Hurdles remain for women in journalism

It didn’t take Rasheea Hall long to decide she didn’t want to be an “NBC Nun,” the term many female employees at the news network call themselves as they watch how the long hours they work building their careers cuts into their social life.

It wasn’t what she expected when she graduated in 2001 from a prestigious journalism school with heavy female enrollment. She tried another job at “NOW with Bill Moyers,” where she often worked until 2 a.m., and soon chose to move to another aspect of broadcasting.

“I decided that I didn’t want that kind of life for my future kids,” said Hall, who now works for MTV in the standards and practices division.

Hall isn’t the first woman to discover that life in the journalism profession doesn’t always mirror life in journalism school. Women typically fill two-thirds of the slots in American journalism schools, but men still have two-thirds of the jobs in most newsrooms, according to the Pew Center for Civic Journalism.

The difference raises questions about if, when and how the so-called feminization of journalism schools will change the profession.

“I walked in the door and was overcome by estrogen,” said J.C. Reindl, a student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, referring to the fact that 64 percent of the school's student population is female.

Despite his current minority status, statistics show things likely will change for Reindl when he graduates.

The number of women in traditional male fields like medicine expanded between 1980 and 2005, but women have failed to make much of a dent on newsroom demographics. The percentage of female journalists in newsrooms hovers around 37 percent, a number that is only a few points higher than it was two decades ago, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

“It baffles and annoys me,” said Lynn Sherr, an ABC News correspondent.

Part of the explanation for the static numbers is that many female journalism students use their degrees for public relations or some other female-dominated field, a phenomenon that is less likely in fields like medicine, according to Robert Garcia, an admissions officer at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Still, several recruiters at major news organizations said they received more entry-level applications from women than men, but the women they hired didn't always move to the top.

“My applicants are skewed toward the female side,” said Sheila Solomon, executive recruiter for the Chicago Tribune. “But I only have one or two women in mind right now to be promoted.”

The numbers seem to confirm Solomon’s observation. In 2002, the American Press Institute surveyed journalists and found that only 33 percent of women expected a promotion in their news organization, whereas almost half of the men did. The same study indicated that almost half of female journalists plan to either leave their current job or the profession entirely.

One explanation for this dropout rate is what sociologists commonly call the mommy track. Many professions have grueling hours, but those in journalism can be especially difficult, with night shifts, long hours and calls to the office when breaking news occurs.

“I had permanent jet lag,” said Nancy Mathis, a former White House correspondent for the Houston Chronicle who moved to a job with the Internal Revenue Service in 2000 after self-described burnout.

“Very few women with kids had my job,” Mathis said. “One colleague changed her job after her son always drew a picture of his mother in an airplane.”

Other women point to a simpler problem: a lack of female role models in the profession, despite the prominence of women like Barbara Walters and Elizabeth Vargas.

“Men call the shots in many newsrooms, and some women I know simply don’t want to be part of the scene,” said Maurine Beasley, a journalist and professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Regardless of the reason that women leave the profession, there is some indication that the feminization of journalism schools could change the industry eventually. With the upper echelons of media managers slated to retire in the next 15 years, there may be room for women in entry-level positions to move their way up more easily.

Some already see a change.

“I see women dominating small newsrooms,” said Pamela Moreland, assistant managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News. “It’s only a matter of time before they move into the larger news organizations and shift the numbers.”

If this does happen, some who work in the industry predict that newsrooms would cover stories differently.

“Women influence what goes on Page 1,” Moreland said. “I just saw a story about the hazards of tampons. You wouldn’t have seen that 20 years ago.”

Women also are more likely to cite other female sources, which are often ignored in the news business. A recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that men are relied on as sources in the news more than twice as often as women.

Still, many of the women who left the profession are content with their decision for now.

“I like to know ahead of time where I’m going to be at 3 a.m.,” said Hall, who recently married. “Now, I know.”

E-mail: cm2390@columbia.edu