Women’s Work: Why We Need More Women in Media

In 1967, Katherine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston marathon. She signed up using only her initials, because women weren’t allowed to compete. The race director tried to grab her and pull her off the course before she could complete the race. But she finished, and when she crossed the finish line she changed more lives than she could have ever imagined.

As I travelled across the country two years ago talking about the MAKERS project, that story was one of my favorites to share with audiences. It is such a powerful tale of perseverance, courage, and personal fortitude. I love the images of her boyfriend cross-checking the race director. But I think there’s more to it than that. That race is a good allegory for gender equality as well. We’ve come a long way since 1967. But this is a marathon, and we still have a long way to go.

In public media’s rich history, there have been many groundbreaking women both in front of and behind the camera. There’s Julia Child, the heroines of “Upstairs Downstairs,” Maria on “Sesame Street,” Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Maria Hinojosa. There’s Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, the first female co-anchors of a network news broadcast. There’s “WordGirl” and our newest kids show “Peg+Cat,” which features a fearless little girl who uses math to solve some big problems.

Women also play an important role behind the scenes in public television. There’s Joan Ganz Cooney, who began her career in media as a reporter at the Arizona Republic, where she was assigned to the so-called women’s page writing wedding stories and covering cocktail parties. Joan went on to create and produce “Sesame Street,” sparking a revolution in public television, giving children a new way to learn and inspiring other women across the country – present company included.

There’s also Paula Apsell, who – in the early 1970s – went to work as a typist at WGBH, the PBS station in Boston. She rose through the ranks and today serves as the senior executive producer of “NOVA,” PBS’s Peabody-award winning science series. There’s Rebecca Eaton who has been executive producer of two of PBS’s best-loved drama series – MASTERPIECE and MYSTERY – for over 25 years. And Raney Aronson-Rath is leading the way for a new generation of women as deputy executive producer of FRONTLINE, working to expand the PBS series’ original investigative journalism, reimagine the documentary form across multiple platforms, and report and tell stories that matter in new, creative ways. The list of impressive women working in public television could go on and on.

Unfortunately, women in leadership roles in media are the exception, not the norm. The latest research on women in media found that in 2012, 13.1% of CEO’s and board leaders for the top media and journalism organizations were women. This number has actually declined since 2008. While the numbers in public media are slightly better, with women making up over 53% of our staff at PBS, and 58% of our Senior Management Team, only 25% of station General Managers and CEOs are women, a number the public television system is working hard to address through leadership training and mentorship.

Given the power the media has to shape our understanding of the world, I think it’s more important than ever that we make sure that the media is truly representative of the diversity of our country. If everyone is using media, shouldn’t media reflect everyone?

I say yes, and I’m sure you do, too.

The question is: How do we get to a place where the top leadership positions held by women at media companies are closer to 50% and not 15%? How do we get to a place where it isn’t rare to have a woman moderator on a public affairs TV program? How do we get to a place where there are just as many heroines in prime time as there are heroes?

I think it starts with each of us. I think we must be willing to raise our voices a little more, to get a little more involved, to make our views a little more known.

We can follow the example of Geena Davis, who created the Geena Davis Institute to raise awareness around issues of gender inequality in children’s media. Geena was watching TV with her daughter, and thought that women weren’t being portrayed fairly in children’s media. But rather than just accept what she knew to be inappropriate images, Geena decided to do something about it and started by collecting hard data.

She raised money to conduct a study that confirmed her suspicions. Her research was the largest study ever done on G-rated movies and television shows made for kids 11 and under. And the results were stunning.

In G-rated movies, for every one female character, there are three male characters. Of the female characters that existed, the majority are highly stereotyped and/or hypersexualized. And female characters in G-rated movies wear the same amount of sexually revealing clothing as the female characters in R-rated movies.

We don’t have to be movie stars to make a difference in this work. As women managers and leaders, in the workplace and in our volunteer pursuits, we need to mentor and encourage the next generation. It is not enough for those of us who have broken through the glass ceiling. We need to work just as hard to ensure that there is a steady stream of women following along. And those woman need to be supported by women and men.

And so as much as I honor the work that public television has done to project positive images of women and girls, there is even more that we can do for all women, and especially for women of color. I encourage you to join me in working to ensure all media portray women accurately and aspirationally.

Our daughters and sons are counting on us.