It is not only a question of placing a woman in our stories from time to time, but also of giving them a real presence in the themes we cover. Photo: AFP Relaxnews
A handful of newspapers and news sites around the world have created the position of "gender editor."
This position, born shortly after the Weinstein affair and the MeToo movement, aims to improve the representation of women in the media. But more than three years after its appearance, this initiative is struggling to gain ground.
"In their report released earlier this month on the occasion of International Women's Day, entitled Sexism's Toll on Journalism, Reporters Without Borders pointed out that French "newspapers still assign a predominant place to men in their content (83.4% of the people appearing on the front page are men and 74.4% of those writing op-eds are men," according to a report entitled The place of women in the media in a time of crisis that was submitted to France's ministry of culture in September 2020.
On average worldwide, 10% of print, radio and television stories are about women. A percentage that rises to 26% if we take into account the press online, according to the latest report by The Global Media Monitoring Project published in 2015.
To help combat this overrepresentation of men, editorial teams have created the position of "gender editor," starting with the New York Times. A pioneer in this area, the American daily newspaper appointed journalist Jessica Bennett to this position in the fall of 2017, in the wake of the revelations of the Weinstein affair and the MeToo movement.
Her goal? To better cover the news through the prism of gender.
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