Funny Women were honoured to be invited to the Women in Journalism debate exploring WiJ's latest research that looked into what the national newspapers' front pages tell us about the status of women in journalism and public life. The panel was made up a WiJ's Jane Martinson, broadcaster Steve Hewlett, star columnist Liz Jones, Labour MP Stella Creasy, deputy editor of the Evening Standard Charlotte Ross and Kat Banyard of UK Feminista.
I attended the event, sheepishly walking into Google HQ, expecting a room full of slightly inebriated, middle class female journalists networking like pros, whilst munching away on olives and fancy crisps. In fact, this was the scene that greeted me, and as a young, working class, comedy production assistant I suddenly panicked that I would stick out like a sore thumb; my grasp of the English language would fail me and I would be removed from the premises once they found out I didn't know shorthand. Despite my initial discomfort, I soon got chatting to a group of young and talented female journalists and learnt journos aren't as scary as they are made out to be.
I was reminded that I am a (semi) articulate feminist and sat down with my pen poised ready to take notes (one hand covering the paper so they didn't find out my guilty secret).
The in-depth research conducted by WiJ confirmed that the UKs front pages are still very much male dominated and the results are summarised HERE. The findings certainly provided for an interesting discussion on the ever present sexism involved with print journalism.
Liz Jones supplied the controversy for the evening; arguing that women fall by the wayside because they run off to have children and settle down. She also suggested that women aren't prepared to do certain jobs, for example, driving to Glastonbury at 4am to cover a story. Eve Pollard echoed this by saying only a bloke would want to be a political correspondent in Brussels.
This is utter rubbish. I bet there is an abundance of female journalism graduates willing to jump at the chance to become a political foreign correspondent, in fact, some of them were in the room! As one member of the audience pointed out, these 'women just need to be asked'; a phrase that was coined for the rest of the evening.
Creasey and Banyard were my champions of the discussion with Creasey highlighting the lack of female comedians on TV and radio panel shows.
Banyard drew attention to the fact that the media industry is a workplace that enforces structures that stop women from progressing. She proposed that if we are serious about women progressing in media then working conditions can change.
It was inspiring to be surrounded by so many talented females, all passionate about increasing positive representations of women in the media.
It would have been interesting to see more male journalists on the panel. However, I understand that it was probably hard to book men to enter into the lioness' den (Hewlett took a bit of a battering). My only other criticism was that it seemed to be all talk and no action. It would be good to see a follow up article discussing how these figures can be improved with an aim to wipe out the sexism in the media industry.
The debate ended on a great note from one audience member who said we should be celebrating the female talent that is out there. She exclaimed that there is a wealth of female experts and journalists for the national newspapers to choose from, they 'just need to be asked'. For me, this is the same in regards to female comedians appearing on television and radio. I spent a month in Edinburgh seeing over 50 female comics and more recently 14 fantastic acts at the Funny Women final. There is a massive talent pool of intelligent, articulate and funny women out there – they just need to be asked.
Hannah Moulder
