Women’s Voices Remain Muted In Global News Industry, Says Gates Foundation

A damning report has shone light on the underrepresentation of women in the global news industry.

The report was commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and brought together millions of pieces of data from India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the US. The team also conducted in-depth interviews with 41 senior news editors/editors-in-chief and “trailblazers from around the world”.

The focus was on women’s underrepresentation and cultural exclusion at the top of news organisations and in the highest-profile beats but also on their invisibility in news coverage and storytelling.

Whilst women are underrepresented across the board, women of colour are severely so. The report states: “Only three percent of political and four percent of foreign affairs editors in the US are women of colour. Even in South Africa, just 29 percent of political editors are women of colour, while their proportion in the working population is 46 percent.”

The report’s author, Luba Kassova, is an evidence-based storyteller and TEDx speaker. She argues that an increasing presence of women journalists and more women featuring in articles would be financially beneficial for media organisations. The report details: “Our investigation…shows a potential cumulative revenue opportunity of $43 billion between 2023 and 2027 and $83 billion between 2023 and 2032 for the global newspaper industry if the 11-12 percentage point addressable gender consumption gap was completely closed.”

Kassova’s team have included 12 solution themes that they hope will drive change. They also give plaudits to news organisations who have already made progress including Bloomberg, the Guardian and The New York Times. Kassova writes: “Drop by drop the river rises. Every one percentage point change along any element of the news value chain, starting with a gender audit, will bring news organisations a small step closer to a more equitable and profitable journalism.”