Progress in media gender parity grinds to a halt

The Global Media Monitoring  Project 2015, reports little progress towards media gender parity in news in the last five years. “… the decade 2005 to 2015 has been one of stagnation” according to gender and media scholar, Margaret Gallagher. “There has been no change in women’s share of news-making roles in the traditional media (newspapers, radio, television) since 2010, and indeed almost none since 2005 [and] the new digital media (Internet and Twitter news) offer little comfort.”

The proportion of women heard, mentioned or seen in newspapers, TV and radio remains at 24%, exactly the same as in 2010. “GMMP 2015 reveals that the rate of progress towards media gender parity has almost ground to a halt over the past five years.”  

In political news, the figures are alarming, with a 3% fall in the rates of women in news, down to 16%. In terms of stories actually focussing on women, that remains at 10%. Economic news is least likely to focus on women, with economics at 5% and politics at 7% of stories. Science and health has shown a marked improvement, up to 35%, but those subjects have the lowest priority in the news agenda.

In Latin America, at least, the gender gap in news has shown a marked improvement up to 29%, compared to 16% in 2010.  

GMMP 2015 was collated from data gathered by volunteer teams in 114 countries who monitored more than 22 thousand stories published, broadcast or tweeted by 2,030 distinct media houses, as well as interviewing 45 thousand people. Click for summary report the full report or the background and history of the project here.