Women in front!

Women usu­al­ly make up more than half of all jour­nal­ism stu­dents. How­ev­er, they rep­re­sent less than half of the media work force, strug­gle to reach lead­ing posi­tions, and com­prise the major­i­ty of those in pre­car­i­ous jobs with low­er wages. They also tend to report on few­er top­ics relat­ed to pol­i­tics and eco­nom­ics, instead cov­er­ing health and edu­ca­tion and so-called soft news issues. In addi­tion, they are  increas­ing­ly the tar­gets of cybervi­o­lence.

Gen­der equal­i­ty IS a union issue. The role that female col­leagues should play in the media, as well as their pres­ence in our own organ­i­sa­tions must form part of what we call “the future of jour­nal­ism”.

This year’s cam­paign around the 8^th of March is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for the IFJ and its mem­bers to demon­strate how women can over­come these obsta­cles, to show­case wom­en’s suc­cess­es in the media  world and in our labour unions.

Let’s make women more vis­i­ble in our media and our unions!

Our cam­paign also denounces the asso­ci­at­ed dis­crim­i­na­tion that women face – from issues of equal pay and lack of job secu­ri­ty to biased recruit­ment process­es.

It will fea­ture data, sto­ries and tips to make fun­da­men­tal changes and see more women in senior roles or in par­tic­u­lar types of report­ing.

Did you know that…

• Women make 68% in Euro­pean jour­nal­ism schools accord­ing to (EIGE 2014)
• Women make 16% of Euro­pean media CEO  (EIGE 2014)
• Women make 23% of top deci­sion posi­tions world­wide (IWMF study 2011)
• 16% of polit­i­cal reporters are women (2015 GMMP)
• Only 24% of sto­ries clear­ly chal­lenge gen­der stereo­types, a one per­cent­age point change since 2005.

Take action!

• Organ­ise an event (a protest, a dis­cus­sion, a report, a sur­vey, a leaflet) in your  coun­try or region around 8th March – the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less! We can help with ideas, graph­ics and more.