The Global Report on the Status of Women in News Media (IWMF, 2011) showed that in the Chilean media industry, the ratio of men to women was 2:1, a split even more noticeable in women’s participation within management boards and higher positions of command. This agrees with the general national reality (CNN Chile, 2020b). Only in junior and senior professional levels inside the media industry – such as in administration, sales, and finances – is there a certain gender balance.
Source: IWMF, 2011.
From the analysis of this data by Lagos and Mellado (2013), it can be concluded that there are no significant policies within the different media companies to promote gender equality, nor for enhancing women’s careers inside the newsroom. This reality is further confirmed with data from the Global Media Monitoring Project (2015), which stated that in both television and written journalism, 41 per cent of journalists in Chile are women, and 59 per cent are men. Specifically for television, 35 per cent are women and 65 per cent men, while in newspapers, women make up only 23 per cent of journalists, compared with men’s 77 per cent.
The women journalists interviewed stated they did not feel a notorious gender gap in the journalistic environment, but they did in decision-making positions. One summarised: “In this medium, the editor is a man and all the journalists are women”. A female editor commented: “When I arrived, there were no women in editorial positions. This has been one of my preoccupations, adding more women editors”. A woman journalist, from the same medium, added: “As for women reporters, there is no problem, but there is a lack of women editors. It is a man’s world. This happens because of the schedule. There is a lack of space for women there”. The interviewed women editors recognised difficulties ranging from questioning their work and their positions, to their relationship with the management board and external sources; therefore, they face higher challenges in validating themselves in a position of command. One commented: “My first year was very difficult. I had problems with my peers of the type: ‘Who are you to be my boss?’” These women directors and editors-in-chief have been opening positions for other women journalists to rise in the hierarchies of their media.
In the area of salaries, the Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media (IWMF, 2011) shows that in most positions, men have higher salaries than women. There are some exceptions, as in the senior professional level, where the participation gap is narrower, corresponding with women reporters and news presenters (see Table 2). This, again, is consistent with the national reality in other work environments (GfK Adimark, 2020). Nevertheless, from the interviews conducted, what emerges is that in positions corresponding to senior and junior levels, negotiations are individual, and other factors such as experience and professional capacity are also weighed, adding to our understanding of why the wage gap is smaller at these levels.
Source: IWMF, 2011.
Maternity is an issue arising when discussing women’s role in media. Media follows parental leave laws, which rule at a national level, allowing their contracted employees to return to their work positions. However, these are not always fully respected, as evidenced by some cases becoming public due to this (Sepúlveda Pozo, 2018). The interviews revealed that individual maternity experiences varied according to the empathy of each employer. In some cases, more allowances such as a home office or flexible schedule are practiced, while in others, such measures are not adopted.
Regarding harassment, the Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media (IWMF, 2011) shows that internal policies are often irregular: 56 per cent of all Chilean media do not have regulations in place, while 44 per cent do. While this was not a prominent topic in the interviews, we can confirm that for female journalists, support in confronting this type of situation is dependent on the criteria of specific employers and their direct bosses.
Another issue has to do with the gender gap regarding the type of topics assigned, especially when considering that Chile is a country of natural disasters, and that it recently experienced a wave of protests. One of the editors said:
We need to have a cultural change. That is a reflection we have done within this medium. For emergencies, when you think about who to send, you think of a man. In this medium there are more women than there are men, and we still sent men to cover the protests. We have a debt there.
