Women journalists in the UK are still faced with a significant gender pay gap and have been less likely to progress to senior management roles. However, news organizations have begun implementing policies and goals designed to reduce pay inequality and promote parity in employment levels. Though there is still some way to go, there has been progress in this area in recent years.
Women in Journalism
Several studies have identified that women make up 45 per cent of UK journalists (Thurman, Cornia & Kunert, 2016; Spilsbury, 2018). However, while there has been a significant increase in the numbers of women in the very top editorial and managerial positions in newspaper and broadcast journalism (see Section F4, above), women are slightly more likely to be in more precarious part-time or freelance roles than men, and significantly less likely to progress to senior management roles during their careers. Whereas 37 per cent of men in journalism are in senior roles after 21-29 years of professional experience, only 18 per cent of women reach that level; instead, they are much more likely to be in junior managerial roles (55 per cent) than men (41 per cent) (Thurman, Cornia & Kunert, 2016, p.10).
The BBC operates a series of policies intended to achieve greater equality and diversity across the Corporation. A report on career progression and culture for gender equality was commissioned and published in 2018. The main recommendations included:
- Embedding flexible working, mentoring and sponsorship for women looking to apply for senior leadership roles, support for women returning to work after time off with children and the introduction of shared paternity leave.
- The removal of existing barriers to women joining the organization and to provide opportunities for existing female employees, and revised recruitment processes to reduce gender bias.
- Greater training and accountability for team managers and revised processes to resolve challenges and problems in the workplace (BBC, 2018a, p.5).
The Guardian committed, in a 2017-2018 working report, to reduce the organization’s gender pay gap (see below), to achieve a 50:50 gender balance in the top half of the organization, and to develop, promote and recruit more women across the organization as a whole (Guardian, 2018).
The Telegraph, whose owner has the worst gender pay gap of the media organizations shown below, produced a roadmap in 2017 for achieving a zero gender pay gap by 2025 through introducing a series of policies to benefit women employees, including flexible working, maternity benefits and support, and the use of 50:50 gender shortlists in recruitment (Telegraph Media Group, 2017, p.5).
Gender Pay Gaps
The UK’s Equality Act 2010 was amended in 2017, making it compulsory for companies in Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) with more than 250 employees to publish information about gender pay gaps within their organizations. Table 2 shows the gender pay gaps for selected companies with print or broadcast news publishing activities (excluding the BBC and those commercial news organizations with complex and diffuse corporate structures, such as Reach Plc). The results show a significant continuing disparity between median hourly wages for women and men, with women receiving 22.7 per cent less than men at Telegraph Media Group. None of the selected companies have pay parity for women and men, though Guardian News and Media and Sky UK perform slightly better. The problem appears to be structural, as women are less likely to feature in the upper quartile of earners in these companies, ranging from 41.4 per cent at Independent Television News to just 17.5 per cent at News Group Newspapers, publisher of the tabloid newspaper the Sun. The BBC is obliged to publish gender pay gap information in its annual accounts, and its results are marginally better, with a deficit of 6.7 per cent in its gender pay gap in 2018/19, lower than the other companies listed here and a reduction but still a significant difference (BBC, 2019a, p.14).
[supsystic-tables id=48]
For journalists themselves (rather than all employees at media organizations) the Journalists at Work survey noted an 18 per cent difference in average median salaries for men and women in 2018, with the median salary for men being £27,500 and that of women being £22,500 (Spilsbury, 2018, p.76).
