Recent study reveals that women of colour working in media organisations are victims of “culture of exclusion” hence the reason why they are overlooked of the top jobs in the newsroom.
“In an unprecedented analysis of newsrooms and news stories from six countries – the UK, Nigeria, India, South Africa, Kenya and the US – women of all backgrounds were found to be significantly underrepresented in editorial leadership roles and in coverage,” Lizzy Davies writes.
According to the report, for every woman who was an editor-in-chief, there were at least two men at the same level. In some cases, there were as many as 12 male editors-in-chief for every female one.
The report noted that “the challenges facing women of colour in racially diverse countries, such as South Africa, the UK and the US, were even greater.”
For instance, out of 37 per cent of the media organisations surveyed in Britain, only one per cent had a woman of colour as the female editor-in-chief.
Titled, From Outrage to Opportunity: How to Include the Missing Perspectives of Women of All Colors in News Leadership and Coverage, the report established that women of colour “faced multiple barriers to equality in the newsroom and were expected to resolve the problem of their own underrepresentation and inclusion”.
Luba Kassova, the author of the report, said: “For me, this was by far the most arresting, upsetting and important finding to act upon urgently.”
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In Kenya, the report found, “while nearly one in five editors-in-chief and nearly a third of business editors are women, there were no women at the helm of the politics beat in any of the media organisations surveyed.”
In Nigeria 18 per cent of editors-in-chief and 16 per cent of political editors were female, the report that was compiled by AKAS and commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established.
In the United Kingdom, the research found that “there were no women of colour occupying the most senior editorial positions in politics, foreign affairs, and health news.”
