Women dominate journalism schools in terms of their numbers, but the greater they move up the newspaper hierarchy, the fewer women there are. This was the shocking realization that students learned from former Globe and Mail editor Vivian Smith on Thursday.
“Women make up about a third of editorial employees in most print newsrooms, only a quarter are managers and at the 25 most popular newspapers in Canada by circulation, only four women are publishers or editors in chief,” she said.
Smith spoke at a panel at Ryerson University that discussed how gender shapes careers in Canadian newsrooms. She drew examples from her novel, Outsiders Still: Why Women Journalists - Love and leave - Their Newspaper Careers, that she published earlier this year.
“I started research in …show more content…
This is where she found out that women journalists are not only vastly misrepresented in Canada but also across the United Nations and Europe.
“The lack of women newspaper executives globally is a problem because women’s voices are lacking in public discussion everywhere as writers, sources and decision makers,” she said.
According to Smith, family life often came in the way of her career at the Globe and Mail. She states that there were no strong policies promoting equality for women so decisions about family and work were always made by the manager.
“Being female seemed to define your career in certain ways”, she said. “Women’s voices were missing from the newspapers, making the news have a narrow view of society.”
Smith’s hardships over the years as a female journalist inspired her to shed some light on the issue and animate discussion about it. She travelled across the country and talked to 27 women from five different newspapers: The Halifax Gazette, Chronicle Herald, Hamilton Spectator, Winnipeg Free Press and the Calgary
“Women make up about a third of editorial employees in most print newsrooms, only a quarter are managers and at the 25 most popular newspapers in Canada by circulation, only four women are publishers or editors in chief,” she said.
Smith spoke at a panel at Ryerson University that discussed how gender shapes careers in Canadian newsrooms. She drew examples from her novel, Outsiders Still: Why Women Journalists - Love and leave - Their Newspaper Careers, that she published earlier this year.
“I started research in …show more content…
This is where she found out that women journalists are not only vastly misrepresented in Canada but also across the United Nations and Europe.
“The lack of women newspaper executives globally is a problem because women’s voices are lacking in public discussion everywhere as writers, sources and decision makers,” she said.
According to Smith, family life often came in the way of her career at the Globe and Mail. She states that there were no strong policies promoting equality for women so decisions about family and work were always made by the manager.
“Being female seemed to define your career in certain ways”, she said. “Women’s voices were missing from the newspapers, making the news have a narrow view of society.”
Smith’s hardships over the years as a female journalist inspired her to shed some light on the issue and animate discussion about it. She travelled across the country and talked to 27 women from five different newspapers: The Halifax Gazette, Chronicle Herald, Hamilton Spectator, Winnipeg Free Press and the Calgary