Reading Carolyn Byerly’s recent post, “Keeping two eyes on the Global Report on Status of Women in News,” reminded me to post — way belatedly — my live blog of the IWMF plenary panel last March on news-organization best practices around the world. I was privileged to attended the IWMF conference as a volunteer, […]

The trick for feminists has long been to keep one eye keenly fixed to the deeper problems afflicting us while letting the other eye see signs of progress. The prickly but familiar dialectical relationship of progress and recalcitrance have left many of us cross-eyed through the years.

So it is again with the findings in the Global Report on the Status of Women in News Media that was published earlier this spring by the project’s sponsor International Women’s Media Foundation.

Carrie Lukas tells us on Equal Pay Day that there is no gender gap in wages, that the differences are wholly due to women’s “free” choices. I beg to differ. Hence these two long posts answering her arguments.

Let’s continue with Carrie Lukas’ argument that there is no gender gap in wages.

News spread yesterday that the most powerful woman in media banned the use of the word “bitch” on her new TV network, OWN. I spoke with Daily Caller political reporter Caroline May about Oprah’s positive symbolic step–and about why we’ll need more than symbolism to dismantle bias against women in all aspects of media, both […]

An op-ed in the Boston Globe (April 15th, 2010) urges Americans to care for the happiness of our older citizens as the writer says the Japanese are beginning to do. The article focuses on a Japanese businessman who provides temp jobs for 370 people over 60 who have been forcibly retired.
Multiplied across […]

Event reminder: If you are in the NYC area, come join Women In Media & News for a lively media literacy workshop at the WAM! (Women, Action & Media) mini-conference tomorrow, Saturday, March 27. The full conference schedule is below. There’s also a happy hour and networking session tonight from 6-9pm at the Black Sheep […]

An interesting piece by several women who work at Newsweek discusses the progress of women at the magazine since the early 1970s. … Outside the question of sexuality, the culture now does tell younger women that they can be anything they want if they work hard enough, though this suggestion is made before one enters the labor force or has any children. I suspect that the transition from college to the labor force is when some women hear that feminist alarm clock ringing. And ringing and ringing. It’s ringing, because the job of making the world a fairer place was only begun and not finished.

On behalf of Women In Media & News, I’ll be doing a multimedia lecture presentation tonight on media coverage of women in politics, in Devil’s Lake, ND.

WHAT: “White Male Electile Dysfunction: Media Coverage of Women in Election 2008″

With multimedia clips, commentary and humor, this lecture uses media coverage of Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and […]

South African teenager Mokgadi “Caster” Semenya won the 800 metres race at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Berlin last week with what has been described as “a stunningly dominating run.” Unfortunately, her victorious debut in international sports has been clouded by controversy over her sexual identity. Many media reports on the issue reflect ignorance about the distinction between sex and gender.