The Women’s Media Center has released its 2021 report on the status of women in U.S. media — a compilation of research that shows the persistent challenges and intermittent progress for women in American media.
WMC’s “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2021” report draws data from 110 studies that together show the standing of women across all media, including legacy and digital news platforms, film, television, radio, technology, literature, and more.
The expansive report includes research from academia, industry and professional groups, labor unions, media watchdogs, and newsrooms, as well as original WMC research including “WMC Divided 2021: The Media Gender Gap,” which illustrated that gender inequality in America’s newsrooms continues across all media platforms as men received 65% of bylines and credits in 2021 while women received only 34%.
The research also showed that prime-time weekday evening news broadcasts are the most equitable, while print newspapers (69% men vs. 31% women) and wires (63% vs. 37% women) are the least.
WMC President/CEO Julie Burton stated that “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2021” report demonstrates that while there have been some gains, in all realms of media, representation and visibility of women are still sorely lacking. This, she said, has implications for media and for democracy.
“‘The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2021’ reports in great detail on the many ways our media does not reflect the world that we live in,” Burton said. “In the United States women are 51% of the population, but, as our ‘divided’ research shows, report only 34% of the news stories. How can the public possibly know about and understand the perspectives, concerns, experiences, and lives of over half the population if women are not allowed to be half of the storytellers? We at the Women’s Media Center want to see greater gender and racial equality in the American media.”
Erica González Martínez, a WMC board member, added, “For media to offer accurate, fair, and complex reporting, women must be at all levels of decision-making and work throughout news organizations. The data gathered and reports produced by the Women’s Media Center are critical tools for raising uncomfortable but urgent conversations about the need for media to not simply say better, but do better — today.”
Iconic feminist Gloria Steinem, WMC’s co-founder, believes the report “will help to hold news media accountable for the persistent inequalities in media. Women must be visible and powerful in all aspects of media if American society is ever to be a real democracy.”
Here are the “Status” report highlights in traditional print and online-only media, radio and television, news consumption, entertainment media and technology, social media, gaming, and engineering:
In news media (print, online-only, radio and television):
No Indigenous women and just one woman of Middle Eastern/North African descent appeared as a guest on five top Sunday TV news talk shows in 2020, according to the WMC. Of the 1,671 guest appearances, Asian American women accounted for 0.6%, Latinx women 2%, Black women 9% and White women 20%. White men were 53% of the guest appearances, dominating even when the conversation was racial justice.
Women made up 44.7% of the local TV news workforce in 2019, fractionally down from the previous year’s record high of 44.9%. The tally of White people in local TV fell to 73.4% from 74.1% during the same period, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).
Of the top 100 personalities on radio sports talk shows, not one was a woman, according to Talkers.
Racial diversity was the No. 1 priority of 42% of newsroom leaders responding to a nationwide newsroom survey, following unrest over George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer; gender diversity was the No. 1 priority for 18% of them, according to Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
79% of 115 surveyed women journalists in the United States said online harassment affected press freedom, and, some added, fear of online abuse made them avoid reporting on certain kinds of stories, according to the Seattle University Department of Communication.
Women owned 5.3% of the nation’s 1,368 full-power commercial TV stations, a 7.3% decrease from 2015, according to the FCC. People of color owned 1.9% down from 2.6% in 2015.
In tech, social media, gaming, engineering:
The top female gamer, competing in tournaments, earned 7% of what the top man earned, according to Casino.org.
Women, persons with disabilities, Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and Native Alaskans were underrepresented in science and engineering, including sectors that feed the pipeline to certain jobs in technology, gaming, software development, social media, and other media, according to the National Science Foundation.
Of 7,893 staffers surveyed at book publishing companies, book review journals, and literary agencies, 74% were women, 23% were men, and 76% were White, according to Lee & Low.
Click here for the full report.
