Leading in a Different Language: Will Women Change the News Media?
Strategies for Success

There are a number of steps that women journalists can take to help ensure that more women's voices are heard in decision-making positions and that issues of importance to women are covered seriously.

Supporting Other Women

A collective voice is much stronger than a lone call for change. Respondents to a September 2000 IWMF survey of women in the Latin American media found that one of the most effective ways to benefit women journalists would be to have more women in leadership and management. Dagmar Engel, head of news for Deutsche Welle Television in Germany, is an activist for women in the media. "I am promoting women wherever I find them, because I think, 'If I don't do it, who will?'" she told delegates to the May 2000 IWMF conference.

"A story conference changes when half the participants are female," wrote former Los Angeles Times reporter Kay Mills in her 1988 book, A Place in the News: From the Women's Pages to the Front Page. "There is indeed security in numbers. Women are more willing to speak up...about a story they know concerns many readers, to assert their own ideas...or to raise a question that elicits a new line of thought."

"You really have an obligation to try to promote and attract other women to [management] positions."
Annegrethe Rasmussen, Editor-in-chief, Berlingske Sunday, Denmark

The idea that a critical mass of women journalists will make a difference in the profession is not a new one. In the 1970's women working at public broadcasting stations in the United States established an informal network to support one another and to learn about other women journalists whom they could then promote. And the idea is still in force today. Women journalists writing to the IWMF prior to a recent program in Namibia said that a primary reason they wanted to move into management positions was to help other women by supporting, mentoring and promoting capable colleagues.

An overwhelming majority (85 percent) of the respondents to the 2000 IWMF survey said that having a mentor is at least somewhat important for women journalists aspiring to decision-making positions. In addition, 65 percent said that they have had a mentor at some point in their career and 77 percent said they were currently mentoring at least one journalist.

Emily Nwankwo, general manager of the Nation Media Group in Kenya, points out the correlation between mentoring and success for women. "Building confidence in professional women is a part of mentoring. Often when women are tapped for a position they ask if they can do it…not because they lack the skills, but because thus far they have not received encouragement and there is no one pushing them forward."

Women should not shrug off having a mentor even after reaching leadership positions, advises Bachi Karkaria, group editorial director of Mid-Day Publications in India. "If we stop learning,…I think we do a big disservice to ourselves."

Even one woman advancing in her career can make a difference, said Pat Mitchell, the first female president of the U.S. Public Broadcasting System, speaking at the IWMF conference in May 2000. A woman who is successful can open doors to other women, Mitchell said. She added that she welcomed the opportunity to publicly serve as a role model for other women, because it was her "responsibility to all those who come behind, and an opportunity to be bold and take risks."

Women journalists responding to the recent IWMF survey agree with Mitchell. More than half the respondents said that looking for high visibility challenges could help women journalists move up the ladder.

Influencing the Next Generation

Many women currently in news media leadership have taken up the charge of creating a more balanced image of women in the news media.

In an effort to ensure women appear in a more positive light, Sarah Akrofi-Quarcoo, assistant chief editor of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, conducts seminars on the portrayal of women in the media for her journalism colleagues. On the other side of the world, when Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz, associate editor at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, speaks to communications students, she tells them how harmful negative portrayals of women can be for all of society.

Sylvia Vollenhoven, executive producer with the South African Broadcasting Company, pushes to have respected female sources included in news reports. This measure, she said, not only changes attitudes about women in the newsrooms, but it changes attitudes about women in the whole of society. Manuela Kessler, head of the foreign desk of Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich, Switzerland, agrees. "Having female voices in the newspaper also helps advance a different kind of perception about women generally," she said.

Networking

The IWMF has found that women journalists around the world value the opportunity to get to know one another and build contacts. One of the requests of women journalists who attended the IWMF program last May was that they be able to stay in touch with one another once they returned home. To help them, the IWMF established a cyber community for the delegates, using the Internet to establish a private e-mail "listserve" that goes out simultaneously to everyone who attended the conference.

The journalists have used the forum to share experiences, information and strategies, to provide support and encouragement to one another, and to continue building connections established during the program. In fact, several have asked new colleagues to write for their publications, broadening the impact of the new network.

The value of this connection was underscored more than once during its first few months after the program. Women in the network rallied around a news editor in Namibia facing a demotion from her management post, offered support to a colleague in Bulgaria coping with an unexpected dismissal from her position and encouraged an editor in Zimbabwe after the only "female friendly" boss she'd ever known was fired.

The conference in May 2000 was simply one step, albeit a significant one, in assisting women in furthering their careers and supporting their ambitions. The IWMF programs will continue to support women journalists and help them develop the skills necessary to advance into decision-making positions. Leadership development is a focal point of IWMF programs around the world. The annual Carole Simpson Leadership Institute for African women journalists, workshops for women journalists of color in the United States and a new initiative working with women journalists in Latin America are just a few of the opportunities that the IWMF will offer in this area.