Female Journalists Face More Difficulties Than Male Journalists
Conducted by:
Chowdhury Mehnaz Afrin Shreya (181012081)
Sidratul Muntaha (181012029)
INTRODUCTION
From a long journey of journalism and media, among many other challenges, gender discrimination is a big part of it. The issue lives on in this century and isn’t given priority on a mass scale to minimize this so that it can be moved past and only journalism is focused on. In journalism, female journalists are presumably found more to face difficulties than male journalists. Keeping the core problem in mind, the purpose of the research project is to explore the many ways female journalists face difficulties more than males through practical methods of survey and interview. From there, thorough analysis will be done to draw a conclusion. The goal here is to raise awareness so that both the media and general public know more about the discrimination, so that they can cut as much of it as possible from both on screen and off screen work fields to maintain professionalism and fairness regardless of gender.
Gender discrimination towards female journalists in multiple ways keep blocking the pathway of field work many a times and this puts journalism as a whole on a negligent light most of the times. This is quite concerning. Eliminating gender bias and discrimination from journalism will enable the general public and employees to focus their time, energy and attention on the main aspects of journalism and the relevant issues.
RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE
Stereotyped attitudes, negligent and sexual harassment and abuse from male co-workers and employers towards female journalists have forced female journalists to give up and quit their jobs. Especially in countries like Bangladesh, in the pre independent era, there were rare cases of women out there in the field of journalism and moreover were not accepted to work outside their household. Nonetheless, women want to engage themselves in daring professions like journalism and want a place for themselves. However, even if women have come a long way from then on, they still face stereotyped attitudes almost all the time although it is the 21st century. Lesser numbers of females are hired because employers fear that they would want to quit jobs if they have kids, or in fear of providing maternity leave.
There is a massive difference, shown even in the recent surveys of 2014, that women are paid much less than their male colleagues. According to the 2008 consensus of American Society of Newspaper Editors, women make up about 37 percent of newspaper newsroom employees. Also, there are 40 percent television news female workers and less than 23 percent of radio newsroom female employees according to the Hofstra Survey of 2008.
Not only is there negligence inside the work field, but female journalists face sexism and get abused by the public eye on a regular basis as well. To remove gender imbalances as a whole in the journalism sector, further research conduct is necessary and will bring more light to the matter.
When it comes to the limitation of the research, while carrying out methodologies there may be bias when it comes to taking a feminist approach. There may also be an imbalance regarding the journalists chosen from a population that may not cover all areas of professional journalism.
LITERATURE REVIEW
To focus in Bangladesh, there are many women interested in journalism and all throughout they are discouraged to pursue a career in journalism. Although they have tried on their own, educating themselves and gathering experiences in different fields of journalism, they have been put down countless times by their employers, sometimes by family mainly due to the narrow judgment of society about a woman’s career being outside of the household. Bangladeshi constitution allows practice of equal rights but females are deprived of their rights in numerous ways.
All around South Asia female journalists face discrimination and extreme sexism. They get less opportunities with assigned work, opportunities in promotions. They face sexual harassment, violence and abuse that are mostly not surfaced about.
Cheryl Lindsey Shelloff hypothesized: That is true of most professional females in journalism, specifically in the current affairs slots women aspired to,family life set serious limitations. Child rearing and family and domestic responsibilities without adequate support services were cited as important barriers to advancement. For instance, it restricted travelling on assignments for females with small children or made females thinktwice before accepting jobs that required long, late and irregular hours. This included some kinds of supervisory jobs in journalism. It was suggested that female journalists should be able to work flexible hours but this is not practical in news organizations. Another point made was that domestic work (and social norms) prevented females, unlike men, working at their careers outside the office either by improving their knowledge or engaging in office politics and 'drinking with the boss'. The possibility of getting men to share domestic work was considered more utopian than getting domestic help or domestic appliances. (Shellhoff, 2007).
The oldest women journalists’ organization in Bangladesh, established in 2001, is the Bangladesh Nari Shangbadik Kendra (BNSK) and according to their analysis in 2006, although the number of female journalists is increasing in Bangladesh, it is still inferior to the number of rising male journalists in Bangladesh. There is utter discrimination starting from recruitment to training and promotions for females in their field of expertise. Males are given more priority to withhold decision making positions. It is a real struggle for female journalists to soar up due to discouraging treatment, poor assigned works and facilities. According to BNSK, there are approximately 6000 male journalists whereas female journalists mark around 300 in numbers. Female journalists face massive discrimination as their numbers are insignificant in news beats covering economic, parliament, political, election commission, sports, crime and energy.
According to findings of the research articles, they all draw conclusions of women facing less employment, and they suffer a great deal of discouragement through the assigned work. As some female journalists may not be able to do night duty, or may need an extra transport system for security purposes, and may take maternity leave - employers use excuses there to not hire a female journalist over a male one, and often use these excuses to not give deserving promotions. As of 2018, it needs to be found out whether that is still going on at a high rate which is why this study resides with the new potential research project.
Even workshops carried out so that women are aware of discrimination and how to handle them. A two day workshop was conducted under ARTICLE 19 to discuss discrimination and about basic human rights. It can be used as an example of scope to create awareness among people.
Rowena Davis led a research and concluded that the world of journalism is still dominated by men. A survey on the female employee ratio on different news media forums. This usage of methodology to conduct the research is relatable to that of what is necessary to carry out the research project for this proposal. Accurate percentages were obtained. It was derived that eight out of ten newspapers had twice as many male editors as female editors. More men still had higher positions and had more parts as lifestyle reporters and arts reporters than females.
Davis 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 affecting 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." (Davis, 2011)
As female literacy is increasing with the passing years, it should be testified whether women are still underrepresented and undermined for their knowledge and ability to provide reliable efficiency. Whether females are still less employed with potential education level and skills, should be found out based on the analysis from the survey findings. An updated research is necessary to be conducted, especially in a country like Bangladesh. The gaps between male and female employees in journalism can be recorded and then compared with the trend of gaps in the last two decades between female and male journalists. This will shed more light on how to proceed further, which will answer the question of if there is a scope to create more awareness, and eventually how it can be done.
“Women and Journalism” book review
Related to the research project, this excellent book review summarizes how feminism is significantly discussed about in the book “Women and Journalism” by Deborah Chambers, Linda Steiner and Carole Fleming. It focuses on the evolution of women throughout history up until modern times in the field of journalism, but their path of success has been kept on blocked by employers. Women were underpaid, underestimated and prevented from holding better positions and were underrepresented in awards and accolades as well. Despite their positive impact in the newsroom, the struggle kept continuing.
An analysis on gender bias report (The Atlantic)
In this newspaper article, it is discussed about how women are seen as “eyecandy” and more than often showcased visually rather than a source of news and information. It addresses all forms of male dominance in journalism, regarding more on screen chances, income and representation. It even provides statistical graphs as proof to show the trend between male and female names mentioned in Atlantic Articles in 2015.
Journal of Research on Women and Gender
This journal thoroughly breaks down the different types of abuse and discrimination female sports journalists suffered. Women have been verbally abused and accused of wanting to get into locker rooms to check out naked men. Liberal feminist theories were discussed, especially how they were advocated and even so, gained little ground.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Do female journalists face more difficulties than male journalists?
2. What are the challenges that female journalists face in their profession?
3. Is there any scope of creating awareness among people?
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD
Two research methods will be appropriate to use in this research project:
● Survey
● Interview
Two people for each division will be selected to conduct interviews of a total of five female and five male journalists. There will be a selected criterion of pre-determined questionnaire so the interview session will be structured. All interviewees will answer in the same order. Data analysis will be easy to carry out as the answers will be from the same set of questions so they will be easy to compare and contrast. There is scope of feminist approach to be taken as well because some interviewees may want to share life experiences relevant to the topic.
In this research, the purposive sampling method is the most efficient to use. Purposive sampling is a non-probability sample that is selected based on the characteristics of a population and the objective of the study. (Crossman, 2018).
Five male journalists and five female journalists from a vast population of each division will be selected. This covers the criterion to proceed with purposive sampling.
BUDGET
The estimated budget is given as follows:
For each Division: (for 2 persons)
Transport cost=(1000*2) = 2,000 BDT
Hotel cost+Food cost+Internal transport cost= 1,500 BDT (per day)
So, total cost for two persons per division for 10 days: (1,500*10)+2,000= 17,000 BDT
For 8 Divisions:
Total cost for 8 divisions= (17,000*8)= 1,36,000 BDT
Hence, approximately 1, 50, 000 BDT net budget
TIME FRAME
Two researchers will be sent to each division for 10 days according to a fixed timeline, which is provided below:
Date and Month | Division |
1st March to 10th March | Dhaka |
21st March to 30th March | Khulna |
1st April to 10th April | Barishal |
21st April to 30th April | Chattagram |
1st May to 10th May | Mymensingh |
21st May to 30th May | Rajshahi |
1st June to 10th June | Sylhet |
21st June to 30th June | Rangpur |
REFERENCE
Safa, M. N., & Akter, T., Challenges of Female Journalists in Bangladesh. Humanities and Social Sciences.Vol.3, No. 5, 2015, pp. 207-214. doi:10.11648/j.hss.20150305.17
Unfair treatment discourages women in journalism (2003). Retrieved from http://archive.thedailystar.net/2003/12/19/d31219100768.htm
Women journalists say “No” to discrimination and demand more protection (2014, Jun. 09). Retrieved from https://www.article19.org
Unfair treatment discourages women in journalism (2003). Retrieved from http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu
CNC Report. (2013). Bangladesh Women in Journalism. Retrieved from http://en.cncnews.cn/news/v_show/31289_Bangladesh_Women_In_Journalism.shtml
Babul, P., (2010). Women in Media. Retrieved from https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-149785
American Society of Newspaper Editors, Annual Census 2008. Retrieved from http://www.asne.org/files/08Census.pdf (accessed January 2, 2009).
RTNDA, The Association of Electronic Journalists, “RTNDA/Hofstra Survey 2008,” Retrieved from http://www.rtnda.org/pages/posts/rtndahofstra-survey-women-and-journalists-of-color-advance-in-local-broadcastnews247.php (accessed January 2, 2009)
Davis, R., (2011, Mar. 4). Men Still Dominate National Newspaper Journalism. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com
Elega, A. A., (2016). Book Review of the book [Women and Journalism by Deborah Chambers, Linda Steiner, & Carole Fleming]. International Journal of Communication 10(2016), 2501-2504
LaFrance, A. (2016, Feb. 17). I Analyzed a Year of My Reporting for Gender Bias (Again) The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com
Everbach, T., & Matysiak, L. (2010). Spots reporting and gender: Women journalists who broke the locker room barrier, A Journal of Research on Women and Gender. Retrieved from https://journals.tdl.org/jrwg/index.php/jrwg/article/viewFile/61/27