What it’s like not being a man in the journalism industry

How the journalism industry has major improvements needed to be made in terms of gender equity

Receiving news is one of the most important and beneficial things for our society, without it we would not know what is going on around us, in our community or globally.  

However, being the one to tell it is far more valuable.  

I have wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl but knowing the truth of what the journalism industry entailed in terms of the fairness and quality woman journalists received compared to men, I become confused. 

Although numbers are starting to become even in terms of men and female in the newsroom, it is important that individuals do not forget to read in between the lines. Just decades ago, the lack of women being in a newsroom or being a writer was common, but the treatment and podium we get put on is the same as it is today. 

Even though women are in the newsroom, they are not seen or taken seriously in many circumstances due to the maltreatment in this work field. And specifically, due to the misogyny that still rules the stories being told.   

For example, famous Canadian-writer Margaret Atwood and well-known feminist spoke about this issue, as she has been in the writing industry as a woman for many decades and has experienced it all head on.  

Something she found was that while pushing for women authors to have more space and freedom to write, it still had replaced those earlier expectations with demands of its own.  

For example, although women can write now, the only difference that has been made is our deception on it being a “bad” thing to now being something “good”. Yet women still deal with many repercussions today being a woman in journalism. 

In a study done in 2020 on the dangers faced in the journalism industry, 73% of female respondents of that survey said they had experienced some form of online abuse, harassment or threats, with 20% facing dangers out of the newsroom.    

Women have it difficult today as a whole, so taking the reins of a position where your voice is to be heard, makes those who want yours silenced to be fueled with envy.  

Women are told constantly not be bold, confident and demanding, yet having to control one’s behavior to not contradict expected gender roles, as the exact same behaviors would be accepted, if not rewarded, in male colleagues is misogyny at is finest. 

Although all of this is daunting, it did not stop me from wanting to pursue the passion. But the reality does settle once you are at the point in your life where you find yourself applying for these roles, seeing the wages and entering the newsrooms filled with white, old men. 

The underrepresentation of woman in the media is so small, as women were only 13% of sources and subjects in the television and newscast industry monitored in 2020 as studied by the Global Media Monitoring Project. 

It also dawns on you when misogyny is again, so obvious within the journalism industry yet too unidentifiable to others. 

Although women are in the newsroom, it does not mean we are seen in the newsroom, are given a chance to speak, move up, prove ourselves, state our opinions boldly and call the shots. 

Our society is just giving the mic to female journalists but leaving it on mute as we hope to share our opinions and voice so boldly, yet we are not even given a chance to be listened or to speak. 

We need to start being heard and represented in the journalism industry, not just merely existing until a man decides that we are useful.