Document details

Money - Power - Stereotypes: Does Gender Equality in the Media Really Matter? International Comparative Gender Study in Georgia, Moldova and Russia

Kalmar: Fojo Media Institute;Russian Academy of Sciences (ISESP RAS) (2019), 19 pp.

Other editions: also published in Russian

"One interesting trend to follow is the feminisation of the journalism profession. The trend is global but especially prominent in the countries covered by this study: the findings indicate that the gender balance is shifting in Moldova and Georgia, whereas women are now dominating among media professionals in general in Russia and Belarus. According to the experts interviewed this is not a result of a growing sector with more women coming in but rather about an outflow of men. It seems like the journalistic profession has become less attractive (to men) due to economic restraints (lower wages) and political pressure that makes it harder to exercise independent journalism. Judging from the gender ratio in enrollment for higher education in journalism and communication (over 70 per cent women in some European countries), this trend is likely to carry on. If the curve of this graph will not change we will (again) end up with a skewed gender balance and need to consider possible implications for diversity of voices and what stories are told. The study also confirms that women are taking on more of decision-making roles, especially in regional and in independent media (in Georgia and Moldova there is no gender asymmetry according to the study). However, there is still a gender gap when it comes to distribution of power in national media with high circulation/audience, likely related to the fact that the most influential media are still most often managed by men. Interestingly enough, female respondents in Moldova had low career expectations, although in practice the study indicates that women have better chances of building a career in the media than men. In Georgia, on the other hand, female media professionals are often overqualified, and show the most dissatisfaction with their jobs. The much-debated issue of sexual harassment at work is also covered by the study. In Russia on average three out of ten of the respondents claimed to have experienced sexual harassment in job related environments. Overall, the results of the survey indicate that the journalistic profession is quite dangerous for women, because they risk being subjected to sexual harassment literally everywhere, by colleagues or superiors at the office, as well as while reporting on the ground." (Preface)