Women's Voice in Humanitarian Media. No Surprises.

"Media has an important role to play in advancing gender parity in  the workplace because, through  its representation of different social  groups, it has the power to shape  individual behaviour."

This document is an analysis of gender parity in humanitarian media. It is designed to help address the underrepresentation of women in humanitarian leadership: "[W]omen make up just 26% of senior managers and 20% of executives. Women have limited access to positions of leadership in the humanitarian sector: of the 33 United  Nations humanitarian and deputy  humanitarian coordinators in January  2018, just 11 were women."

As stated here, gender in media matters because: it sends a message about who has the credibility and power; "experts  quoted are provided authority and the means to frame policies, debates and decisions"; it can influence opinion on judgements about female politicians; and it influences women's perceptions of themselves and their own leadership aspirations.

From its background research, authors found statistics on:

• an underrepresentation of women as sources in media - men, from 74-79%, women, from 21-26%;
• an overrepresentation of women quoted on stereotypical "female" issues such as childcare or family violence - men, from 34%, women from 66%.

Through a rapid analysis of two global news media outlets, including one specialising in humanitarian news, in the four-week period from October 2–29 2017, statistics were gathered on: author gender and the genders of experts or officials quoted in the articles. Results showed:

• Women as authors were found to be equally represented in the one mainstream media outlet, Al Jazeera, whereas in the specialised humanitarian news media outlet, men authored 61% of articles, women 39%. "The 2016 Women for Media Report found male authors quoted 17% women; female authors quoted 27% women."
• Sources quoted reflected 75% men and 23% women (2% unknown gender).

The document concludes with what can be done, including the following:

• Acknowledge the positive outlets with gender parity in reporting.
• Build evidence.
• Understand the impact of unequal media representation on women in humanitarian leadership.
• Raise awareness among journalists, "broadening representation of women and specifically seeking them for interview."
• Support journalists and organisations to work together in efforts to increase female representation. "Resources are available to support journalists to seek out female sources, and to be mindful of the gender stereotypes that can be exacerbated through media. Organisations must continue to work to strengthen gender parity at senior levels, and can be proactive in suggesting female representatives for media requests. News media outlets can consider joining the UN Women Step It Up For Gender Equality Media Compact, in which media outlets are invited to contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by disrupting stereotypes and biases in their reporting and increasing the number of women in the media, including in leadership roles."