Men still dominate national newspaper journalism

It is still a men's world in national newspaper journalism, according to a survey released last night by the campaigning group Women in Journalism (WiJ). The study found that 74% of news journalists on the nationals are men and that men also dominate political and business journalism. Somewhat less surprisingly, just 3% of sports journalists are women Among other eye-opening findings are that The Independent had the lowest proportion of female staff. Just 25% of its editorial team are women. The Sun the Daily Telegraph were little different, with just 26% of female staff. At the other end of the scale, the papers with the highest proportion of women journalists were The Observer and the Daily Mail, both with 36% of women, closely followed by the Daily Express with 35%. Male journalists also people areas that researchers regard as "traditional subjects that women might have been expected to dominate". So 49% of lifestyle reporters are men and 70% of arts reporters are also male. It was clear from the study that women are less likely to be in senior positions. Eight out of the top 10 newspapers having almost twice as many male editors as women editors. That gender divide penetrates the whole newspaper industry with women making up just 30% of all newspaper journalists. Rowenna Davis, who led the research, said:    "These results raise serious questions about the meritocracy of our national press.     The UK's media contributes a huge amount to our democracy by holding others accountable, but it should not be beyond that scrutiny itself.     With such gaping under-representation in hard news, business and politics, we have to question whether the absence of women is effecting the content and slant of our news.     I have been lucky to have had a positive experience with news desks, but this research shows that a significant number of women have been less fortunate." And Sue Matthias, WiJ's chair and editor of the Financial Times magazine, said: "Women's rights in the workplace may have improved, but this research shows that there is still a long way to go in British newspapers. "The gender imbalance we have uncovered is shocking and it seems old attitudes are still alive and well in many places." The findings were discussed last night at a WiJ event to celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day (on 8 March). On the panel were Natalie Bennett, editor of Guardian Weekly, Eve Pollard, the former editor of the Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express, and the award-winning writer and broadcaster Yvonne Roberts. The study was carried out by the research company Echo in October last year. It involved 28 national papers. Incidentally, Rowenna is a former journalism student at City University, where I teach post-grads. In my seven or so years at the university I have noted the that females generally outnumber male students. Yet the jobs, apparently, still go to the boys. Why is that?