arguments that management uses to deny promotions to women is that other women journalists will not accept them. Bachi Karkaria, group editorial director of Mid-Day Publications in India, told the IWMF gathering in May that she recently changed jobs because of just this situation. She was in line for a promotion to editor-in-chief when her management balked. "The other women at similar levels would resent it," they told her.

The idea that some women resent others who are successful at work sets women against each other, argued Gail Evans, executive vice president of CNN, speaking at the 2000 IWMF conference. Evans also identified another dangerous myth: that there are certain "reserved" women's places. If there are "six seats at the [management] table, and five of them are held by men, and one is held by a woman, every other woman in the organization thinks there is one seat open," she said. "There isn't. There are six seats open. …We pit ourselves against each other because we only see that one seat." Women themselves are responsible for challenging and changing these assumptions, she said.