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Why Do We Need Women Journalists?

  • Feb 23, 2014
  • 2 min read

When I went to journalism school, a majority – I would say 75% of my class were females – yet it still seems that the old white male guard rules over most reporter positions with an iron fist. According to Women’s Media Center, only 37 % of reporters are female. Needless to say, that is an incredibly low number and it’s little wonder that everybody is disenchanted with the media when newspapers and online news sources give little opportunity for women to have a voice.

Many newspapers are often not friendly to female reporters. According to the U.S. Department of Labour, female reporters and editors make 10 % less than their male counterparts. Hard news reporters are supposed to be tough, alcoholic workaholic types, just like my deeply flawed journalist protagonist in my books. Journalists are not expected to raise a family or have any type of work-life balance that women often want.

Why is it important to have female reporters? For starters, because women are 11 times more likely to be sexually assaulted and 3 times more likely to be stalked than men, according to a Statistics report by the government of Canada. On average, women are at risk only slightly more than men of experience violence, yet they are at risk of certain types of violence more, such as domestic abuse and rape.

And this is just in Canada. Abuse against women is a huge problem globally, especially in Afghanistan were our soldiers fought, and in some cases died, for the freedom of the nation who were ruled by the Taliban. We need female reporters on the ground reporting on the issues where it is very dangerous to be a woman— especially one who uses her voice

Then, of course, women have different health issues than men. Health will always be a contentious issue which is why we need journalists to be vigilant watchdogs—and those watchdogs can’t solely be men. Debates over funding for breast cancer and prostate cancer research need to happen in the media. Birth control and breast feeding still seem to be a contentious issue and for those too we need female reporters.Of course men are fully capable of reporting on such issues but men cannot bring a female perspective that is needed in certain circumstances. As the world continues to connect and become interconnected, Journalism needs diversity now more than ever.How do we get more women reporters?

We modernize the journalism business which in a lot cases seems stuck in the 19th century. We make the work environment more family friendly and we set the standard of pay the same. Of course this can’t happen overnight but the journalism business can’t be stuck in such old-world thinking.

 
 
 

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