Opportunity

Without women and nonbinary journalists’ perspectives, you aren’t getting the full story. We are one of the largest supporters worldwide of women-produced news content, and are expanding our efforts to provide more opportunities to nonbinary journalists.

Research commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2021 found that women’s representation in the news has flatlined – if not reversed – in the 21st century. This holds true across all areas of the news media: women are underrepresented in newsroom leadership, gender equity stories are going untold, and men remain the vast majority of quoted experts and sources.

The IWMF seeks to change the narrative by offering women and nonbinary journalists a broad range of reporting opportunities, awarding more than $630,000 in grants and fellowships in 2022. Among them are our Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, which offers flexible grants for special projects; our Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship, which funds one journalist annually to study at MIT and intern at the New York Times and Boston Globe; and, our ¡Exprésate! LGBTQI+ and Women’s Rights Reporting Initiative in Latin America. Learn about all of the IWMF’s programmatic offerings here.

We are also committed to providing professional development opportunities for women and nonbinary journalists. Our Gwen Ifill Mentorship Program pairs journalists from underrepresented backgrounds with media industry leaders to advance their careers. In 2021, we launched NextGen Safety Trainers, a program training a new generation of journalism safety trainers with historically marginalized identities. And, in the wake of the crisis in Afghanistan, we established Reclaiming Futures, a program designed to help Afghan women journalists re-establish their careers in the U.S.