As long as anyone can remember, women have struggled for equality, fair representation and in finding a strong, resounding voice within society.
An Aug. 27 study by The Women’s Media Center analyzed the bylines of 35 prominent newspapers around the country and concluded that from Jan. 1 to Apr. 15, men wrote 76 percent of the articles regarding the GOP primary election. It also found that men wrote 72 percent of the articles concerning the general election period from Apr. 16 to Aug. 26.
The study cites an American Society of News Editors’ Newsroom Employment Census that states 62 percent of newsroom reporters are men — certainly not an accurate reflection of men-to-women ratio in the U.S.
This year has seen countless headlines for anti-women legislation and remarks (like "new scientific discoveries" show women can’t get pregnant from rape) that have deemed it the year of “the war on women.”
How are men supposed to truly recognize the impact of such recent policies on women’s bodies and consciousness? To report a fair and accurate story, one must have a level of understanding that can only be acquired through empathetic experience. This is not to say a man is incapable of reporting an accurate story surrounding women’s issues. The questions most concerning to women may be overlooked, or underreported by a man, whom through no fault of his own, hadn’t thought to ask.
As viciously as our predecessors fought to prove that women are more than baby-making machines and kitchen accessories, this study illustrates that we still have so much more to accomplish in the realm of equality.
It is vital to the growth of modern society that newsrooms reflect and advocate for the demographic of its readership. If women are subjects of social political policy — and their bodies are at the heart of legislation and talking points within election debates — would it not only seem right that they make up the heart of that coverage?
The necessary questions asked in order to gain the best information often come from the most basic question asked of oneself: How does this affect me?
If men are covering most of the general presidential election, who will continuously push for answers to the vital question asked of President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov.Mitt Romney before November: Where do you stand on the attacks against women’s hard-fought reproductive rights, and what do you plan to do to ensure their safety in legislation? The more we push for these answers, the more we say to our male presidential candidates that women represent a large sum of their constituency — and we vote too.
Women need as much representation in the media as any minority group. They deserve the opportunity to reflect on policies on behalf of other women. Why is it that, in 2012, 92 years after the women’s suffrage movement, this is still not the case?
Our great-grandmothers fought for the right to express their voices long ago. Nearly a century later, we have the opportunity to choose representation for ourselves in political decision-making. When can we begin to fight for representation in the media that can sway policy decisions?
The presidential election is still ongoing. The legislation that takes women’s rights backward continues to pile on the desks of elected officials. If we, as women, wish to continue forward into a modern, equal society we must participate — and be allowed to participate — in the media’s political coverage as much as at the polls.
Reach the columnist at kharli.mandeville@asu.edu or on Twitter at @kaharli.
