Women’s voices underrepresented in the media

Award-winning author and activist Shari Graydon wants to know why female experts and bylines are underrepresented in the media, and she has conducted research to get some answers.

“Time is probably one of the biggest obstacles and when I say that to any woman she nods her head,” said Graydon.  “It’s not that male academics aren’t busy, but I think women are really pragmatic in how they invest their time. It’s just one more thing in their busy day, especially if a woman has caregiving responsibilities." 

“For women in academia in particular, if they don’t have tenure yet, writing for a newspaper is not going to count on their academic record the way that an academic journal article would. Most of them are not accustomed to writing for a lay audience. They’re used to writing for their peers or with research terminology that’s familiar.”

On Jan. 31, Graydon will be the keynote speaker at a University of Toronto event called Bridging the Gender Gap in the News: A Public Talk & Panel Discussion. The conversation will review the status of women in the news and discuss ways of supporting women in contributing their ideas and analysis to the public discourse.

Graydon, the founder of the Informed Opinions project, has spent a good part of her career looking at the issue. She’s found through her research that even though women constitute 61 per cent of university graduates, their perspectives account for less than 20 per cent of the commentaries in Canada’s largest daily newspapers and on public affairs talk shows. She explores the consequences  of under-representation and works with women and journalists to change the ratio.

“If women don’t see themselves on panels or on talk shows or op-ed pages, they’re much less likely to engage with those vehicles,” she said. “It doesn’t even occur to people to submit an op-ed."

“To be fair, we’ve also determined from surveys we’ve done that women are even less inclined to appear on TV than their male counterparts.” She explained  that women are often afraid of being judged on their appearance, since viewers can be extremely critical.

Graydon said there are repercussions for not having the female voice in the media, particularly because There are all sorts of experiences that women have in the world by virtue of their gender that don’t affect men. For example, women get pregnant and breastfeed their babies.

”Those kinds of experiences aren’t present in the media as they would be if women were speaking up more often,” she said. “The argument I make is that by chronically underrepresenting women’s voices, we’re missing out on perspectives, ideas and analyses that might arguably help us solve some of the complex problems we face in society.”

Panellists joining Graydon for the Jan. 31 session are Professor Megan Boler of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; Kathy English, public editor for the Toronto Star; and Esmé Fuller-Thompson, professor and Sandra Rotman Chair in Social Work. Visit the provost’s website to register.