Around 60 per cent of the members of the Journalist Union are men and 40 per cent are women (Statistics Iceland, n.d.-d). Statistics on the gender ratio in decision-making positions in media organisations in Iceland are lacking, and of late, there has been discussions on a lack of gender balance in that respect. At the time of writing, all except one of the editors-in-chief, assistant editors, news editors, and assistant news editors in two national newspapers were men. According to the Gender Equality Act (no. 10/2008), companies are obliged to work towards equal rights and opportunities, specifically regarding decision-making positions in their companies (Parliament, 2008). In a recent interview, the head of the Directorate of Equality said that the situation was worrying (Guðmundsson, 2020). The gender ratio is more balanced in broadcasting news media. The executive board of RÚV is gender balanced and RÚV’s news editor-in-chief is a woman, four of five members of Sýn’s executive board are men, and the editor-in-chief at Channel 2 is a man, but the news editor is a woman. BothRÚV and Sýn have internal rules regarding gender balance (RÚV, 2018; Sýn, n.d.), freely accessible on their websites. Interviewees from other media organisations, meanwhile, said there were no formal rules regarding gender balance.
The interviewees stated that gender inequality had diminished in Icelandic media. Most discussed the trend in relation to Iceland’s position as one of the most equal countries in the world. The interviewees said that they believed working conditions of men and women were mostly equal. Some of them, however, mentioned that it was difficult to escape underlying wider societal gender stereotypes in most work settings.
While editors mentioned that equal pay was prevalent, some journalists stated that although the norm, it was difficult for them to know for sure. A couple of interviewees mentioned there were different types of contracts for journalists, depending on when they started and what kind of work they did. So, it was difficult to compare and know for sure if conditions and wages were equal or not. A survey for the National Union of Icelandic Journalists showed that on average, men were paid 5–8 per cent higher wages than women journalists (Jónsson, 2018). One possible reason for that could be shorter work experience of women journalists. According to findings in the latest Worlds of Journalism Study (Kolbeins, 2012), women’s work experience was eight years on average, compared with fourteen years among male journalists. However, after amendments to the Gender Equality Act, which came into force in 2018, companies with 25 or more employees were required to obtain a certification of their equal pay system and its implementation. Sýn and RÚV had already implemented it (Þórðardóttir, 2019; RÚV, 2019b), and others were in the process of obtaining it.
