Male-Dominated Media   

Thurs., December 1, 2011

Men rule the media not just in the United States but worldwide.

In March, the International Women's Media Foundation released a landmark study examining gender equity in the news media in 59 countries. Results show that men occupy the vast majority of management and top newsgathering positions in most of the more than 500 companies surveyed.

"There is a general consensus that the United States is not the best place for women in journalism," says IWMF deputy director Elisa Lees Munoz, who oversaw the two-year study. Of the 14 companies studied in the U.S., women were less than a fourth (23.3 percent) of those in top-level management and a third (35.3 percent) in governing positions, such as boardrooms.

Women fared best in Scandinavia, where active labor movements and legislation provide a well-developed system of laws and other mechanisms for women's equality in the workplace, according to the IWMF study.

Overall, "There still is a glass ceiling out there. No doubt about it," Munoz says.

The study is titled "Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media."

– S.R.