Two count­ries – same gender-based inequa­li­ties

While there has been much discus­sion about gender equa­lity and women’s rights world­wide, there are still enormous problems with repre­sen­ta­tion both through and of women, espe­ci­ally in media. Anto­nina Andri­i­chuk and Lilian Sekkai rese­ar­ched on gender-based discri­mi­na­tion in Ukraine and Germany.

Men domi­nated Media Leader­ship

Various surveys in Ukraine as well as Germany show that there is a lack of women working in media, espe­ci­ally in leading posi­tions, as most of the female employees are editors. The situa­tion of female jour­na­lists in both count­ries disc­loses some instances of sexism and harass­ment for women working in media, while there are certain ways in which female jour­na­lists and orga­ni­sa­tions are opera­ting in order to improve the situa­tion for women in media in both count­ries.

No fair­ness in pay

The pay gap between women and men in Ukrai­nian media is about 20%, accor­ding to the ​„Повага“ campaign requested by the State Statis­tics Service of Ukraine in 2018. On average, men receive 15,714 hryv­nias (471.47 Euros) per month, while women receive 12,556 hryv­nias (376.74 Euros). This clearly shows that there is a place for gender inequa­lity in the media sphere in Ukraine.

Jour­na­list Mariia Smyk remem­bers how she wrote texts for one project. The load was heavy, so later her employer hired another man. Smyk had to edit his texts for several hours and did not get any addi­tional payment for it.

„It simply came to our notice then that he was getting a few thousand more than I was. He did not know this either and started talking about it with the manage­ment and saying that he was ready to have his salary reduced. The project was soon completed, and fair­ness in payment never began“, said Smyk.

There are more girls in jour­na­lism facul­ties than boys. However, at the same time, mostly men become leaders in the media. In the Ukrai­nian media, the glass ceiling concept is still rele­vant. It is harder for women than for men to break through the career ladder, both because of stereo­types and direct discri­mi­na­tion.

Harass­ment and Sexism in Ukrai­nian Media : ​„I felt like a doll“

In addi­tion, female jour­na­lists often suffer from sexism in the work­place. For example, they are asked to apply makeup or dress in a certain way. The regional repre­sen­ta­tive of the Insti­tute of Mass Media in the Volyn region, Maya Golub, says that special atten­tion is paid to female jour­na­lists in Ukrai­nian society. Accor­ding to her, some­times people publicly assess who is wearing what and stereo­ty­pi­cally ask: ​„did she earn it herself?“. This was the situa­tion in Lutsk, when entre­pre­neurs shouted unplea­sant words to the editor of the video news channel ​„Konku­rent“, Olek­sandra Kurteeva, who was taking photos at the Central Market. They persis­t­ently asked her where she got her fur coat from.

Jour­na­list Smyk was 17 when she started working remo­tely as a free­lance copy­writer. At first ever­y­thing was fine. Her 30-year-old boss praised her and gave the young jour­na­list useful profes­sional advice. But then he started calling after 10 p.m. He called her an ​„enviable girl.“ He said that they would suit each other. Smyk replied that she did not like such conver­sa­tions. But the boss behaved like he did not hear anything. She was afraid to resign because she needed money. It all lasted about a year and a half. ​„I fell into depres­sion and felt like a doll, unable to stop it. When he offered to come to me with cham­pagne, that was the last straw. I resi­gned on my birthday and it was one of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself“, said Smyk.

Women’s rights and body posi­ti­vity

On the posi­tive side, women jour­na­lists have recently become more active in defen­ding their rights. They unite and fight toge­ther. More than a year ago, jour­na­list Eliza­veta Kuzmenko founded the ​„Women in the Media“ orga­niza­tion. Previously, no such orga­niza­tions speci­fi­cally for women existed.

In this orga­niza­tion, jour­na­lists can share their problems and expe­ri­ences. The first initia­tive of the orga­niza­tion is a group for psycho­lo­gical help. The psycho­lo­gist gave recom­men­da­tions, advice and conducted trai­nings for jour­na­lists. The orga­niza­tion has laun­ched the ​„This Egg“ („Це яйце“) anti-award, which is presented for sexist state­ments among poli­ti­cians and sexist mate­rials in the media.

Accor­ding to Vikto­riya Yermo­laeva, deputy head of Women in the Media, it is easier to fight gender equa­lity in inde­pen­dent media, where ever­y­thing is trans­pa­rent. She advises women jour­na­lists working in olig­ar­chic media to unite and assert their rights. An example of this is the Star­Light media group, which includes seven TV chan­nels, like ​„New Channel“ and ​„ICTV“. This media company belongs to one of the Ukrai­nian olig­archs. Jour­na­lists in this media imple­mented a program on gender equa­lity, and they conduct trai­nings with their employees.

„This is cool. This suggests that large media corpo­ra­tions are also making changes in this regard. Times change and it becomes unfa­shionable to be sexist. Public condem­na­tion is also needed. The main argu­ment when I talk to the editors of sexist shows is that it’s ratings are good and people like it. When women under­stand that there is body-posi­ti­vity and that you cannot consider yourself as some­thing wrong, just because there are only slender women on TV, it will change. But it must be compre­hen­sive“, said Yermo­laieva.

Maya Golub, a regional repre­sen­ta­tive of the Volyn Oblast Insti­tute of Mass Media, empha­sizes that women jour­na­lists should speak publicly about viola­tions of their rights. It is important that jour­na­lists turn to the police if their rights are violated. Publi­city often protects women jour­na­lists. ​„One should not remain silent if rights have been violated. Publi­city attracts the atten­tion of other media outlets, which can support those whose rights have been violated“, said Golub.

Mean­while in Germany

Accor­ding to the latest ProQuote survey exami­ning the ​„propor­tion of women with jour­na­li­stic power in Germany, 2018 – 2019“, there are huge diffe­rences in the repre­sen­ta­tion of women in media, espe­ci­ally in leading posi­tions. There may be some diffe­rences regar­ding various media asso­cia­tions, but women are gene­rally repre­sented as almost half of the total work­force in most media compa­nies. This shows an almost equal repre­sen­ta­tion of women, despite the fact that mana­ging posi­tions lack female dele­ga­tion.

No execu­tive equa­lity

The poor repre­sen­ta­tion of women in leading posi­tions in media can be found in regional news­pa­pers where only 10,2% of execu­tive jour­na­lists, such as editors in chief, are women. Maga­zines show at 48,9% the best dele­ga­tion of women in leading posi­tions, while even here the repre­sen­ta­tion of men is slightly supe­rior. Even online media and govern­mental broad­cas­ting host only 30% to 40% women in leader­ship. There are huge diffe­rences compa­ring diffe­rent media sources. Regar­ding the repre­sen­ta­tion of women working execu­tive posi­tions in print media in June 2020, the German news maga­zine Focus shows the lowest propor­tion with only 15,2%, while the news maga­zine Der Spiegel employs 52% of women in leader­ship, and is ther­e­fore the only media source led by more women than men.

In addi­tion, there is a gender pay gap of 24%, accor­ding to the women’s survey by the German Cultural Council of June 2016. Women do not earn as much as men, while also being under­re­pre­sented in leading posi­tions.

„One of the main reasons, apart from many others is that there is still no adequate child­care available in Germany. Ther­e­fore ​„the big divide“ starts as soon as women become pregnant,“ Hilde Weeg, free­lance jour­na­list, commu­ni­ca­tions trainer and Deputy Chair(wo)man of the jb League of Women Jour­na­lists (Jour­na­lis­tin­nen­bund e.V., jb) said.

No female point of view

Missing female repre­sen­ta­tion does impact the daily life of female jour­na­lists as well as the gender-based biases released in German media. This in fact leads to some major problems in forming women’s iden­tity.

„If there are no women in mana­ging posi­tions and if there are rela­tively few women for example talking in radio stations or news programs, espe­ci­ally young women might think this is not possible,“ said Laura Meyer. The young jour­na­list has been working in radio and print media programs. ​„I’ve never worked in leading posi­tions, mostly parti­ci­pa­ting in progres­sive media projects“, said the 20- year old. She never had any discri­mi­na­ting expe­ri­ences being a young woman in media. ​„I’ve seen many really successful women, even in local news­pa­pers, while the editors in chief have been men“, she said. This descrip­tion under­mines the fact of low repre­sen­ta­tion of women in media while showing that there can be growing chances for women at the same time.

„I felt uncom­for­table“

Samira El Hattab has been actively working in jour­na­lism for about 4 years. She has not only expe­ri­enced discri­mi­na­tion due to her female gender, but also because of her surname. The young jour­na­list expe­ri­enced that espe­ci­ally the quali­ta­tive media compa­nies she has been in contact with have recently been focu­sing on employing women in mana­ging posi­tions. Although, she added: ​„I think the problem is if you’re looking at a higher level, not only editors in chiefs, but posi­tions like direc­tors who run the programs, they are mostly men.“ The 22-year old has been expe­ri­en­cing gender-based discri­mi­na­tion herself. ​„During an intern­ship, male editors have been constantly commen­ting on my clothes for example, if I was wearing jeans with punc­tures, which made me feel really uncom­for­table.“

She also mentioned that looks and tones may change when male inter­view part­ners or colle­agues talk to female jour­na­lists like her. Spokesmen who distri­bute their busi­ness cards may confront females with unplea­sant allu­sions. This fact is a problem leading to the circum­s­tances of women feeling uncom­for­table or being unre­asonable sexua­lised.

Liberté, Egalité, Plura­lity

„My name [El Hattab] is some­times closing doors for my rese­arch, when, for example, a poli­ti­cally right-oriented inter­viewee doesn’t want to talk to me.“ The expe­ri­ence of discri­mi­na­tion may seem shocking, but on the other hand the jour­na­list said, ​„My name can also open doors. We need diver­sity in media, and ther­e­fore my name can help me to get in contact with a wider plura­lity than some of my colle­agues.“

She further mentions the importance of diver­sity in media in order to repre­sent all of society. ​„I stand up for more diver­sity which includes gender plura­lity and equa­lity in general. I speci­fi­cally support people who should be more repre­sented in media,“ said El Hattab.

She wants ever­y­body to be heard in the media. Similar to Meyer, El Hattab has been surrounded and influenced by strong and successful women. Her expe­ri­ences show again that there is change coming, as there are many young and progres­sive women working in media. The issues of missing repre­sen­ta­tion of women and attempts of harass­ment, which might be defined differ­ently by male workers, has to be discussed publicly for there to be a chance to reach actual parity in German media, and in parti­cular, in leading posi­tions.

Women for Women

The jb League of Women Jour­na­lists was founded in 1987. ​„We are a network for female profes­sio­nals working all over Germany in all bran­ches of the media […] One of our main objec­tives is to achieve equal oppor­tu­ni­ties, equal repre­sen­ta­tion and equal payment for female jour­na­lists, and to promote the use of genderim­par­tial language within the media,“ said Hilde Weeg.

Espe­ci­ally due to the Covid-19 pandemic many profes­sional women – inclu­ding female jour­na­lists – ​„suffered from a renais­sance of old role-models when they were expected to take care of their children, plus work out of the home-office, while their husbands did not share the extra-workload,“ she said.

The jour­na­list said: ​„Networ­king among women orga­niza­tions like Pro Quote, Neue Deut­sche Medienmacher*innen, Frei­schreiber, Deut­scher Frau­enrat, ver.di, DJV helps.“ In 2017, a coope­ra­tion of 17 orga­niza­tions inclu­ding ProQuote and the Jour­na­lis­tin­nen­bund issued the ​„Berliner Erklä­rung“, which addressed the outcome of poli­tical enga­ge­ment for gender equa­lity and postu­lates further actions to be taken. In 2019, the interim results proved ​„not very promi­sing“, as they indi­cate for media, culture, medi­cine and science that there is more effort needed.

It is a problem that, in fact, there are no govern­mental surveys after 2016 analy­sing the current situa­tion. Thanks to non-profit asso­cia­tions such as Pro Quote, there are more recent studies on the repre­sen­ta­tion of women in German media. The work of these orga­ni­sa­tions and various jour­na­lists show that indi­vi­dual and coll­ec­tive commit­ment can make a diffe­rence, while there is still a huge need for conver­sa­tions and fight for this topic.

Weeg, who started working as a free­lance jour­na­list in the 1990s, mentioned that not only regar­ding the payment, but also in terms of career-oppor­tu­ni­ties, there are disad­van­tages for women. A famous example is the still ongoing lawsuit of free­lance female jour­na­list Birte Meier against her employer ZDF, a German govern­mental broad­cas­ting company. Birte Meier found out that she has been paid less money than her male colle­agues for exactly the same work.

Supporting parity: What can we do?

„Expe­ri­ence shows: it needs a critical number of women in key-posi­tions, to change the mind-set of an orga­niza­tion. It needs a gender-mix and more diver­sity in a broader sense to make teams work more produc­tively, more respectfully, and more crea­tively“, Weeg said.

She also suggests: ​„use genderim­par­tial language, think twice about the pictures and photo­graphs you choose to illus­trate articles with female prot­ago­nists, speak up when you witness disre­spectful or discri­mi­na­ting beha­viour, and do not accept it if your male colle­ague gets more money for the same work. Apply for a mento­ring programme or orga­nize private tuto­ring with more expe­ri­enced colle­agues if possible. And join a network like the jour­na­lis­tin­nen­bund!“

Women on the rise

The repre­sen­ta­tion of women in media is a major issue, espe­ci­ally regar­ding female iden­tity deve­lo­p­ment. In Ukraine as well as in Germany there are problems regar­ding the repre­sen­ta­tion of women in leading media posi­tions.

In Ukraine, women are unequally repre­sented in media manage­ment posi­tions. There are cases when they suffer from sexism and harass­ment. Addi­tio­nally, there is a gender pay gap in the media. But women in Ukrai­nian media have recently become more active in defen­ding their rights and inte­rests.

In Germany, non-govern­mental asso­cia­tions and a young progres­sive gene­ra­tion of female jour­na­lists may be able to change these issues. The only ques­tion remai­ning is: how long and hard is this mission going to be? Societal debates could open up new chances on the fight of gender equa­lity regar­ding media in both count­ries.