MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in theU.S.Medic1 O14 womensmediacentencom WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U. S. Media 2014 Copyright 2014 Women’s Media Center. No part of this publication can be reproduced without permission in writing from the Women’s Media Center. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER About the Women’s Media Center In 2005, Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem founded the Women’s Media Center (WMC), a progressive, non-partisan, non-profit organization that is raising the visibility, viability and decision-making power of women in media, and ensuring that women’s stories get told and women’s voices get heard. To achieve these broad goals, the Women’s Media Center: Runs media advocacy campaigns. Researches and monitors sexism in the media. Creates original content through Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan, a weekly CBS radio show, and through WMC Features, an online news and commentary site. Promotes women experts as media sources on a broad array of topics through WMC SheSource. Undertakes such special media initiatives as WMC Women Under Siege, which provides news coverage and other journalistic documentation of rape and sexualized violence committed during foreign wars and on the U.S. home front. Trains women and girls on how to optimally engage and understand the media. Follow WMC on Twitter @womensmediacntr and at www.facebook.com/womensmediacenter. T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Headlines, bylines and the box office: How the presence and absence of women shape the story — A foreword by Women’s Media Center President Julie Burton .............................5 Executive summary of WMC Status of Women in U.S. Media report 2014 .............7 In newspapers & magazines ..........................................................................................9 Except among minorities, tally of women journalists barely budged as men accounted for two-thirds of newsroom staffers ..............................................9 Men garnered three times as many page 1 quotes in The New York Times (But more women got quoted when women reported the story) ............................11 Op-ed writer ranks remained mostly white, mostly male ..........................................14 In television, radio & digital news...............................................................................15 Progress and regress in broadcast news.....................................................................15 One woman’s MSNBC show boasted the highest proportion of black men and women of any on the Sunday talk show circuit ..........................................17 Women & Politics Institute: Men pols dominated Sunday shows ............................20 In ‘Heavy Hundred,’ two females in sports talk radio and 13 in news talk; no women ranked in top 10 ..............................................................21 In sports journalism ......................................................................................................22 90 percent male, 90 percent white: sports editors ranks have far to go ..................22 In film & entertainment media ....................................................................................25 How 500 top-grossing movies didn’t—and sometimes did— bridge the gender and race gap ................................................................................25 In vaunted Sundance line-up, ‘… Industry leaders … think male’............................27 Six percent of 100 top films casted the sexes in equal numbers ..............................30 The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film/San Diego State film findings also showed women lagging ............................31 ‘Gender Inequality in Film,’ a New York Film Academy report .................................33 Critics’ choice? Says who? ............................................................................................34 ‘Boxed in’: TV’s behind-the-scenes female workforce inched up .............................35 Female TV characters with speaking parts peaked at 43 percent ............................37 Without women directors, 25 percent of 200 TV series made the Directors Guild of America’s ’Worst Of’ list ...............................................................38 UCLA think tank: Diversity drives up viewership ........................................................39 The problem with ‘Baby Mamas’; Essence readers decried imbalance of popular media portrayals of black women.............................................................41 Study: Latinas with solid ethnic identity less inclined to adopt media’s widespread ‘skinny, white girl’ beauty standard .......................................................45 WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 3 In the media pipeline ...................................................................................................46 Women communications grads mainly chose PR & advertising ..............................46 Women in gaming, social media & technology ........................................................49 Online, women’s social media use continued to outpace men’s..............................49 Women were almost half of video-game buyers, but remain a fraction of that multi-billion industry’s developers .................................................53 About half of women leave that male-dominated field, where females lead a fraction of big tech firms and start-ups ..................................54 Among corporate decision-makers, what place and power do women hold? .....56 Benchmarking women’s leadership study’ researchers link women’s status in media to well-being of all women workers ..................................56 Media mavens again made Forbes list of 100 Most Powerful Women ....................59 Afterword: A practical path toward parity .................................................................60 WMC media resources.................................................................................................62 Source citations ...........................................................................................................63 This report’s producers ................................................................................................64 WMC acknowledgments, board of directors & staff ................................................65 WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 4 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Forward Headlines, bylines and the box office: How the presence and absence of women shape the story Three years ago, the Women’s Media Center began tracking how well the American media—ubiquitous shaper of images, ideologies and ideals—allow women to craft our own narrative and include our voices in a wide-ranging public discourse being moderated over the airwaves, in print and online. Indeed, we at the Center are acutely aware that our society is far from the days when nary a female could be found in the film director’s seat, when women journalists were relegated to the women’s pages, when a woman was hard-pressed to get an entertainment media project green-lighted. Today’s sure-enough strides show Shonda Rhimes breaking barriers in primetime TV; Jill Abramson helming the globally influential The New York Times, our national paper-of-record; and a small assortment of females-inchief looming large in the digital sphere. Yet, as we compiled the findings in this third annual report and conferred with watchdogs and researchers who analyze newsrooms, film lots, broadcast studios, the digital sphere and more, we couldn’t avoid reaching the same concerning conclusion: The American media have exceedingly more distance to travel on the road to gender-blind parity. These trenchant data from a host of university scholars, private entities and media organizations themselves—and the true stories of women whose career trajectories these data help gauge—reflect an array of ongoing obstacles. They suggest a troubling status quo and, in some places, a slipping back in time. The bleakest of realities show that those who steer sports news coverage remain overwhelmingly white and male, even as women’s sports and the ranks of sports fans who happen to be women are surging. Women of color in certain sectors of media—with their own singular urgency to help tell our myriad stories and help call the shots—are among those who have lost ground in recent years. They are being spotlighted in this yearly report for the first time. It matters that women of color and every one else in this diverse nation be part of the conversations conducted through the media. Unequivocally, it matters when all American women—51 percent of the U.S. population—get our just due across the vast media landscape. Only when women are equal partners in the multi-layered work of deciding what constitutes a story and how that story might be told can we paint a more textured, accurate picture of the worlds that we all—male and female—inhabit. Julie Burton, President Women’s Media Center, Washington, D.C. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 5 Executive Summary “The world is a melting pot full of varying experiences and viewpoints that must be considered and explored when it comes to deciding what is news. A room full of men, of any race or age, would not possibly know how to deliver all of that news and will continue to fail in their delivery attempts—until they admit they can’t do it alone.” That’s how veteran TV news writer and producer Lisa Cox, a former National Association of Black Journalists vice president-broadcast, encapsulated the issue of where women stand in her professional sphere. Though Cox was specifically addressing the lingering challenges to presenting television news that is as expansive as it can be, we at the Women’s Media Center take her summary as something of a metaphor. We overlay Cox’s urgent message about the need for inclusion across all media in America as we deliver this annual Status of Women in Media. The following pages of this report will lay out, in much greater detail, these overall findings: As newsroom staffing declined 6.4 percent from 2011 to 2012, the overall tally of women staffers continued to hover at 36 percent, a figure largely unchanged since 1999. Nevertheless, the count for women of color continued its more extreme fluctuations. A three-month snapshot in 2013 of articles appearing on The New York Times’ front page showed that men were quoted 3.4 times more often than women, though the rate was not as high when women wrote the story. At the nation’s three most prestigious newspapers and four newspaper syndicates, male opinion page writers outnumbered women 4-to-1. The number of women in radio news jumped 8 percent from 2012 to 2013, narrowing one of the historically widest gender gaps in the news industry. Elsewhere in broadcast news, there were, as examples, losses in female on-air talent and broadcast managers. White men continued to dominate the ranks of Sunday morning news talk show guests, except on a single MSNBC show with a black female host. Two women—1.09 percent—were among the 183 sports talks radio hosts on Talkers magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” list. The Top Ten among Talker’s news talk show “Heavy Hundred” included no women. More than 150 print publications and websites covering sports—an arena whose editors are 90 percent white and 90 percent male—were slammed with an “F” in an Associated Press Sports Editors–commissioned study. Over a five-year period ending in 2012, the 500 top-grossing movies had 565 directors, 33 of whom were black and two of that 33 were black women. In the top 100 films of 2012—when women had fewer speaking roles than in any year since 2007—females snagged 28.4 percent of roles with speaking parts. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 7 A dozen top decision-makers in the film industry said they perceived the pool of qualified women filmmakers to be smaller than that of qualified men. For production of the 250 top-grossing domestically made films of 2013, women accounted for 16 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors, slightly lower than the 2012 and 1998 figures. According to a two-month snapshot in 2013, men wrote 82 percent of all film reviews. Women snared 43 percent of speaking parts in prime-time TV, according to the latest study, up from 41 percent previously. Those women, however, tended to be much younger than their male acting counterparts. More white women but fewer women of color have been directing prime-time TV shows but the overall numbers for women has remained virtually unchanged. A study published in the journal Body Image found that just 30 percent of Hispanic girls in a small, studied sample were rejecting the “skinny white toothpick” standard of beauty often reinforced by some areas of media. The list of indicators of troubling gender and race-influenced gender divides goes on, despite the presence of a comparatively few women, including mavens of the media and media-related technology fields, on assorted lists of powerful people and on Fortune 500 boards of directors. But the progress has been uneven and starkly contrasts with areas of clear regress or those without any forward momentum at all. Making change happen is a common sense move for the media. Or, as researchers at UCLA proved in 2013 study of entertainment TV, diversity drives up viewership and, thus, bolsters the corporate bottomline. Change is a conscious choice, generally dictated from the top down. Those at the top have much to heed, as Kate Edwards, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, told the Women’s Media Center: “While I believe many companies have the right intent to hire with diversity in mind, in practice the decisions come down to individual hiring managers who often seem to still gravitate towards candidates who are more similar to them … This is the 21st Century. It’s time to recognize the reality of our international, multicultural and diverse workforce.” That’s an imperative, even for the gaming industry, she added, where 47 percent of gamers, by last count, were women but women represented 12 percent of game developers. “The Women’s Media Center produces the annual Status of Women in U.S. Media Report to provide an overview of the role of women in media and thereby in society,” said Julie Burton, president of the Women’s Media Center. “It is a roadmap that tells us where we are and where we need to go for women to achieve an equal voice and equal participation. The numbers tell a clear story for the need for change on every media platform.” WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 8 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com In newspapers and magazines … Except among minorities, tally of women journalists barely budged as men accounted for two-thirds of newsroom staffers The 2013 American Society of News Editors (ASNE) Newsroom Census showed a 6.4 percent overall decline in newsroom staffing at 978 daily newspapers—roughly 70 percent of the nation’s total—answering this yearly survey of working journalists. The report also showed that women comprised 36 percent of newsroom staffs, a figure that has remained largely unchanged at least since 1999. Over the past two decades, the figure has fluctuated between 35 percent and 36 percent. Gender representation in newspaper newsrooms, 1999-2013 Percent 63.7 36.3 2012 63.1 36.9 2011 63.1 36.9 2010 63.4 36.6 2009 63.0 37.0 2008 62.6 37.4 2007 62.4 37.6 2006 62.3 37.7 2005 62.5 37.5 2004 62.8 37.2 2003 63.1 36.9 2002 62.9 37.1 2001 62.7 37.3 2000 62.9 37.1 1999 63.1 36.9 0 20 40 60 Men 80 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 2013 100 Women Source: American Society of News Editors WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 9 The annual tally for women of color, however, has risen and fallen to a greater degree. In the 2013 report: Women of Asian descent represented 52 percent of all Asian newsroom employees, down from a high of 55 percent in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Black women represented 47 percent of all black newsroom employees, down from a high of 50 percent in 2010. Hispanic women represented 40 percent of all Hispanic newsroom employees, down from a peak of 42 percent in 2007. Native American women accounted for 38 percent of all Native American newsroom employees, down from a peak of 51 percent in 2000. Multi-racial women accounted for 47 percent of all multi-racial newsroom employees. That figure was 53 percent in the 2012 report, the first to include multi-racial people. Percentages of men and women by race Blacks Men Women 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 53 53 52 53 51 50 50 51 51 51 51 52 52 51 52 47 47 48 47 49 50 50 49 49 49 49 48 48 49 48 Hispanics Asian Native American Multi-Racial Men Women Men Women Men Women Men Women 60 50 60 61 60 59 58 59 58 61 60 60 59 60 60 40 41 40 39 40 41 42 41 42 39 40 40 41 40 41 48 49 46 48 48 47 46 45 45 45 47 48 50 51 50 52 51 54 52 52 53 54 55 55 55 53 52 50 49 50 62 62 56 61 68 58 52 54 56 52 53 64 56 49 50 38 38 44 39 32 44 48 46 44 48 47 36 44 51 40 53 47 White Men Women 47 53 65 64 65 65 64 64 64 64 64 64 65 64 64 64 64 35 38 35 35 36 36 36 36 36 38 35 38 38 38 38 Source: American Society of News Editors The report also detailed the positions that female journalists occupied: 34.6 percent of supervisors were women. 39.9 percent of copy/layout editors and online producers were women. 37.8 percent of reporters/writers were women. 24.9 of photographers, graphic artists and videographers were women. Conducted by ASNE and the University of Missouri’s Center for Advanced Social Research, the survey showed that the 978 publications lost 2,600 journalist slots in 2012, the year upon which ASNE’s 2013 report is based. At its start in 1978, ASNE’s census aimed to decipher how well newsrooms reflected a multi-racial America and to nudge newspapers to diversify their staffs. That year, minorities comprised roughly 4 percent of newsroom staffs. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 10 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2012 womensmediacenter.com While minorities comprise roughly 37 percent of an increasingly diversifying U.S. population—the U.S. Census projects the figure to hover at 42 percent by 2025—minorities have consistently comprised 12 percent to 13 percent of American newsrooms. “Minority groups are growing at a fast rate and Census projections show that the majority is likely to become the minority by 2043. How can editors ensure their news reports remain relevant if they don’t stay on top of consumer trends and news developments in minority communities?” ASNE Diversity Committee Co-chair Karen Magnuson, editor and vice president/news at the Democrat and Chronicle Media Group in Rochester, New York, told the Women’s Media Center. Magnuson added: “Editors should embrace gender and racial diversity for a few different reasons. First, it helps ensure accuracy and credibility in reflecting the total community in news coverage. In my opinion, authentically reflecting the total community is just as important as upholding our First Amendment responsibilities.”  ASNE’s yearly survey of newsroom staffing comes as the number of full-time journalists nationwide continues to slide, driven by such factors as declining readership and a precipitous fall in advertising revenues as advertisers have opted for such cheaper advertising avenues as the Internet. In 1997, for example, newsrooms boasted 54,000 workers. That compares to 38,000 full-time journalists in 2013’s surveyed newsrooms. According to ASNE, only the two largest newspaper categories experienced even fractional increases in the number of staffers. The count of employees at newspapers with daily circulations of more than 500,000 increased 0.2 percent. And, at newspapers with circulations ranging from 250,000 to 500,000, the number of all employees rose 5.71 percent, with a 3.58 percent spike among minorities. Men garnered three times as many page 1 quotes in The New York Times (But more women got quoted when women reported the story) Men were quoted 3.4 times more often than women in Page 1 stories published in The New York Times during January and February 2013, according to a University of Nevada at Las Vegas analysis of upfront articles in that internationally circulated publication, dubbed by many as the nation’s most credible “newspaper of record.” The New York Times sources by sex Front-page stories, January – February 2013 Women19% Unknown 17% Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Men 65% Source: University of Nevada at Las Vegas WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 11 The New York Times sources by byline-holder’s sex 747 Women 600 Men 400 374 230 196 200 182 153 32 0 1 man 1 woman 2 men 45 34 7 1 2 women 14 15 1 1 man 2 men 1 woman 1 woman 2 1 2 men 2 women 3 men Byline Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Number of sources 800 Source: University of Nevada at Las Vegas The New York Times sources by story type 400 337 Women 300 Men 226 200 172 136 62 og y ol ld 11 2 4 Te c hn ts 10 St yle 21 ce ie n Sc lit ics Po gi on Re n lth NY / He a at io uc % Ed alB 5 or 3 8 k s es De Bu sin Ar t 0 36 8 Sp 36 7 70 51 40 W or 65 60 98 80 79 US 100 Story type Source: University of Nevada at Las Vegas By the raw numbers, that means women were quoted in 465 of 2,411 news articles— or 19 percent—produced for sections including world, national, science, technology, sports, style, business, local and health. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 12 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Number of sources 367 On the Poynter Institute’s website, where the analysis was published in July 2013, UNLV’s Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies ethics professor Alicia Shepherd, a former National Public Radio ombudsman and media critic, and Alexi Layton, one of two Greenspun students whom Shepherd supervised as they conducted the analysis, wrote, “We chose to analyze the Times because … its stories help shape public opinion.” As they further parsed the numbers, the UNLV researchers found that: In 96 Page 1 The New York Times articles written by female reporters, twice as many men as women were quoted. In 214 stories with male journalists’ bylines, four times as many male sources as female sources were quoted. The UNLV researchers wrote in Poynter that Times Associate Managing Editor for Standards Philip Corbett and Jodi Kantor, a high-profile Times’ national correspondent and book author, explained that the quotes at least partly reflect how the world’s decisionmakers, disproportionately, happen to be male. Kantor added that, based on her reportorial experience, women were more apt than men to refuse her requests to be interviewed and publicly quoted. Still, Corbett said, according to the UNLV researchers, “This situation illustrates the importance of pushing for a more diverse newsroom—in gender, race and ethnicity, background, religion and other factors—which remains a priority for us.” As one remedy for the relative lack of diversity, the UNLV researchers pointed out one example: MSNBC commentator Chris Hayes, who sees the merits in setting race and gender quotas for the media. Hayes’ bookers must include two women among the four guests on each of his shows. (USA Today was a forerunner of gender and race source quotas, mandating in 1982 that a woman and person of color be in front-page stories that ran above the fold.) After The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times is the most widely circulated newspaper in the nation and the 39th most widely circulated in the world. In September 2011, the almost-164-year-old publication named its first female executive editor, Jill Abramson, who began her career in The New York Times Washington bureau in 1997. She was ranked 68th on Forbes 2013 list of the “Most Powerful” and 19th on its 2013 list of “Power Women.” The UNLV researchers wrote in Poynter that Abramson referred their questions about their Page 1 quote findings to AME Corbett. Regarding women in her newsroom, Abramson, on actor Alec Baldwin’s public radio broadcast, last year: “I don’t expect that I can ever raise all female boats, but I try to go out of my way, not to the exclusion of men, but I do take a particular interest in careers and work of many of the younger women at the Times ... and I’m open about it. If anyone has a problem with that, too bad.” Among sites that continue to track the gender breakdown of The New York Times’ front-page bylines is WhoWritesFor.com. Created by Illinois software developer Andrew Briggs, it delivers that breakdown daily. Likewise, the Open Gender Tracking Project, being created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Civic Media and the software consultants at Bocoup, aims to give newsrooms a more precise calculation of who’s getting a byline and who isn’t. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 13 Op-ed writer ranks remained mostly white, mostly male Even as initiatives such as the OpEd Project continue to press for equitable inclusion of women and persons of color among the nation’s mostly white, mostly male coterie of opinion-shaping journalists, Gawker.com’s 2013 spotlight on newspaper editorial writers counted 38 women among the 143 columnists at the nation’s three most vaunted newspapers and four syndicators of opinion columnists. The surveyed publishers included The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Creators Syndicate, Universal Press, King Features and Tribune Media, whose columnists generally are showcased in many smaller newspapers, were also chided in “What’s Wrong With America’s Newspaper Opinion Columnists in One Chart.” Gawker, which has been cited for both its savvy and for its snarkiness, also noted that the columnists, with an average age of 60 years, were considerably more seasoned than the average American in what is, nonetheless, an increasingly aging society. According to Gawker, the nation’s median age is 37.2 years. Excluded from Gawker’s survey were columnists from sports, features and other sections outside the main editorial page. What’s wrong with America’s newspaper opinion columnists in one chart Source: Gawker “… We think it’s pretty clear: Newspaper columnists are, statistically speaking, old dudes,” Gawker’s Sarah Hedgecock wrote about her findings. “This is unsurprising, since columns are usually bestowed on the tried, true and grizzled. But if you’re staffing your back pages with almost all veterans, you’re missing out on a wide swath of important perspectives. …” WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 14 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com In television, radio and digital news … Progress and regress in broadcast news While the number of radio newswomen spiked 8 percent from 2012 to 2013—narrowing a relatively wide gap that has resulted in women currently comprising 34.2 percent of radio news staffs—elsewhere in broadcast news either the status quo prevailed, recent gains were lost or slight gains were made. That’s according to a Radio Television and Digital News Association annual survey that also showed that in radio, 47.1 percent of local stations in the country had women workers. Among news directors in local radio, 20.6 percent were women, the report found. Amy Tardif, the first female from public radio to chair RTDNA, noted where women are making strides and, where numbers remain static, some ongoing obstacles. “Challenges to achieving gender parity in radio and TV newsrooms include equal pay for equal work, the ability to take time off to raise a family, a lack of experience, including internships during undergrad and graduate school, and the tendency to rise to a management position from within an organization,” Tardif told the Women’s Media Center. She continued: “If an organization does not already have women in management, it may not tend to hire women to be in management. In fact, the RTDNA/Hofstra study shows women TV general managers fell by 1.5 [percentage] points over the year before. But one of the key challenges for women in news is the inability for a married woman to move around the country with her family to gain better positions in the industry in larger markets. Many of these women often change jobs to remain in their home city.” Little change for women, minorities in TV/radio Gains, losses in representation on-air, management Minority population vs. minority broadcast workforce, 1990 – 2013 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2011 2012 Minority population in U.S. 2013 25.9% 27.9% 28.6% 32.8% 34.9% 35.4% 36.3% 36.6%* Minority TV workforce 17.8 17.1 21.0 21.2 20.2 20.5 21.5 21.4% Minority radio workforce 10.8 14.7 10.0 7.9 5.0 7.1 11.7 10.9 *projected Source: 2013 TV and Radio News Staffing and Profitability Survey/RTNDA /Hofstra University Annual Survey Television news work force,1995 – 2013 1995 2000 2005 2010 2011 2012 2013 Caucasian 82.9% 79.0% 78.8% 79.8% 79.5% 78.5% 78.6% African American 10.1 11.0 10.3 11.5 9.3 10.2 9.9 Hispanic 4.2 7.0 8.7 5.8 7.3 7.8 7.8 Asian American 2.2 3.0 1.9 2.3 3.5 2.9 3.2 Native American 0.6 <1.0 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.4 Source: 2013 TV and Radio News Staffing and Profitability Survey/RTNDA /Hofstra University Annual Survey WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 15 Radio news work force,1995 – 2013 1995 2000 2005 2010 2011 2012 2013 85.3% 90% 92.1% 95.0% 92.9% 88.3% 89.1% African American 5.7 5 0.7 2.9 3.9 5.2 2.3 Hispanic 7.5 3 6.0 0.7 2.6 4.6 5.7 Asian American 0.6 1 0.7 0.4 0 0.8 1.3 Native American 1.0 1 0.5 1.1 0.6 1.1 1.6 Caucasian Source: 2013 TV and Radio News Staffing and Profitability Survey/RTNDA /Hofstra University Annual Survey In television, female news directors comprised 28.7 percent of all news directors in 2013. That’s down from a record high of 30 percent in 2012. Women in local TV news – 2013 News staffs Women news with women directors Women as Average number percentage of number of work force women on staff All Television Network Affiliates Independents 97.2% 98.6 85.0 28.7% 24.7 24.0 40.3% 40.1 43.3 15.1 15.9 11.0 Market: DMA 1-25 DMA 26-50 DMA 51-100 DMA 101-150 DMA 151+ 97.1 94.3 98.6 98.3 96.0 30.0 24.0 26.2 23.4 15.8 40.2 38.0 40.0 42.1 42.0 27.0 18.1 16.2 10.9 8.1 100 100 98.1 97.9 77.3 22.9 19.1 29.5 22.9 4.5 39.1 41.0 41.5 42.0 36.0 29.4 15.9 10.5 6.9 2.2 Staff size: Staff 51+ Staff 31-50 Staff 21-30 Staff 11-20 Staff 1-10 Source: 2013 TV and Radio News Staffing and Profitability Survey/ RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey Nationwide, 97.2 percent of local television news stations had women employees, and females made up 40.3 percent of the workforce at those stations. By further comparison, 98.6 percent of news stations affiliated with television networks had women on staff, while 85 percent of independently owned stations had women employees. The larger the news market, the more likely there were to be women staffers in both radio and TV. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 16 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Here are some additional study highlights: Female general managers in radio now comprise 14 percent of all general managers, down from 2012’s 19.3 percent. The tally of TV station general managers who were female fell by 1.5 percent to 17.8 percent in 2013, with the drop mainly occurring at network affiliates. Non-commercial TV stations were roughly twice as likely as commercial stations to have women staffers, and to have a greater percentage of women staffers. Compared to commercial stations, non-commercial stations had a smaller percentage of women on staff. Non-commercial stations had no women news directors.    Compared to male news directors, a smaller percentage of women news directors returned the RTNDA newsroom survey, continuing a yearly trend that started in 2002, with the organization’s first census.   Though the difference wasn’t substantial, affiliates of the ABC network had more women news directors than others. By a narrow margin, there were fewer women news directors in the West than elsewhere in the nation. With its own concerns about who covers the news, the National Association of Black Journalists’ fifth and most recent Television Newsroom Management Diversity Census found such glaring deficiencies as the lack of a single person of color in management at either of the four TV stations in Little Rock, Arkansas, where 42 percent of the roughly 200,000 residents are black and the fast-growing Latino population is almost 7 percent. Here’s one snippet from the report: “‘Given the historical significance of Little Rock in the Civil Rights Movement you’d think there would be more diversity on the air and some in management, but there’s not,’ said one reporter in Little Rock who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.” “Any news operation that does not see or comprehend the value and importance of diversity behind the scenes is fooling itself … if it thinks it can still responsibly and objectively cover the news and be an effective resource for the communities it is charged with serving,” said TV news producer Lisa Cox, a former vice president-broadcast for the black journalist group who helped shepherd the recent census. One woman’s MSNBC show boasts the highest proportion of black men and women of any on the Sunday talk show circuit Sixty-seven percent of guests on Sunday morning’s “Melissa Harris-Perry Show” on MSNBC in 2013 were not white, clearly departing from Sunday news round-ups on the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC networks combined, where, overall, 16 percent of guests were nonwhites. On CNN’s 24/7 cable network, 27 percent of guests were not white last year. Of all whites, white males—34 percent of the U.S. population—were the most frequent guests. They represented 64 percent of Sunday analysts on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC combined; 54 percent of guests on CNN; and 34 percent of guests on MSNBC. An earlier analysis by Media Matters, covering the first six months of 2013 analysis, had credited the “Melissa Harris-Perry Show” with having a more evenly balanced “distribution of solo interviews with white men and women and African men and women” than any of the six aforementioned Sunday shows. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 17 Ethnicity of guests on the Sunday shows 100 80 84 White People of color 73 60 54 45 40 27 20 16 0 ABC I NBC I FOX I CBS CNN MSNBC Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Percent At the six-month mark, Harris-Perry’s show also had a higher percent of Hispanic women and Asian men as guests, though other shows had higher percentages of white, Asian and Middle Eastern women and of Hispanic and Middle Eastern men, Media Matters researchers concluded. Source: Media Matters for America Gender and ethnicity on the Sunday shows 70 60 Everyone else 54 50 46 40 36 34 30 20 10 0 ABC I NBC I FOX I CBS CNN MSNBC Source: Media Matters for America WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 18 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Percent 66 White men 64 Ethnicity of guests on the Sunday shows Whites 100 People of color 89 88 75 80 80 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 73 Percent 67 56 50 44 33 25 27 20 20 12 0 ABC This Week 11 Face the Nation Fox News Sunday Meet the Press State of Melissa Up with the Union Harris-Perry Steve Kornacki Source: Media Matters for America “Melissa Harris-Perry” devoted 61 percent of its solo interview time to non-white guests, leaving the show in stark contrast with all other Sunday programs. At least 72 percent of one-on-one interview time on broadcast and CNN went to white guests, with “Face the Nation” and “Fox News Sunday” being the worst in this measure–86 percent of their solo interview time went to white guests. “Up” did not conduct enough solo interviews in the period studied to be included in this chart. Solo interviews by ethnicity on the Sunday shows Whites 100 People of color 86 86 75 61 50 39 25 28 23 14 0 ABC This Week Face the Nation 20 14 Fox News Sunday Meet the Press State of the Union Melissa Harris-Perry Source: Media Matters for America WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 19 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 72 Percent 80 77 Both MSNBC programs hosted white men at much lower rates than their broadcast and CNN counterparts, with only 27 percent of guests on “Melissa Harris-Perry” and 42 percent on “Up” being white men. On broadcast, all four shows hosted white men at least 60 percent of the time. CNN trailed closely with 54 percent of guests being white men. Gender and ethnicity of guests on the Sunday shows White men 80 Everyone else 73 67 67 62 61 58 54 40 45 40 32 33 27 20 0 42 38 ABC This Week Face the Nation Fox News Sunday Meet the Press State of Melissa Up with the Union Harris-Perry Steve Kornacki Source: Media Matters for America White men also held disproportionate sway over the Sunday talk shows throughout 2012, when Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) found that white men accounted for 86 percent of all one-on-one interviews between talk show hosts and a single guest. FAIR did not update that report for 2013. Women & Politics Institute: Men pols dominated Sunday shows That men disproportionately are tapped to opine about national politics on Sunday morning television largely is a consequence of who runs for office and who gets elected. That reality is reflected in the American University Women & Politics Institute’s “Sunday Morning Monitor,” researchers for that study said. From January through December, 2013, men accounted for roughly 74 percent of elected officials, candidates and journalists appearing on weekly political round-ups broadcast on the ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC networks. “The Sunday morning talk shows serve as yet another venue in which women’s underrepresentation in politics is glaring. The overwhelming majority of the guests remain men, and that is the case on both sides of the political aisle,” Jennifer Lawless, the institute’s director, told the Women’s Media Center. “The average person flipping through the channels on Sunday morning will be left with the quite accurate impression that politics is an area dominated by men’s voices.” WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 20 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Percent 60 Sunday talk shows ABC This Week 453 guests 327 men (72%) 126 women (28%) CBS Face Nation 448 guests 335 men (75%) 113 women (25%) Fox News Sunday 367 guests 279 men (76%) 88 women (24%) NBC Meet Press 396 guests 298 men (75%) 98 women (25%) CNN State Union 379 guests 272 men (72%) 107 women (28%) Source: Women & Politics Institute Sunday Morning Monitor, American University School of Public Affairs In ‘Heavy Hundred,’ two females in sports talk radio and 13 in news talk; no women ranked in top 10 Women accounted for two—or 1.09 percent—of the 183 hosts of sports talk shows ranked on the 2013 “Heavy Hundred” list from Talkers magazine, which dubs itself “the bible of talk radio and the new talk media” and delivered its yearly ranking for a second time. On the magazine’s separate “Heavy Hundred” list of general news talk radio shows— where Rush Limbaugh retains the No. 1 slot—the lone woman from the Top 10 in 2012 fell to No. 17 in 2013. That woman was Laura Ingraham. (To Limbaugh’s 14.75 million listeners in the summer of 2012, Ingraham had 5.75 million listeners.) Coming in at No. 12 in 2013’s “Heavy Hundred” was Stephanie Miller, the top-ranking woman on last year’s news talk list. Women made up 11.1 percent of the 117 general news talk show broadcasters; some of them teamed up with other commentators. Other women in news talk’s “Heavy Hundred” and their 2013 rankings were: No. 24 Andrea Tantaros No. 42 Dr. Joy Browne No. 49 Randi Rhodes No. 50 Kim Komando No. 53 Dr. Laura Schlessinger No. 61 Rose Tennent (of “The War Room With Quinn & Rose”) No. 64 Terry Gross No. 80 Heidi Harris (of “Heidi Harris, Brian Whitman and Glenn Shapiro”) No. 81 Leslie Marshall No. 83 Dana Loesch No. 99 Amy Iverson (of “Amy Iverson & Jay McFarland”) The two top-ranked females on sports talk radio in 2013—former Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken of the Fox Network and Dana Jacobson of CBS—either were paired or tripled with male commentators. Obviously, those two women are sports followers. Sports fans are a group that increasingly is comprised of women. As examples, according to the most recent available data from Scarborough Research, women comprise 45 percent of National Football League fans and, according to Nielsen, the global consumer research firm, 33 percent of the NFL’s television audience. And the NFL’s Diversity and Inclusion With Good Business campaign has been studying how to enhance the game-day and other experiences of its female fans. The “Heavy Hundred” shows include those broadcast by network syndicates and by local stations. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 21 In Sports Journalism … 90 percent male, 90 percent white; sports editor ranks have far to go Despite recording an increase in the number of women of color who are sports journalists, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports’ most recent report card, nonetheless, graded the more than 150 newspapers and websites it evaluates an F, overall, for the third time in a row for their hiring practices among women. For the second time in a row, the institute graded those organizations C+, overall, for their hiring efforts among minorities. Released every other year since its start in 2006, this Associated Press Sports Editorscommissioned 2013 report evaluated sports news staffing in 2012. “There continued to be a failing grade for gender in all five categories” of sports journalism hiring, said Richard Lapchick, director of the sports institute, which also monitors hiring in major league sports. “It is encouraging that the APSE has continued to request the report knowing that the news would not be good. I applaud its determination to get better.” Lapchick noted the deleterious impact of ongoing cuts in the nation’s newspapers on hiring in general. But he lauded ESPN for being one of few news organizations that has increased its hiring of women and racial minorities. ESPN, along with The Sporting News, accounted for the bulk of female hires in sports departments. “ ... Of the 11 women who were sports editors at this level, six worked for ESPN and two worked for The Sporting News,” he said. “If the ESPN and The Sporting News sports editors who are women were removed, the percentage of female sports editors would drop from 13.9 percent to 4.2 percent.” Also, compared to 2010 data, the report card showed that: The number of female sports columnists slipped from 9.9 percent to 9.7 percent. The number of female sports editors increased to 9.6 percent from 6.3 percent. The number of female assistant sports editors rose to 17.2 percent from 10.5 percent. The number of female copy editors/designers increased to 19.6 percent from 16.4 percent. The number of women and people of color who were sports editors increased 7.4 percent, rising to 16.8 percent from 9.4 percent. The number of women and people of color in sports reporter slots increased by 0.7 percent and now account for 23.9 percent of the total in that category. The percentage of women and people of color who were copy editors/designers increased 6.5 percent and now account for 30.7 percent of workers in that category. Of the 35 women who were columnists included in the survey, 23 worked for ESPN. Without those ESPN staffers, the percentage of female columnists would slip from 12.8 percent to 4.8 percent of all columnists. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 22 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Total Associated Press Sports Editors staff data Entire staff Columnists White Men African American Men Latino Men Asian Men Other Men White Women African American Women Latino Women Asian Womwen Other Women Women Total People of Color Total People of Color & Women Total 2006 0.799 0.052 0.028 0.01 0.004 0.087 0.009 0.007 0.003 0.001 0.107 0.113 2008 0.792 0.053 0.027 0.013 0.006 0.091 0.009 0.003 0.004 0.001 0.108 0.117 2010 0.778 0.056 0.031 0.016 0.005 0.096 0.013 0.002 0.003 0 0.114 0.126 2012 0.737 0.064 0.032 0.02 0.003 0.123 0.012 0.005 0.005 0 0.146 0.141 0.201 0.208 0.222 0.264 2006 0.9 0.016 0.028 0 0.006 0.047 0 0 0 0.003 0.05 0.053 2008 0.883 0.018 0.024 0.006 0.006 0.059 0.003 0 0 0.003 0.065 0.059 2010 0.906 0.014 0.014 0.005 0 0.063 0 0 0 0 0.063 0.031 2012 0.832 0.043 0.024 0 0.005 0.077 0.014 0.005 0 0 0.096 0.091 0.1 0.117 0.094 0.168 2006 0.784 0.043 0.029 0.012 0.006 0.086 0.01 0.025 0.004 0.002 0.127 0.131 2008 0.807 0.038 0.029 0.011 0.015 0.08 0.009 0.006 0.004 0.002 0.1 0.147 2010 0.78 0.053 0.039 0.016 0.008 0.074 0.016 0.003 0.011 0.003 0.105 0.147 2012 0.733 0.047 0.033 0.011 0.003 0.133 0.011 0.008 0.017 0.003 0.172 0.133 0.216 0.22 0.22 0.267 Sports Editors White Men African American Men Latino Men Asian Men Other Men White Women African American Women Latino Women Asian Women Other Women Women Total People of Color Total People of Color & Women Total 2006 0.836 0.074 0.01 0.007 0.007 0.064 0.003 0 0 0 0.067 0.101 2008 0.825 0.096 0.005 0.007 0 0.058 0.01 0 0 0 0.067 0.118 2010 0.768 0.102 0.014 0.014 0.003 0.088 0.011 0 0 0 0.099 0.144 2012 0.747 0.121 0.018 0.016 0 0.092 0.005 0 0 0 0.097 0.161 0.164 0.175 0.232 0.253 2006 0.79 0.066 0.027 0.011 0.003 0.084 0.009 0.005 0.004 0.001 0.103 0.125 2008 0.793 0.065 0.03 0.015 0.005 0.078 0.007 0.003 0.005 0.001 0.093 0.13 2010 0.768 0.068 0.036 0.016 0.007 0.088 0.012 0.004 0.002 0 0.106 0.144 2012 0.761 0.069 0.029 0.02 0.004 0.102 0.008 0.003 0.003 0 0.117 0.137 0.21 0.208 0.232 0.239 2006 0.786 0.034 0.034 0.01 0.004 0.111 0.011 0.005 0.004 0.002 0.133 0.103 2008 0.752 0.035 0.03 0.016 0.008 0.135 0.012 0.004 0.007 0.001 0.159 0.113 2010 0.761 0.021 0.03 0.021 0.005 0.14 0.018 0 0.003 0.002 0.164 0.102 2012 0.693 0.033 0.046 0.032 0 0.167 0.019 0.004 0.006 0 0.196 0.14 0.214 0.248 0.242 0.307 Reporters Assistant Sports Editors White Men African American Men Latino Men Asian Men Other Men White Women African American Women Latino Women Asian Women Other Women Women Total People of Color Total People of Color & Women Total White Men African American Men Latino Men Asian Men Other Men White Women African American Women Latino Women Asian Women Other Women Women Total People of Color Total People of Color & Women Total White Men African American Men Latino Men Asian Men Other Men White Women African American Women Latino Women Asian Women Other Women Women Total People of Color Total People of Color & Women Total Copy Editors/Designers White Men African American Men Latino Men Asian Men Other Men White Women African American Women Latino Women Asian Women Other Women Women Total People of Color Total People of Color & Women Total Source: Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports/Associated Press Sports Editors WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 23 2012 Associated Press Sports Editors Racial and Gender Report Card TOTAL STAFFS RACE GENDER C+/B- F 14.1% people of color 14.6% women 9.1% people of color 9.6% women 16.1% people of color 17.2% women 13.7% people of color 11.7% women 14% people of color 19.6% women SPORTS EDITORS RACE GENDER D+/C F ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS RACE GENDER B F COLUMNISTS RACE GENDER C F COPY EDITORS/DESIGNERS RACE GENDER C+/B- F Source: Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports/Associated Press Sports Editors WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 24 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com In entertainment media … How 500 top-grossing movies didn’t—and sometimes did— bridge the gender and race gap Relatively speaking, 2013 was a banner year for blacks on the Big Screen. Separate, fact-infused film adaptations of an infamous Oakland, California, police shooting of a young black man in 2009 and of a black White House service worker and black baseball icon who broke Jim Crow’s color code drew critical acclaim and an overflow of multiracial movie-goers. Some might see those breakthrough movies—Fruitvale Station, Lee Daniel’s The Butler, 42 and 12 Years a Slave—as emblematic of a Hollywood where all races and both genders get their just due. But, contrary to those breakout films, findings from a team of University of Southern California researchers suggest that women and people of color still don’t appear on-screen or hold sway behind the scenes in sufficient numbers. Of the 565 directors in the 500 top-grossing films between 2007 and 2012, 33 directors were black—and two of those blacks were women, according to the study, “Race/ Ethnicity in 500 Popular Films: Is the Key to Diversifying Cinematic Content Held in the Hand of the Black Director?” It was one of the most recent in a series of investigations by the Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism School. Movie executives dictate who’s behind the camera, which, in turn, tends to determine which stories get told, how they’re told and with which actors. That’s an overriding theme of the study, which was released in October 2013. The study of those 500 films’ 20,000 speaking characters and other sub-topics provided these additional details: In 2012 alone, 10.8 percent of speaking roles went to blacks, 5 percent to Asians and 4.2 percent to Hispanics. More men than women are on screen. Of women with speaking parts, 34.8 percent were Asian, 34.6 percent were black, 33.9 percent were Hispanic, 28.8 percent were white and 16.1 percent were of some other ethnicity. Of all female characters, Latinas are the most likely to be robed in sexually revealing clothes or be partially nude. Among Hispanic female characters, 41.1 percent were provocatively attired and 39.3 percent were partially naked. That compared to 31.8 percent and 30.5 percent, respectively, of black women; 32.8 percent and 32.3 percent of white women; and, among Asian women, 15.7 percent each were either hyper-sexually attired or partly nude. In 40 percent of those 500 money-making films, the number of black characters with speaking roles hovered at 5 percent. When films had a black director, 52.6 percent of speaking characters were black. When directors were not black, 9.9 percent of speaking characters were black. “We know that what we see on screen is in direct proportion to who’s calling the shots,” Annenberg professor, researcher and culture critic Stacy Smith, the study’s lead author, told the Women’s Media Center. “We were able to look across 500 films and see who was the director … And what we have is a representational roadblock.” WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 25 Apparent race/ethnicity of characters in top-grossing films, 2007–2012 Year White Hispanic Black Asian Other 77.6 71.2 76.2 77.6 76.3 3.3 4.9 2.8 3.9 4.2 13 13.2 14.7 10.3 10.8 3.4 7.1 4.7 5 5 2.5 3.5 1.5 3.3 3.6 2007 2008 2009 2010 2012 Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative Apparent race/ethnicity of males and females in top-grossing films, 2012 Year White Males Females Ratio Hispanic Black Asian Other 71.2 28.8 2.48 to 1 66.1 33.9 1.95 to 1 65.4 34.6 1.89 to 1 65.2 34.8 1.87 to 1 83.9 16.1 5.21 to 1 Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative Female hypersexuality indicators by race/ethnicity, 2012 Female actors dressed provocatively on screen 50 Female actors partially nude on screen 40 Percent 30 32.8 39.3 32.3 31.8 30.5 20 15.7 10 15.7 0 White characters Hispanic characters Black characters Asian characters Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 26 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 41.1 In vaunted Sundance line-up, ‘… industry leaders … think male’ Based on responses from 34 filmmakers and film industry decision-makers at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, University of Southern California researchers concluded that 32.1 percent of personal traits deemed as markers of a successful film director were masculine and 19.3 percent were feminine, according to USC’s update of a 2012 report on the prior decade’s female presence at Sundance. (The remaining, perceived traits of successful directors were gender-neutral.) “When industry leaders think ‘director,’ they think ‘male,’” according to these researchers, encapsulating results from its Phase II update to Exploring the Barriers and Opportunities for Independent Women Filmmakers. Commissioned by the Sundance Institute and Women in Film Los Angeles Women Filmmakers Initiative and conducted by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative, Phase II’s key findings—a mix of positives and negatives—included these: For the first time at a U.S. competition for movies that were dramas, 50 percent of narrative directors at Sundance in 2013 were women. In Sundance’s documentary division—run by a British-born black woman—42.2 percent of directors were female in 2013 and 49.2 percent of producers were female. Of the 1,163 content creators working behind the camera on 82 U.S. films at Sundance in 2013, 28.9 percent were women and 71.1 percent were men. Broken down by storytelling genre, 23.8 percent of content creators in narrative films and 40.4 percent in documentary films were women. Of the 432 fledgling filmmakers in a year-long Sundance Institute training and mentoring fellowship between 2002 and 2013, 42.6 percent were female. Women comprised 39.3 percent of the fellows in the Feature Film Program and 54.5 percent of the fellows in the Documentary Film Program. Of 12 decision-makers in narrative film who were surveyed, 66.7 percent noted that the pool of qualified female directors is smaller than that for qualified males; and 50 percent of them said jobs directing action, horror and other presumably maleoriented films may not appeal to female directors. “Conceiving of the directing role in masculine terms may limit the extent to which different women are considered for the job,” these researchers wrote. They continued: “Despite the gains made by female storytellers in 2013 and the importance of lab support, these findings reveal where problems still exist. Until cultural stereotypes and perceptions of the directing role grow more flexible, moving from independent film to commercial arenas will remain a difficult prospect for female filmmakers.”  Phase I of Exploring the Barriers, summarily, found that, during the decade ending in 2012, women directors were more likely to oversee projects with a near equal balance of men and women in pivotal behind-the-scenes roles. Also, from 2002 through 2012, women directed 41.1 percent of documentary films competing for kudos at Sundance and 22.2 percent of narrative films in that competitive category, according to Phase I. By comparison, 4.4 percent of the 100 films with the highest box office receipts were directed by women during the previously studied decade. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 27 Female in key creative positions by genre Creative position Director Writer Producer Narrative 19% 26.5% 24.9% Documentary 42.2% 25.9% 49.2% Total 28.7% 26.4% 31% Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative Female producer by type and genre Genre type Narrative Documentary Executive 17.7% 51.7% Producer 29.7% 39.3% Associate 36.7% 66.7% Other 17.4% 75% Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative Female narrative content creators by festival program category Narrative Director Writer Producer Cinematographer Editor Competition films 50% 47.6% 28.2% 18.8% 42.1% Premiere films 5.6% 18.5% 20.5% 6.7% 15.8% Niche films 10.3% 20% 25.5% 10% 25% Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative Percent of women working as narrative directors Competition 50 Top-grossing 40 30 50% Non competition 22.2% 20 10 0 16.2% 7.3% 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 8.5% 1.9% 2013 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 60 Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative Percent of women working as documentary directors 50 46.4% 45% 35.3% 40 30% 30 20 Competition 10 0 Non competition 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 28 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 60 Percent of women working as narrative producers 60 50 38.6% 40 36.4% 30 25.2% 20 25.2% Competition 10 0 Non competition 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Percent of women working as documentary producers 70 63% 60 48.9% 50 40 30 33.3% 28.2% 20 Competition 10 0 Non competition 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Percent of women working as narrative associate producers 70 60 54.1% 46.7% 50 40 30 32.4% 20 10 0 Competition 18.2% 2002 Non competition 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Graphics produced by the Women’s Media Center Percent of women working as narrative associate producers 100 73.3% 80 62.5% 60 61.5% 58.3% 40 Competition 20 0 Non competition 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 All charts this page Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 29 Six percent of 100 top films casted the sexes in equal numbers A separate 2013 USC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism study of the top 500 films from 2007 through 2012—including the 100 most profitable ones of 2012—found that female actors garnered more roles with speaking parts and fewer gigs zeroing in on their sexuality when women were in charge of making the movie. Overall, added researchers for Gender Equality in 500 Popular Films: Examining Onscreen Portrayals and Behind-the-scene Employment Patterns in Motion Pictures Released Between 2007 and 2012, there was no significant change in the behind-thecamera hiring patterns for women during those five years. The Annenberg School’s analysis of 21,000 speaking characters during those five years and of when, where and how women were cast yielded these and other key conclusions: In 2012’s top 100 films—when women had fewer speaking roles than in any of the five years—females snagged only 28.4 percent of roles with speaking parts. Six percent of those 2012 films hired what researchers deemed to be a balanced cast, one in which women held 45 percent to 54.9 percent of speaking roles. In narrated movies, 27.5 percent of narrators were female. Men outnumbered women 5-to-1 in key, behind-the-camera roles in 2012: Of the 1,228 directors, writers and producers, 16.7 percent were female. Women accounted for 4.1 percent of directors, 12.2 percent of writers and 20 percent of producers. In 2012’s 100 top films, women were more than four times as likely as men to wear hypersexual clothing and roughly three times as likely as men to be partially naked. In 2012, 13- to 20-year-old females were more likely than those aged 21 to 39 to be dressed hyper-sexually or partially naked on screen. The number of teens dressed seductively increased 22 percent between 2009 and 2012. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of teen females who were at least partially nude on screen surged 32.5 percent. Prevalence of female speaking characters on screen, 2007-2012 Prevalence 2007 Women characters Films w/balanced casts Ratio of men to women Narrators that are women Total number of speaking characters Total number of films 2008 2009 2010 2012 29.9% 11.9% 2.35 to 1 18.5% 32.8% 15% 2.05 to 1 36.1% 32.8% 16.8% 2.05 to 1 41.7% 30.3% 4% 2.3 to 1 51.5% 28.4% 6% 2.51 to 1 27.5% 4,379 100 4,370 100 4,342 100 4,153 100 4,475 100 2012 Source: USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Media Hypersexualization of female characters on screen, 2007-2012 Hypersexuality 2007 2008 2009 2010 Sexualized attire With some exposed skin Referenced attractive 27% 21.8% 18.5% 25.7% 23.7% 15.1% 25.8% 23.6% 10.9% 33.8% 31.6% 30.8% 31% 14.7% not measured Source: USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Media WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 30 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Having females behind-the-scenes linked to females on screen Character age by gender in top grossing 2012 films Age breakdown 6.5% 9.2% Teen (13-20 years) 30.3% 28.6% Females 7.2% 10% Adult (21-39 years)* 37.3% Males Child (0-12 years) 40.9% 44.4% 54.1% Middle aged (40-64 years)* 36.4% Writers Elderly (65+ years) Directors No BTS female BTS female 23% 3.7% 5.5% Source: USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Media Source: USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Media The Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film at San Diego State San Diego State University’s “Celluloid Ceiling” report found that the behind-thescenes female workforce lost ground from 2012 to 2013, the 16th year that SDSU’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film has tracked such data. The Center found that women accounted for 16 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors for the top 250 domestically made films in 2013. That reflects a 2 percent drop since 2012 and a 1 percent decline from the 1998 rate. Behind-the scenes roles in film by gender Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 100 84% 82% 83% 81% 83% 80 60 40 20 16% 0 18% 17% 19% 17% 2013 2012 2005 2001 1998 Women Men Source: Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film/San Diego State University Hovering at 25 percent, the count of women producers was unchanged, according to the study, which, for the first time, also took a census of female composers, production designers, sound designers, special effects supervisors, supervising sound editors and visual effects supervisors. In terms of behind-the-scenes absence in those categories, 99 percent of films had no female special effects supervisors; 97 percent of films had no female composers, sound designers or sound editors; and 91 percent had no women as visual effects supervisors. (Women accounted for 23 percent of all production designers working on the top 250 films in 2013, a spike of 3 percent since 2008, when the center also collected data in that category.) WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 31 Historical comparison of percentages of women employed behind the scenes on top 250 films by role 50 2013 40 2012 2006 1998 25 25 24 20 20 15 10 9 6 7 9 10 13 15 17 16 18 20 21 20 17 10 3 0 Directors Writers Executive producers Producers 2 2 4 Editors Cinematographers Source: Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film/San Diego State University By further detail, Celluloid Ceiling also concluded that: Women accounted for 10 percent of the entire workforce of film writers, a 5 percent fall from 2012’s figure and a 3 percent decrease from 1998. Eighty-three percent of films had no female writers. Women made up 6 percent of all directors on 2013’s top 250 films, a 3 percent decline from both 2012 and 1998. Ninety-three percent of the films had no female directors. Since 2012, the number of female executive producers fell 2 percent, standing at 15 percent in 2013 when 60 percent of the 250 films had no women among their executive producers. The 2013 rate was 3 percent lower than in 1998. Seventeen percent of 2013’s editors were women, a rate that was 3 percent lower than both 2012 and 1998. Women comprised 17 percent of all editors working on the top 250 films of 2013. Seventy-nine percent of the 2013 films had no female editors. Three percent of the films’ cinematographers were women in 2013, a drop of 1 percent from 2012 and 1998. Ninety-seven percent of the 2013 films had no female cinematographers. Women were most likely to work on dramas, comedies and documentaries but least likely to work on animated, science-fiction and horror movies. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 32 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 30 ‘Gender Inequality in Film,’ a New York Film Academy report A 2013 New York Film Academy special report duly noted that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, a cinematic blockbuster with a female-led cast, garnered three-quarters of all box office receipts for movies premiering during Hunger’s opening weekend in November 2013. That Manhattan-based academy’s report, “Gender Inequality in Film,” was careful to cite other female strides—and the contradictions that accompany them. For instance, women comprised half of the directors with works showcased at 2013’s mogul-dotted, career-making/career-breaking Sundance Film Festival. Source: New York Film Academy WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 33 Nevertheless, those same seemingly groundbreaking female film directors—only “risktakers” are tapped for Sundance—had an exceedingly harder time obtaining widescale, commercial release of their projects, the gender inequality report concluded. That the majority of those women-produced films were blips on the industry’s radar owes to several factors, observers said. “The time slot that a film shows in and how many people are there to fill out the ‘audience award’ card can influence perceived success at a festival and the notice the work gets,” Emmy Award-winning television and film producer Patricia Newton, a University of Texas at Arlington film and video lecturer, told the Women’s Media Center. “This, in turn, can ripple out to securing an agent, distribution, a job or just the success of the next Kickstarter campaign” to raise money for film production. Those realities are part of what prompted the report, David Klein, senior director at the film academy, told the Women’s Media Center. The report, a meta-analysis of pre-existing research, also noted the following: Women get 30.8 percent of roles requiring the character to speak. 28.8 percent of women in film wore sexually revealing clothing. For men, the figure was 7 percent. In 10.7 percent of films, the cast was equally balanced, half male and half female. Angelina Jolie, the highest paid female actor, made $33 million—roughly the same amount as the two lowest paid male stars in Hollywood. Women increasingly comprise New York Film Academy’s enrollment, said Klein, who oversees faculty, development of curricula and new programs. And women are increasingly moving beyond what has been the conventional course of study, acting. Currently, the academy’s screenwriting and acting majors are split, roughly, 50-50, female to male. About 60 percent of its filmmaking majors are men and 40 percent are women. Among cinematography students, women make up just 14 percent of the current enrollment. “Our study was a way of putting everyone on notice that this institution educates so many talented women and questions why these inequalities exist,” Klein said. “Seeing that the industry has some ways to go is a tremendous concern to us.” Critics’ Choice? Says Who? The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film investigated which critics were getting to have their say about what’s showing at the cinema. During two months in spring 2013, researchers found that of roughly 2,000 reviews by 145 writers dubbed the “top critics” on the popular arts criticism site, Rotten Tomatoes, men wrote 82 percent of film reviews, while women wrote 18 percent. Top critics, Rotten Tomatoes discloses, have been published by a news organization whose circulation places it in the top 10 percent of the most widely circulated U.S. publications; been employed for at least five years as a critic for a broadcast news outlet; or worked as a critic for at least three years for an online news site with at least 1.5 million unique visitors per month. Regarding the top critics at Rotten Tomatoes, the San Diego researchers also found that: 22 percent of the top critics writing during the study’s months were women. 36 percent of reviews by female critics and 21 percent of those by male critics spotlighted films with at least one women writer and/or director. 79 percent of the reviews by men and 6 percent of the reviews by women spotlighted films exclusively written and/or directed by men. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 34 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com ‘Boxed In’: TV’s behind-the-scenes female workforce inched up Women creators, writers, producers, executive producers, photography directors and editors made up 28 percent of the workforce in primetime network television entertainment shows during 2012-13, an increase of 2 percentage points since the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film’s 2011-12 analysis of the same sectors. In that 2011-12 study, women comprised 26 percent of that overall behind-the-scenes workforce. In 1997-98, women constituted 19 percent of those sectors. Historical comparison of women working behind the scenes on broadcast network programs Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 100 72 74 73 79 28 26 27 21 Of those seven behind-the-scenes occupations, women were most prevalent among producers, constituting 38 percent of that group in 2012-13, a 9 percent increase from 1997-98’s 29 percent, but the same rate as that of 2006-2007. Percent 80 60 40 20 0 2012-13 2011-12 2009-10 Women 1997-98 Men Source: Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film/San Diego State University Behind-the-scenes roles/employment of women in TV entertainment shows 50 40 2012-13 38 38 38 24 27 26 21 20 18 2006-07 30 1997-98 25 20 19 19 18 16 12 11 13 10 13 15 8 3 0 4 3 0 Creators Executive Producers Producers Writers Directors Editors DPs Source: Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film/San Diego State University WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 35 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 29 30 2011-12 35 34 Also, according to the San Diego State University-based Center’s report: Women accounted for 34 percent of writers in 2012-13, up 4 percent from 2006-07 and 14 percent from 1997-98. Women accounted for 27 percent of producers in 2012-13, up 2 percent from 200607 and 8 percent from 1997-98. Women accounted for 24 percent of creators in 2012-13, up 6 percent from 2006-07 and 18 percent from 1997-98. Women accounted for 16 percent of editors in 2012-13, up 3 percent from 2006-07 and 1 percent from 1997-98. Women accounted for 12 percent of directors in 2012-13, up 1 percent from 2006-07 and 4 percent from 1997-98. Women accounted for 3 percent of photography directors in 2012-13, up 1 percent from 2006-07 and 3 percent from 1997-98. Additionally, by combining the network, cable and Netflix behind-the-scenes workforces, the researchers showed that women were: 38 percent of producers. 30 percent of writers. 24 percent of executive producers. 23 percent of creators. 16 percent of editors. 11 percent of directors. 2 percent directors of photography. The researchers did not provide data from prior years for those combined TV media. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 36 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Also, they were less likely to either be seen at their work sites or actually working, researchers concluded. Other conclusions: 59 57 61 43 41 43 39 2012-13 2010-11 2007-08 1997-98 80 60 40 20 0 Women Men Source: Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film/San Diego State University Percentages of women and men working behind the scenes on broadcast, cable and Netflix programs, 2012–13 100 77 76 62 70 89 84 98 23 24 38 30 11 16 2 80 60 40 20 0 Creators Executive Producers Writers Directors Editors Producers Women DPs Men Source: Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film/San Diego State University WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 37 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center At 51 percent, the CW network had the most female characters. Fox and ABC each had 44 percent; NBC, 41 percent; and CBS, 39 percent. Women were 48 percent of reality show casts; 43 percent of the cast in comedies; and 40 percent in dramas. 78 percent of female actors were white; 12 percent were black; 5 percent were Latina; 3 percent were Asian; the remainder identified as some other race. When programs had no women writers, 40 percent of their casts were women. When shows had at least one woman writer, 43 percent of the casts were female. Shows with no women creators had casts that were 41 percent female. Shows with at least one female creator had casts that were 47 percent female. 57 Percent Even as women regained ground in terms of sheer numbers of speaking roles, women with speaking parts tended to be considerably younger than men: 30 percent of men but 19 percent of women were in their 20s; 22 percent of men and 14 percent of women were in their 40s. 100 Percent Women snared 43 percent of speaking and major roles in 201213 primetime entertainment television shows, a historical high equal to that reached in 2007-08, according to San Diego State’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. In 2010-11, the figure stood at 41 percent. Historical comparison of percentages of female characters on broadcast network programs Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Female characters with speaking parts peaked at 43 percent Without women directors, 25 percent of 200 TV series made ‘Worst Of’ list The percentage of white women directing primetime television series rose by a single percentage point, while the number of women of color in the director’s seat fell by two percentage points, according to the Directors Guild of America’s latest look at diversity in hiring of that group of Hollywood image- and decision-makers. 2012–13 TV episodic directors by gender and ethnicity Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Minority women 2% DGA Report Finds Director Diversity in Episodic Television Remains Static Based on results of its third annual survey of this sector, Guild leadMinority men 14% ers stated that “diversity hiring statistics Caucasian women 12% in episodic television have remained virtuCaucasian men 72% ally unchanged across those three years.” That survey examined who was calling the Figures rounded to the nearest percentage shots for 3,300 episodes of 200 different Source: Directors Guild of America primetime series on network television during the 2012-2013 season and on cable television during 2012. Since 2011-2012, the number of episodes directed by white men fell from 73 percent to 72 percent and those directed by minority men rose from 13 percent to 14 percent since 2011-2012. By contrast, these were among the results for women: WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 38 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center The percentage of episodes directed by white females inched up from 11 percent to 12 percent. The percentage of episodes directed by minority females slid from 4 percent to 2 percent. (That was the 2012–13 TV episodic directors by gender most glaring year-to-year change, driven largely by the cancellation of a single show, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.)  For having no women or Women 14% minority directors, 13 series made the Guild’s “Worst Of” List. Men 86% Shows hiring women and minorities for fewer than 15 percent of episodes numbered 36. (Among them were Californication, HomeFigures rounded to the nearest percentage land, New Girl, Nurse Jackie Source: Directors Guild of America and Scandal.) 2012–13 TV episodic director diversity over three years Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 80 72 73 72 2010 60 Percent 2011 2012 40 20 11 11 12 14 13 14 0 Caucasian men Caucasian women Minority men 3 4 2 Minority women Source: Directors Guild of America The Guild’s “Best Of” List of shows hiring women and minority directors for at least 30 percent of episodes numbered 73, and included some series that either had been cancelled prematurely or ended their scheduled run. Among them were The Carrie Diaries, Cougar Town, Devious Maids, Drop Dead Diva, Girls, The Good Wife, Grey’s Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, Raising Hope, Single Ladies and Treme. Guild First Vice President Betty Thomas, co-chair of the Guild’s Diversity Task Force, lauded the “Best Of” list and noted that many of those shows were “well served” by the presence of women and minority directors. Still, she continued: “But we can’t ignore the shows on our ‘Worst Of’ list. How is it possible, in this day and age, that more than a dozen series didn’t hire even a single woman or minority director all season?” UCLA think tank: Diversity drives up viewership The University of California at Los Angeles Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies bemoaned the lack of women and minority writers, actors and show producers on cable television in its “Hollywood Diversity Brief: Spotlight on Cable Television.” Released in October 2013 as the first installment of a planned multi-year investigation, the study analyzed the race and gender of the writers, producers and casts of 1,076 cable and network television shows from 2011-2012 and show ratings from Nielsen, the global firm that gauges consumer watching and buying habits. With women comprising almost 51 percent of the nation’s population, the report found that, as examples, female creators of cable and network shows and female and male minorities in lead roles in cable shows were underrepresented by a 2-to-1 margin. Some additional details: Female actors landed 34 percent of lead roles in cable TV shows and 45 percent of lead roles in network shows. Women created 21 percent of cable shows and 25 percent of network shows. Shows in which people of color comprised 31 to 40 percent of the casts garnered the Nielsen’s highest household rating, with an average of 0.88 points. Fifty-two shows for which minorities made up 10 percent or less of the casts got the lowest Nielsen rating, 0.39 points. Fifty-eight cable shows for which minorities comprised 10 percent or fewer minorities had the lowest Nielsen rating, 0.45 points. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 39 “Everyone in the industry talks about the importance of diversity, but it clearly isn’t Priority 1 when decisions are made. And it’s not going to be a priority until people realize how it affects the bottom line,” said UCLA sociology professor Darnell Hunt, the study’s lead author and the Bunche Center’s director. How TV show creator’s race and gender often determines lead actors’ race and gender Broadcast Cable 100 89 95 55 75 85 92 66 79 11 5 45 25 15 8 34 21 Lead role gender Creator gender Lead role gender Creator gender 60 40 20 0 Lead role Creator racial status racial status Lead role Creator racial status racial status Cast diversity White Men Minority Women Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Percentage audience viewership 80 Source: UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies Viewership—to a certain point—rises as TV show cast diversity increases 5.85 6 4 4.26 4.23 3.56 3.46 Broadcast cast diversity 3 Cable cast diversity 2 1 0 0.39 0.44 <10% 11% – 20% 0.77 0.88 21% – 30% 31% – 40% Cast diversity 0.7 41% – 50% 0.43 Over 50% Source: UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 40 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Percentage audience viewership 5.02 5 Writer diversity, broadcast & cable, 2011-12 season 5.66 6 5 1.0 4.69 0.85 0.81 4 0.8 2 0.6 0.54 1 0.45 0.45 0 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 3.41 3 <10% 11% – 20% 21% – 30% Over 50% 0.4 <10% Writer diversity — broadcast 0.46 11% – 20% 21% – 30% 41% – 50% Over 50% Writer diversity — cable Source: UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies The problem with ‘Baby Mamas’: Essence readers decried imbalance of popular media portrayals of black women The 1,200 respondents to a survey commissioned by Essence, the nation’s most widely circulated magazine exclusively targeting black women, reported that they’d wearied of what seemed a media excess of true and fictitious black females whose dominant roles included those of the self-aggrandizing gold-digger, promiscuous Jezebel, readyto-brawl hot head, uneducated wanderer and others. More black female media images are a fine idea, subject respondents said, summarily, but the pile-on of those fraught, aforementioned depictions of black womanhood warrant a few counterpoints. How about spotlighting black women who fit neither of those diminished—and diminishing—profiles and who do exist? The 2013 survey, conducted by Added Value Cheskin, a multicultural marketing firm based in New York, aimed to gauge black female media consumers’ assessment of how well television, music videos, social media and other media venues did and didn’t capture the women they believed themselves to be. Among other results, the survey also showed that: Black community heroines were the least often spotlighted by various media. 85 percent of survey respondents reported regularly seeing the proverbial, unmarried “Baby Mama” in the media, while 41 percent regularly encountered “Real Beauties,” which, along with “Young Phenoms,” “Girls Next Door” and “Modern Matriarchs,” were among the black women they’d prefer being captured by the media more often. Black women respondents said “Young Phenoms,” “Girls Next Door” “Modern Matriarchs” and “Individualists” were the black women they knew most in real life. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 41 Non-Hispanic white women who responded to the survey said “Baby Mamas,” “Angry Black Women,” “Uneducated Sisters” and “Unhealthy Black Women” were the black females they most encountered in real life. Women aged 18 through 29, the youngest group, were more likely than older women to know about the negative characterizations and to find them appealing. “This may be because younger generations consume more media overall, especially digital media, where many of the negative types run rampant,” study authors wrote. Those who were “compelled by negative typologies also reported finding physical features, including lighter skin and straight hair, to be more beautiful.” Angry black women Baby mommas Gold diggers Uneducated black women Black barbies 57% Unhealthy fat black women 90% 80% 74% 89% 88% 75% 87% 81% 78% 82% 74% 64% 79% 66% 63% 58% Mean black girls 52% 64% Ratchets 48% Inspiring stars Matriarchs Modern jezebels 44% Real beauties Individualists Young phenoms Jokesters Community heroines Acculturated girl next doors 34% Modern matriarch 0 64% 40 74% 74% 70% 57% 61% 69% 71% 68% 68% 57% 65% 55% 53% 62% 57% 50% 59% 52% 50% 57% 55% 56% 53% 55% 55% 50% 47% 50% 57% 62% 20 74% 60 18–19 years 30–39 years 40–54 years 80 100 Source: Essence magazine WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 42 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center “What the Essence study demonstrates is that there is a pervasive focus in media on the most extreme characterizations of black women and a glaring lack of authentic, inspirational images.  At Essence, our mission for over four decades has been to chronicle the truths and triumphs of everyday women. And the fact that these imbalanced portrayals persist validates the brand’s purpose,” Essence Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Karen Bush told the Women’s Media Center. Media-saturated younger black women note more negative stereotypes Black women say images of “baby mommas,” “jezebels,” etc. needlessly dominate Baby mommas 85 Modern jezebels 82 Angry black women 82 Mean black girls 79 Gold diggers 78 Black barbies 75 Ratchets 72 Uneducated black women 72 Unhealthy black women 69 Jokesters 58 Inspiring stars 53 Matriarchs 47 Real beauties 41 Acculturated girl next doors 39 36 Young phenoms Extreme characterizations 31 Invisible middle Individuals 30 Community heroines 24 0 20 40 60 80 100 Percent Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Modern matriarchs Source: Essence magazine WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 43 A racial divide on media stereotyping of black females 85 Baby mommas 60 82 Modern jezebels 62 82 Angry black women 60 79 Mean black girls 58 78 Gold diggers 49 75 Black barbies 50 72 Ratchets 38 72 Uneducated black women 60 69 Unhealthy black women 38 58 Jokesters 51 53 Inspiring stars 56 47 Matriarchs 43 41 Real beauties 49 39 Acculturated girl next doors 35 50 31 Young phenoms 30 30 Individuals 23 24 Community heroines African American Non-Hispanic white women 23 0 20 40 60 80 100 Percent Source: Essence magazine WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 44 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 36 Modern matriarchs Study: Latinas with solid ethnic identity less inclined to adopt media’s widespread ‘skinny, white girl’ beauty standard A study involving a comparatively small group of non-white Hispanic teens—a group, these researchers said, that also measures itself against idealized, frequently Caucasian notions of what constitutes beauty—found that just 30 percent of them appeared to strongly and immediately embrace their own ethnic aesthetic. Published in the September 2013 journal Body Image, the study by psychology professors Elizabeth Daniels of Oregon State University and Deborah Schooler of Gallaudet University was titled “I Am Not a Skinny Toothpick and Proud of It: Latina Adolescents’ Ethnic Identity and Responses to Mainstream Media Images.” It enrolled 118 13- to 18-year-old Latinas in an experiment, gauging their spontaneous response to viewing five photos of white women in sexualized and non-sexualized postures. The girls were then asked to complete 20 of what are known as stem sentences beginning with “I am …” Based on the self-descriptors they chose to finish the sentences, the researchers determined how well study participants were fending off pressure to model themselves after often skinny, white females that some media uphold as the ultimate standard of American beauty. “Media images are typically very idealized, done with white women, using lots of makeup and photo techniques, and they create a great pressure on young women to live up to this ideal,” Daniels said, according to the press release announcing the study. Hispanic youth, these researchers added, citing prior studies, watch more than five hours a day of TV, which is two hours more than that consumed by white youth and slightly less than the amount black youth consume. Latinas also reported being regular readers of a host of major, mainstream women’s magazines. “This unrealistic depiction on television and elsewhere … [is difficult] for them to just ignore … ” Daniels continued. “Even the model, Cindy Crawford, once said, ‘I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford.’” WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 45 In the media pipeline … Women communications grads mainly chose PR & advertising At a slightly higher rate than men, women media graduates landed more full-time jobs in 2012, the latest year for which the Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communications Graduates has been released. That continues a years-long trend during which women, more than men, have opted for non-newsroom positions, according to the University of Georgia James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research. That long-standing trend owes to several factors, Indiana University School of Journalism professor Radhika Parameswaran told the Women’s Media Center. Chief among them is the lack of flexibility of many journalism jobs. “The unpredictable routines, particularly of hard-line journalism, the ways in which sources demand that you discipline your time toward them … it’s not a job that comes with a guaranteed weekend or gives you a slower, more flexible schedule in summer,” Parameswaran said. “A lot of the canonized forms of journalism are very much masculinized and oriented to sacrificing a lot of your personal time. For a lot of young women, that can be very intimidating.” By gender, according to the study: 36.3 percent of female and 25.2 percent of male grads sought public relations jobs. 32.5 percent of females and 27.5 percent of males sought advertising agency jobs. 23.6 percent of women and 33.6 percent of men sought jobs in television newsrooms. 16.5 percent of women and 26.4 percent of men sought jobs at daily newspapers. 11.3 percent of females and 19.7 percent of males sought news radio jobs. 3.8 percent of women and 5.8 percent of men sought news wire services jobs. Those female grads who do choose non-newsroom jobs can find themselves at a disadvantage: A 2013 survey by Advertising Age magazine and the Interpublic Group, an international marketing agency, found that 68 percent of advertising agency bosses are men. Half the ad agency workforce is female, researchers wrote: “The IPG/Ad Age survey found that three-quarters of female staffers in the U.S. marketing industry said gender diversity is a problem for the ad industry—and of that group, two of every five respondents termed it not just a problem but ‘a major problem.’” Eighty-two colleges and universities participated in the graduates’ survey, which also found that non-white graduates with bachelor’s degrees were less likely than their white counterparts to land full-time jobs in the fields for which they prepared academically. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 46 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Gender and job seeking 1 Types of jobs sought by journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients 2012 40 2012 Men 36.3 34.2 32.5 Percent 25.2 20 18.1 2012 Women 27.5 26.4 23.6 23.1 20 19.7 16.7 11.3 8.8 5.8 Ad Dept. 16.5 16.0 10.6 10 0 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 30 33.6 PR Ad PR Cable Dept. Agency Agency TV Radio 3.8 Wire Weekly Daily Source: AEJMC Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates Gender and job seeking 2 Types of jobs sought by journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients 2012 30 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center Percent 24.3 19.9 20 2012 Men 2012 Women 8.7 10 3.9 0 2.8 2.8 1.9 4.6 4.8 0.6 6.7 5.9 12 7.2 2.3 1.5 Online Book Research Looseleaf/ Magazine Newsletter publishing publisher report/ directory/ Newsletter journal database publisher publisher Trade press Consumer magazine Source: AEJMC Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 47 Minorities and job seeking 1 Types of jobs sought by journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients 2012 40 33.5 32.9 2012 Non-minority 2012 Minority Percent 24.4 20 22.9 20.4 16.8 16.5 13.2 12.9 11.1 10 18.1 16.2 10.1 4 0 Ad Dept. PR Ad PR Cable Dept. Agency Agency TV Radio 5.3 Wire Weekly Daily Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 30 33 31 31.5 31.1 32.1 Source: AEJMC Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates Minorities and job seeking 2 Types of jobs sought by journalism and mass communication bachelor’s degree recipients 2012 Percent 25.3 20 2012 Non-minority 20 2012 Minority 10 7.9 10.7 11.2 6.2 2.7 2.9 0 4.9 4.1 2.9 1.4 0.6 Online Book Research Looseleaf/ Magazine Newsletter publishing publisher report/ directory/ Newsletter journal database publisher publisher 1 6.3 5.6 Trade press Consumer magazine Source: AEJMC Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 48 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 30 Women in gaming, social media & technology … Online, women’s social media use continued to outpace men’s Women’s use of social media has outdistanced that of men at least since 2008, and that pace continued during the first five months of 2013, according to the latest available data from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey. Of women surfing the Internet, 74 percent used some form of social media during the study period. Their overall use outdistanced that of men by 8 percent. At its peak— during a three-year period ending in 2009—women’s use of social media sites was 10 percent higher than that of men, Pew concluded. Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram were more favored by women than by men. To a lesser extent than men, women also used Reddit, though women and men used Tumblr and Twitter in roughly equal proportions. By the numbers: 72 percent of women Internet users and 62 percent of men Internet users used Facebook. 25 percent of women and 5 percent of men used Pinterest. 16 percent of women and 10 percent of men used Instagram. 17 percent of women and 18 percent of men used Twitter. 6 percent each of women and of men used Tumblr. 4 percent of women and 8 percent of men used Reddit Men vs. women site-specific social media use Among internet users, the percentage of men vs. women who use the following sites 80 Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 72 Percent 60 62 Women Men 40 25 20 5 0 Facebook Pinterest 17 16 18 6 6 10 Instagram Twitter Tumblr 4 8 reddit Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project Tracking Surveys, 2012-2013 WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 49 Women, men and social networking over time Among Internet users, the percentage of men vs. women who use social networking sites 80 75% 70 67% 61% 66% 68% 71% 69% 66% 66% 63% 60% 56% 52% 58% 61% 63% 62% 57% 53% Women Men 40 33% 30% 30 32% 28% 20 May Aug Dec Jan May Sep Nov Dec May Aug Feb Aug Dec May 2008 2008 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2011 2011 2012 2012 2012 2013 Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project Tracking Surveys, 2012-2013 Data from Pew and other sources were culled to create the Internet Service Providers 2013 “Battle of Sexes” infographic showing that, among the nation’s roughly 130 million social media subscribers, women’s use of those sites outpaced men’s by almost 10 percent. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 50 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center 51% 70% 62% 60 50 74% 71% Continued WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 51 According to that Internet blog, which tracks an array of online activity and trends, women constituted 62 percent of Twitter subscribers, 58 percent of those on Facebook and 70 percent of those on Pinterest, which “Battle of the Sexes” analysts noted, “drives more business referral traffic than Google, YouTube and Linkedin, combined.” By contrast, men comprised 54 percent of YouTube users. Daily, 25 percent of men visit YouTube, while 17 percent of women do so. Men made up 64 percent of Google+ users and 54 percent of those on LinkedIn. Among male LinkedIn users, 75 percent said that researching businesses is their favored LinkedIn activity; 68 percent favored reconnecting with former business associates; and 45 percent favored person-to-person networking opportunities. Further along the social media continuum, a joint study by Time Inc. and Nuance Digital Marketing found that 60 percent of women and 43 percent of men rated their smartphones the most essential of their personal electronic devices. The 2013 study, “Women + Mobile: The Unbreakable Bond,” was prompted over questions about how individuals receive, or not, the delivery of advertising, news and other content through their mobile devices. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 52 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Based on gleanings from focus groups, forums and an online survey of 1,500 women and 500 men, the study’s other key conclusions included these: 98 percent of women said they go nowhere without their smartphones. During their daily down time, 88 percent of women and 80 percent of men regularly send text messages via a smartphone. Fifty-five percent of women and 46 percent of men shop on their smartphones. 91 percent of women, across generations, reported that they resented advertising that they deemed intrusive. Instead, as one example, 52 percent said they would prefer advertising related to the Web activity in which they were immediately engaged. Women were almost half of video-game buyers, but remain a fraction of that multi-billion industry’s developers Women represented 46 percent of the most frequent purchasers of video games in 2013, according to the Entertainment Software Association. Among that demographic, whose average age was 30, the association also found that female players 18 and older were 31 percent of all players and that boys 17 and younger were 19 percent of all players. For both groups, that represented a rise of 1 percent since 2011, according to the association. The software association’s findings mirrored those of Wichita (Kansas) State University’s Software Usability Laboratory, which, in 2012, spotlighted Interaction Design Foundation data showing that women WHO IS PLAYING were 47 percent of gamers—but roughly 12 percent of game deGAMER DEMOGRAPHICS velopers. Kate Edwards, executive director of the International Game Developers Association Women in Games project, told the Women’s Media Center that the gaming industry, to its credit, has become more aware of how sexism within its ranks and society as a whole drive comparatively lower salaries for women game developers who do manage to snag a job and block other women from getting hired. “Awareness efforts such as the #1ReasontoBe [Twitter] campaign have done well in bringing the issues to light,” Edwards said. “But there is so much more that must be done.” 58% of Americans play video games There are an average of TWO GAMERS in each game-playing U.S. household The average U.S. Household OWNS AT LEAST ONE dedicated game console, PC or smartphone 51% of U.S. households own a dedicated game console, and those that do own an average of 2 The average age of game players is: 30 The gaming industry racked up $20.7 billion in 2012 sales, according to the software association. The Wichita State laboratory did not release a 2013 study. 32% AGE of Game Players 36% 32% 32% under 18 years 32% 18-35 years 36% 36+ years Source: Entertainment Software Association WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 53 About half of women leave male-dominated tech fields, where females lead a fraction of big tech firms and start-ups At least since the mid-1980s, men have become a larger and larger share of college graduates in information technology and computer science, tech fields that, some observers say, play a key role across a wide range of media. (For example, a December 2013 report by the Public Broadcasting Corp.’s Media Shift project noted the dearth of women in news organizations angling to measure the Digital Age’s impact on journalism and to figure a way forward.) Just 14 percent of computer science and tech grads in 2009 were women, though females accounted for 37 percent of that group in 1985, according to IT Manager Daily’s aggregation of data from such researchers as Catalyst, which focuses on women in the workplace. The IT news sites couched that decline in female IT/computer grads in light of other gender divides in the tech world, including these: 89 percent of tech start-ups are launched by all-male teams. 3 percent of venture capitalists—potential start-up financiers—are women. Women comprise 56 percent of all professionals in the United States but 25 percent of tech workers. Women head 11 percent of Fortune 500 tech firms. As a result of those and other realities, women workers in Silicon Valley, as a group, earn roughly half of what men earn, according to the most recent data available from the Social Science Research Council. Also weighing in with their tech figures in 2013 was the National Center for Women and Information Technology. Based on its survey of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the national center found that, among other diversity shortfalls: Asian women represented 4 percent; black women, 3 percent; and Latinas, 1 percent of all computer-based tech workers. The number of first-year undergraduate women interested in majoring in computer science dropped 64 percentage points from 2000 to 2011. 13 percent of Intel Science and Engineering Fair finalists were female in 2013. By 2020, the United States is projected to have 1.4 million computer-based job openings. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 54 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Organizations such as Black Girls Code, which has teamed up with the Silicon Valleybased Latino Start-up Alliance, and Girls Who Code are responses to a gender and race divide in high-tech that persists, despite the high profiles of Facebook Chief Operation Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer and others in their small league of women tech execs.  Those organizations run such projects as a summer camp for junior high and high school students and related recruitment programs and are drawing investors, inventers and entrepreneurs of color into the tech arena. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 55 Others who are providing a guidepost toward greater gender and race diversity in technology include Freada Kapor Klein, founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, which targets greater diversity in science, engineering, technology and math, the so-called STEM fields. The institute urges tech companies to follow the example of the National Football League’s Rooney Rule requiring all NFL teams to interview non-whites for head coach and other senior-level football positions. Among corporate decision-makers, what place and power do women hold? Benchmarking women’s leadership study’ researchers link women’s status in media to well-being of all women workers In 2012, women represented 23.3 percent of leadership ranks in journalism and related media, according to the Colorado Women’s College 2013 Benchmarking Women in Leadership in the United States study. That compares to 20 percent in 2008, the last time this study was conducted. The study analyzed where women leaders exist across 14 sectors. In the journalism and media sector, it focused on which sex had been prominently tapped as news reporters and anchors and which occupied the executive suite. Study researchers and the college’s academic leaders contend that the profile of women in the über public, trend-setting, image-making field of journalism and related media help determine how well women fare in a whole range of other business sectors. And despite the relative progress since 2008, these researchers contend, the gender gap is too wide and continues to have consequences. “Without female representation in journalism and media, I don’t think we will see adequate representation in any other sector,” said Tiffani Lennon, chair of Colorado Women’s College’s law and society department. “I can’t say it’s a direct causation—and those variables would be all but impossible to isolate. But there’s a … correlation between the visibility of women in media and the visibility of women in other sectors. And this is part of the point of the [actor] Geena Davis’ work because media is so heavily embedded in our consciousness, in our daily lives. It’s likely that what we see in other sectors, in many ways, reflects the kinds of media roles women are playing.” Based on their analysis, which included a survey of research from other organizations, the Colorado team found that in 2012: As an overall average, females comprised 15.3 percent of the boards of the directors of the top 10 national news organizations. One female, Gracia Martore of Gannett Co., was a CEO of one of those top 10 firms. The female composition of those firms’ boards ranged from a high of 40 percent at the Walt Disney Co., which owns the ABC News and Entertainment Networks, to a low of 13 percent at Australian Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., owner of news organizations including The Wall Street Journal and the Fox News and Entertainment networks. Leadership ranks in the magazine industry were 43.2 percent female. Leadership ranks in television news were 21.6 percent female. Leadership ranks in newspapers were 19.2 percent female. Leadership ranks in radio news were 7.5 percent female. Leadership ranks in social media were 55 percent female. Four females—or 16 percent—were editors-in-chief at the nation’s 25 largest newspapers. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 56 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com One woman was among publishers of the nation’s 25 largest newspapers. A female owned none of the 20 most-visited online news sites. Said Colorado Women’s College Dean Lynn Gangone: When women aren’t reporting, topics relevant to women and girls get lost. The [comparative] paucity of women who are writers and editors and who are on Sunday morning television … sends a message.” Women as CEOs and board members at the top 10 journalism and media companies CEO’s gender Number board members Time Warner Inc. Male 11 Male 2 18% Walt Disney Company Male 10* Male 4 40% Viacom Inc. Male 11 Male 2 18% News Corporation Male 16 Male 2 13% CBS Corporation Male 14 Male 2 14% Cox Enterprises Male 10 Male 2 20% NBC Universal Male 4 Male 0 0 Gannett Company, Inc. Female 10* Female 3 30% Clear Channel Communications, Inc. Male 12 Male 0 0 Advance Publications, Inc. Male 2 Male 0 0 Company Board Number chair’s female board Percent gender members women Average percent of women 15.3% Source: Colorado Women’s College Ten most visible reporters on the evening news in 2012 (anchors excluded) Reporter Minutes Assignment Network 1. David Muir 343 Domestic ABC 2. Jake Tappe 283 White House ABC 3. Richard Engel 246 Foreign NBC 4. Nancy Cordes 226 White House NBC 5. Chuck Todd 226 Capitol Hill CBS 6. Jim Avila 211 Domestic ABC 7. Jonathan Karl 205 Capitol Hill/Campaign ABC 8. Tom Costello 201 DC Bureau NBC 9. Anthony Mason 198 Economy CBS 193 Pentagon CBS 10. David Martin Source: Colorado Women’s College WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 57 Top 10 visited U.S. print media websites, April 2012 Site Percent of audience Owner The New York Times 3.61% New York Times Company USA Today 3.48% Gannett Company (woman-owned) People Magazine 2.59% Time Warner The Washington Post 1.93% The Washington Post Company Sports Illustrated 1.53% Time Warner Daily Mail 1.47% Daily Mail General Trust (UK) TV Guide.com 1.17% OpenGate Capital The Wall Street Journal 1.03% News Corporation NY Post.com .94% News Corporation US Weekly .79% Wenner Media Source: Colorado Women’s College Women anchors and correspondents on network news 2011 Number of anchors/ correspondents Number of men Women of color Percent women of color ABC 75 47 28 37.3% 8 10.7% CBS 73 47 26 35.6% 6 8.2% CNN 65 27 38 58.5% 11 16.9% FOX 144 92 52 36.1% 9 17.3% MSNBC 25 13 12 48% 4 16% NBC 41 27 14 34% 4 Network Number Percent of women of women Total average 9.8% 13.15% Source: Colorado Women’s College WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 58 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Media Mavens again made Forbes list of Most Powerful Women Magazine, TV and film mogul Oprah Winfrey, Jill Abramson, the first woman to helm The New York Times newsroom, and Disney/ABC Television President Anne Sweeney were among the media honchos who made Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women, a group comprised of entertainment celebrities, politicians, activists, business titans and others who show up regularly in the 24/7 news cycle. Other major media players on that roster included: ABC World News Anchor Diane Sawyer Disney/ABC Television Group President & Disney Media Networks Co-Chair Anne Sweeney Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Fox News Anchor Greta Van Susteren Google Senior VP Susan Wojcicki (recently named CEO of YouTube) HBO Entertainment President Sue Naegle HSN CEO Mindy Grossman Huffington Post EIC Arianna Huffington NBC Universal Cable Entertainment Group Chair Bonnie Hammer Oracle President and CFO Safra A. Catz Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chair Amy Pascal Vogue EIC Anna Wintour Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 59 Afterword A practical path toward parity This report provides an abundance of statistical and real-life evidence of the varying, unheard voices and unused talents of women, especially women of color and women without sufficient resources in a world where race, region and class can dictate much. The Women’s Media Center offers the following pointers for news organizations, entertainment conglomerates, interview bookers and media decision-makers in all fields and on every level who—for fiscal, ethical and other practical reasons—should strive to tell the fullest possible story with input from a robust array of workers. For Every Media Sector Conduct a personnel audit. What constitutes the gender and ethnic make-up of your organization’s rank-and-file employees, its decision-makers and those in the pipeline for promotions? Set achievable goals for creating and maintaining a workplace that reflects the general population’s diversity. Staff with intention. Hire those who will take on a diversity of issues in news coverage, entertainment, gaming, social media, et cetera. Mentor and encourage. In ways formal and informal, provide guidance, reassurance and advice to young women of all races and classes who are considering or emerging in your profession. Get serious about work-life balance for women and men. Flexible schedules, paid maternity/paternity/elder-care leave can be tools for boosting worker productivity and devotion to the workplace. Employers need to provide workers with more options about how, when and where to do their work throughout various life stages and amid various life demands. Encourage candid conversation about gender and racial parity. You do not have to be a woman or person of color to speak out about why media content and context should be balanced and well-rounded, and how to achieve those ends. Raise awareness. Educate your colleagues, bosses, neighbors and friends about areas of film, TV, radio, newspapers and online where women and people of color are acutely underrepresented and/or misrepresented and about the impact of those realities on the corporate bottom line and on society. For News Organizations Staff with intention. Hire reporters, editors and producers who show proof and capacity for reporting accurately and are mindful of gender, class and ethnic diversity and how different groups, ideals, et cetera intersect. Diversify the source list. The Women’s Media Center’s SheSource.org, the online brain trust of female experts on diverse topics, is explicitly designed to serve journalists, bookers and producers who seek women experts as on-air guests and other sources of news and/or commentary. Avoid biased or coded language and imagery. Just as good journalists examine their words for correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, usage and style, so too—at all levels of the news delivery process—they should guard against biased language that could unfairly depict issues and people in the news. The Women’s Media Center’s “Unspinning the Spin: How to De-Code the Hype & Say What You Mean,” a guide to fair and accurate language, will be available in fall 2014. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 60 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Establish standards and mechanisms for meeting goals. Clearly define sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and discrimination against the disabled; identify the federal, state and local laws against those ills and your organization’s system of ensuring they don’t creep into the workplace. Monitor reader/viewer comments. Responses to news coverage that are posted on your site can shape perception of your news organization’s own philosophies and bent. Make sure reader/viewer feedback is neither needlessly inflammatory, maliciously racist or provocatively sexist, or a vehicle for spreading disinformation. For Entertainment Professionals Re-examine whom to bankroll. Movie studios need to do a better job in providing opportunities to women behind the scenes as directors and producers, especially in major feature films. Get to know communities and constituencies beyond your own. It’s imperative that more historically white male-run studios seriously consider scripts pitched to them by women and people of color, and to understand what makes many of those projects saleable to a diverse audience of ticket-buyers. For Concerned Consumers of Media Demand accountability by: Writing letters to the editor and station managers or taking other action—collective, if necessary—when you’re concerned about coverage, newsroom staffing, et. al. Pressure news executives for a speedy, reasonable and reasoned response. Knowing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules on broadcast media ownership and joining the chorus of players who have been demanding that more efforts be made to increase the comparatively low number of TV and radio stations owned by women and people of color. Letting your wallet do the talking. Whether at the box office, newsstand or local game store, women and people of color are spending their consumer dollars. As needed, let the media powers-that-be know that you can choose when and where to spend that cash. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 61 WomenMediaCenter.com Resources for the media The Women’s Media Center’s “Media Guide to Covering Reproductive Issues” (http://www.womensmediacenter.com/pages/read-the-womens-media-centersmedia-guide-to-covering-reproductive-issues) is a resource for accurate media coverage of reproductive issues. WMC SheSource (http://www.shesource.org) is an online contact list of female experts on diverse topics designed to serve journalists, producers and bookers who need female guests and sources. Name It. Change It (http://wmc.3cdn.net/d70ffb626bbc4b58d8_ecm6vgfl1.pdf ) includes a glossary of terms on fair and accurate language. Name It. Change It Media Guide to Gender-Neutral Coverage of Women Candidates + Politicians (http://wmc.3cdn.net/d70ffb626bbc4b58d8_ecm6vgfl1.pdf). Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan, Saturdays at 11 a.m. ET on iTunes and CBS affiliate WJFK (1580 AM) in Washington, D.C. WMC’s Women Under Siege (http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org) documents how rape and other forms of sexualized violence are used as tools in genocide and conflict throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. WMC Features are original content about important issues written by women experts and journalists. Status of Women in Media Report WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 62 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com Source citations 1. American Society of Newspaper Editors 2013 Newsroom Census: ASNE.org. 2. “Lack of Female Sources in NY Times Front-Page Stories Highlights Need for Change”: Poynter.org. 3. “What’s Wrong With America’s Newspaper Opinion Columnists in One Chart”: Gawker.com. 4. “Little Change for Women, Minorities in TV, Radio”: RTDNA.org. 5. Ethnic Diversity on the 2013 Sunday Morning Talk Show: MediaMatters.org. 6. “Heavy Hundred 2013”: Talkers.com. 7. “Heavy Hundred” of Sports Talk 2013: Talkers.com. 8. Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports “Associated Press Sports Editors Racial and Gender Report Card”: TideSport.org. 9. “Race/Ethnicity in 500 Popular Films”: Annenberg.USC.Edu. 10. “Exploring the Barriers and Opportunities for Independent Women Filmmakers:” Sundance.org. 11. Gender Inequality in 500 Popular Films: Examining On Screen Portrayals and Behind the Scenes Employment Patterns in Motion Pictures Released between 2007-2012: http://annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Communication%20and%20Journalism/~/media/A41FBC3E62084AC8A8C047A9D4A54033.ashx 12. “Celluloid Ceiling” 2013: WomenInTVFilm.sdsu.edu. 13. “Gender Inequality in Film”: NYFA.edu. 14. “Gender @ the Movies: Online Film Critics and Criticism”: WomenInTVFilm.sdsu.edu. 15. “Boxed In: Employment of Behind the Scenes and On-Screen Women in 201213”: WomenInTVFilm.sdsu.edu. 16. “Director Diversity in Episodic Television Remains Static”: DGA.org. 17. “Hollywood Diversity Brief”: BuncheCenter.UCLA.edu. 18. “I Am Not a Skinny Toothpick and Proud of It”: Ir.Library.OregonState.edu. 19. Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communications Graduates 2013: Grady. UGA.edu. 20. “It’s a Woman’s (Social Media) World”: PewResearch.org. 21. “Battle of the Sexes”: InternetServiceProviders.org. 22. “Women + Mobile: The Unbreakable Bond”: Yahoo.com. 23. “Women in Technology: Triumphs and Barriers”: ITManagerDaily.com. 24. “Benchmarking Women’s Leadership”: WomensCollege.DU.edu. 25. Forbes magazine “100 Most Powerful Women”: http://www.forbes.com. *Time Inc. did not accommodate the Women’s Media Center’s request to review its proprietary study. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 63 This report’s producers Compiled and edited by veteran journalist and custom content producer Katti Gray, this report is based on interviews with key media-watchers and decision-makers and is a comprehensive review of the latest quantitative and qualitative data and research on topics involving women in media. Among other positions, Gray runs New York University’s Urban Journalism Workshop and teaches in the Department of Film & Media at Hunter College. She specializes in covering criminal justice, health and higher education but also completes general news assignments for a wide range of national print and online publications. This report’s reviewer was Cindy Royal, Ph.D., an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University in San Marcos. She teaches theory and practical skills in digital and data-driven media. As a 2013-14 Stanford University Knight Journalism Fellow, Royal is developing a platform to teach journalists how to create code for the Internet and is in residency on that Palo Alto, California campus. WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER 64 The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Women’s Media Center staff is thankful to our co-founders, Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem. We also extend special thanks to the NoVo Foundation, Ford Foundation, Artemis Rising Foundation, Ruth Turner Fund, Libra Foundation, Bydale Foundation and Embrey Foundation for their generous support of WMC’s staff and work; and to the many researchers, analysts, organizations and journalists whose work greatly contributed to this report. Women’s Media Center Board Members Jewelle Bickford Julie Burton, President Patti Chang Soraya Chemaly Anita DeFrantz Donna Deitch Janet Dewart Bell, Board Vice Chair Lauren Embrey, Board Chair Jane Fonda Judy Gold Maya Harris Kate Hathaway Pat Mitchell, Board Chair Emerita Dee Dee Myers Robin Morgan Geneva Overholser Teri Schwartz Regina K. Scully Gloria Steinem Women’s Media Center Staff Julie Burton, President Cristal Williams Chancellor Janice Ferebee Barbara Findlen Peggy-Anne Hupcey Rachel Larris Kate McCarthy Shireen Mitchell Shazdeh Omari Lauren Wolfe Julie Zeilinger Sayda Zelaya Status of Women in the U.S. Media Report 2014 Team Editor: Cristal Williams Chancellor Designer: Diahann Hill Copy Editor: Shazdeh Omari WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014 womensmediacenter.com 65 MEDIA CENTER womensmeolicicenfencom