Workforce

By the Numbers

The ratio of women to men in the media industry has remained relatively stagnant since the 1980s at approximately 1:3. These numbers, however, vary by media field. Historically, women have been best represented in the magazine and public relations industries. Since the early 1800s, women have claimed positions as writers, editors, and publishers of prominent national magazines. It is difficult to [Page 445]determine the current percentage of women in the magazine industry, because no statistical data are kept by a central clearinghouse; however, magazine scholar Sammye Johnson argues that the industry appears to have achieved gender parity. Likewise, in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that women made up 60 percent of public relations professionals (women constitute 47 percent of the overall American workforce). Women also have made strides in television and film since the early 1970s. For instance, the percentage of women in television news operations increased from 11 percent in 1971 to approximately 40 percent in 2010, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Nevertheless, the numbers are not positive. In 2009, Martha Lauzen, the executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, found that women made up only 16 percent of all directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors involved in the top-grossing U.S. films, representing a 3 percent decrease since 2001. Research conducted by Lauzen in 2002 revealed similar statistics about the number of women working in a creative capacity in entertainment television. Women have not fared much better in newspapers and online news media. In its 2010 annual newsroom census, the American Society of Newspaper Editors found that women made up approximately 37 percent of all news workers, even though more women than men have entered the journalism profession in the last three decades. (The 2009 Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates revealed that women remain the overwhelming majority enrolling in undergraduate journalism and mass communication programs.) Research shows that the gender composition of online media mirrors traditional news media. Perhaps the most disheartening research for gender activists comes from the radio industry, where, after the elimination of Equal Employment Opportunity rules in 1999, the number of women working in radio news declined from 37 percent in 2000 to 29 percent in 2010, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association.

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