Are women in the media as disadvantaged as those in the public service and politics?

 The Federal government is committed to closing gaps. The gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians life expectancy is one, and the gap between men and women’s salaries is another.

Both are important issues and need confronting, as a first world nation that these inequalities still exist is almost unbelievable. That as a nation we pride ourselves on libertarian principles and democratic values and yet there are still members of our society who are disadvantaged at a basic level of human rights beggars belief.

The battle for gender equality has been long – since Germaine Greer’s Female Eunuch women’s rights have never been so hotly contested – and is still being fought.

The Government’s Gender Equity Act is set to change all that though, hand in hand with legislation that disadvantages businesses that don’t meet certain quotas for female staff.

Boardrooms have always been the domain of ‘the boys’ – save for the secretary in the minute skirt and plunging neckline – and though that’s slowly changing, women are still greatly outnumbered by men in executive positions.

The media world is no different. Fairfax, News Limited and even ABC have very few women at the top of the chain. News Corporation have only one woman in their executive suite – one can only imagine what a company lunch on Friday is like for her.

But is this because women are discriminated against when it comes to employment opportunities, or is this simply because women don’t make good executive decisions?

In 2004, Alasdair Milne, former head at BBC, blamed women for ‘dumb’ programming, accusing female executives of ‘dragging down the quality’ of programming for including ‘far too many’ cookery and gardening programs.

Image: Google images

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) this year reported that women in the public service work long and hard hours, without access to flexible work arrangements or opportunities for career-benefiting training – which could answer that question. Underpaid and overworked, is it ‘dumb’ programming, or just specific to womens interests and probably well needed entertainment?

It’s also been reported that female politicians work harder than their male counterparts, who rely on assistants and ‘network’ more than actual work.

The media landscape has changed dramatically since the seventies and thankfully now includes many women, gone are the misogynistic days that denied women – aesthetically pleasing or not – airtime but one does wonder if doe-eyed Chris Bath, Ten’s bevy of blonde newsreaders or even Li Lin Chin are token efforts to equality.

Milne may be onto something though – a report from the University of San Francisco makes the very valid point that women and men differ when it comes to editing and programming. According to this report, the female influence on news stories differs to that of a male’s and is sadly stereotypical in that women are more likely to include emotional content, social issues and of course coverage relevant to, or about, women.

And in a world where men are used to holding on to the talking stick, of course that won’t fly. When men were solely in charge, they produced news for men and women had no option but to accept that - and be grateful that they were out of the kitchen.

But if we shake the top of the tree, will programming and the gender balance improve? Will pay equality result in equal representation in programming and boardrooms?