Media Women: They Still Battle
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Fraser Coast Chronicle (Hervey Bay, Australia) , July 4, 2009
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Byline: Narelle Higgs
It's a man's world for Louise North who has battled male dominated newsrooms throughout her career and says men shape Australia's news.
The former Fraser Coast Chronicle journalist Dr North, now deputy head of journalism at Monash University in Gippsland, has written a book, The Gendered Newsroom: How journalists experience the changing world of media.
In her book Dr North explores women journalists in Australia's print media. Never before had journalists' experience in the newsroom been researched through a gendered lens.
Dr North was motivated to write the book to unveil the inequity of men's rise on the ladder while women struggled climbing the ranks in a metropolitan newsroom.
"It's not fair that women can come into this industry and not see a future," she said.
Her research found a common thread in women journalists who admitted they were more likely to cover softer news stories and were not promoted as fast as their male colleagues.
"Regional newspapers are more female friendly and where women rise up ranks more quickly. Women dominate in terms of numbers and leadership roles (in regional papers)."
But Dr North said they were also lower paid than their metro peers.
"The important decision-making about news in this country is being made by men."
As a young journalist in the Chronicle newsroom in the '90s, Dr North was inspired working under the guidance of Queensland's first female editor, Nancy Bates, who yesterday ended her 21 years in the position.
"It gave me hope, absolutely gave me hope. I went to uni and I realised that it wasn't that easy. Nancy was a rare bird.
"We can list on one hand all the female journalists in decision-making. There's so few in number we can actually name them."
Dr North's career spanned 15 years, working in metropolitan and regional newspapers around Australia but she said she was working in Maryborough during a time when dynamics in the newsroom were present.
"The problem is it's been like that for a long time. (Women) stay in the industry but they're lower paid."
In 2006, of the 21 major newspapers in Australia, Dr North said only one had a woman as editor.
"Women are also seen to have less flexibility. Women with children are seen as a liability and not being committed. In contrast, men with children are seen as stable, rational and responsible."
Dr North said sexual harassment was another problem. The latest statistics from 1996 reported over half of Australian journalists had said they had been sexually harassed.
"If they never get to decision-making ranks, it is still a huge problem in the industry