STATISTICS SUMMARY: These statistics were gathered to illuminate the current status of women in today’s media. The categories include radio, film, television, and news journalism. The lack of women in top positions is widespread. The research indicates a diminished presence of women in the various forms of media surveyed.

Media Industry:

  • 3% women in clout positions in mainstream media(“The Glass Ceiling Persists,” Annenberg, 2003)
  • Women represent Only 14.7% of boards of directors are women within mainstream media corporations (“2006 Census: Women Board Directors,” Catalyst, 2006).
  • “With few exceptions, we have not moved beyond tokenism in the number of women in top leadership positions or serving on the boards of communications companies. Men still hold the vast majority of positions. The glass ceiling is firmly in place." former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Susan Ness (Sheila Gibbons, 2004)
  • Groups such as Fox Entertainment, McGraw-Hill, and advertising firms Grey Global Group and Omnicom did not have women in any of their executive positions (Sheila Gibbons, 2004).
  • At current rate of changes, it will take women 47 years to reach parity with men as Corporate Officers of the Fortune 500 (“Corporate Officers and Top Earners,” Catalyst, 2006).

Women & Entertainment:

  • In 2007, women comprised 15% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films.  This represents a decline of 2 percentage points from 1998 and represents no change from 2006 (source: “The Celluloid Ceiling,” Martha Lauzen, 2007. View executive summary as a pdf).
  • Three out of four women heads of studios that stepped down in 2002 year were replaced by men in 2003. (“The Celluloid Ceiling,” Martha Lauzen, 2003).
  • Women directors, writers, and editors in Hollywood totaled 15% working on the top 250 domestic grossing films in 2006. (“The Celluloid Ceiling ,” Martha Lauzen, 2006).
  • Women comprised 24% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on situation comedies, dramas, and unscripted programs airing on the broadcast networks during the 2005-06 season (“Boxed In: Women on Screen and Behind the Scenes in the 2005-06 Prime Time Season,” Martha Lauzen, 2006).

Print:

  • The ratio of men to women writers in national “general interest” magazinesfrom 2001 to 2005was 3:1 (1,446:447) ( “WomenTk.com,” Ruth Davis Konigsberg, 2006).
  • The percentage of women opinion columnists at the eight biggest syndicates rose from 24.4% to 24.5% in 2007, reflecting the change from 33 of 135 Op-Ed writers to 34 of 139.(Editor & Publisher, 2007).

Radio:

  • Ninety percent of radio program directors are men; 85% of the general managers they report to are men. Women were not listed in any executive positions at 5 out of the top 9 radio groups. The major publicly held radio companies(“Women in Media: Facts & Figures,” MIW Radio Group, 2006).
  • Women represented only 15 radio hosts from the top 100 radio programs, and only 14% of hosts out of the full 250 (“Heavy Hundred,” Talkers Magazine, 2007).
  • Women comprise fifteen percent of executive leaders, and twelve percent of board member in top communications companies (“Status of Women in the Industry,” Sheila Gibbons, NYWIFT, 2004)

Television News:

  • Women own only 5% of television stations in the county (“Out of the Picture,” Free Press 2006)