Another entry in the seemingly endless list of things being made worse by Covid: representation of women in the news. Every woman whose voice is included in news stories about the pandemic is drowned out by at least three men, according to a report from the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).
Only 1 in 5 expert commentators quoted in Covid news stories are women. And only 0.5% of Covid-related stories covered issues of gender equity. Covid articles featured even fewer women than non-Covid stories (and that’s few enough). All this, despite women being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in several areas (bearing the brunt of caring duties, job losses and “long Covid”).
A second study from King’s College London backs up the IWMF data, finding that the only Covid-related topics where women make up more than 50% of quotes were arts and entertainment, domestic violence, and child care (of course). Less than a quarter of quotes in articles about science and politics were from women.
The lack of female scientists appearing in Covid coverage is particularly galling since epidemiology and medicine are not male-dominated areas, say a group of Covid experts in a blistering open letter. “Even within our own institutions, unqualified men’s voices are being amplified over expert women because they have been identified through informal male networks, or have blustered their way into social media and TV interviews and are therefore perceived as ‘high profile’,” they say (resisting the no doubt overwhelming urge to add “FFS”). “We’re exhausted knowing that after this is all over we will have a powerful fight on our hands to reclaim the professional ground that is slipping away from us during this emergency.”
Eleanor Mills, chair of Women in Journalism, told the Press Gazette: “Covid has really focused what’s going on in media. It’s made it more obvious and extreme. There’s still a default mechanism in the kind of media brain that when things get serious the default is to ask a man [...] You can move the dial on this – but you need somebody in charge that minds.”
Editors, journalists, writers, and broadcasters: be the one who minds. At a time when women are losing a lot, don’t deny us a voice. MF