Women In The Media: The Numbers
Mary Pat Abruzzo, Content Editor @ Media x Women
Although you may know the statistics of gender inequality in the workplace, there is power and reality in the visualization of these facts. We put together an infographic summary of women in the workplace, from the top CEOs to leaders in the journalism industry.
Women CEOs
The Fortune 500 list shows those in power and influence. 2020 marked the year where the most women CEOs were recorded on the Fortune 500 list. Although this may sound like good news - women still only accounted for 37 of the 500 chief executives. In 2019, the list contained 33 women CEOs, an increase from 24 women in 2018. Although this was a record high, women make up only 7.4% of the leaders. There are also only three women of color on the list. It’s nice to that C-suite diversity has been making progress, but there’s still a long way to go.
Film and Television
Film and television have a powerful influence in shaping our cultural perception, therefore the people creating and representing certain narratives can have a lasting impact on an audience. We will skip to the main point: We need more women in film, both in front of the camera and off the camera. Although 2019 saw an increase in the representation of women, there are still strides to be made. According to It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World, women accounted for 37% of major characters in 2019, up 1 percentage point from 36% in 2018. With a breakdown of this statistic, you can see that 70% of these major female characters were white, 18% were black, 6% were Latina, and 5% were Asian.
If you take a look behind the screen, there is even less representation for women directors. 2019 marked a major increase in women directors. The Inclusion in the Director’s Chair Report found that 10.6% of 2019’s top movies were directed by women - that highest in 13 years!
Looking at the 2020 Academy Awards it seems not much has changed - all nominees for best director were male. Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to win best director for her film The Hurt Locker in 2010. The UN Women has highlighted this problem through this infographic.
Journalism
Diversity within major news organizations is vital to incorporating voices of the unheard. A study conducted by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that only 23% of top editors across major news outlets in four different continents were women even though 40% of journalists were women. The situation in journalism has stayed relatively stagnant. According to the UN Women, in 2015, 37% of stories were told by women, a statistic that hadn’t changed for almost a decade. There are similar trends within the content of news media, in 2015 only 24% of news stories contain women.
