The gender news gap
Global thought leadership consultancy, Man Bites Dog has partnered with Women in Journalism to carry out major new research on gender diversity in UK journalism. But what does their report, The Gender News Gap, mean for professional services marketers? Claire Mason of Man Bites Dog shares her insights on the research findings and actions marketing and communications professionals can take to make a difference.
Did you know that, for the last decade, women have outnumbered men in high-status professions? Women are entering universities across the world in record numbers, and today there are more university-educated women in the workforce than men. But there’s a problem: women still lag behind men in pay and power.
This divide is a symptom of a much bigger issue, which those in professional services marketing have the power to change: The Gender Say Gap.
The Gender Say Gap is a term I coined to highlight the invisibility of women and other diverse groups as expert authorities in business and in public life. Despite being disproportionately the experts in the room, the female authorities are missing. When we audit subject matter experts, women are still outnumbered 4-1 as conference speakers and up to 5-1 as media commentators, and the Gender Say Gap has actually widened during the pandemic.
As Covid-19 is largely a crisis in public health – an area where women and professionals from a BAME background are overrepresented – we might have expected to hear from a diversity of experts. But the media still turned overwhelmingly to white men as figures of medical and social authority, falling into a pattern of consulting white male experts on matters of strategy and policy, and frontline female and ethnic minority contributors on the practical implications.
But we can’t simply blame the media for the increasing Gender Say Gap. City University’s Expert Women Project found that a key driver of widening say inequality is the expert authorities we choose to represent us. Organisations in general and - as purveyors of expert knowledge - professional services firms in particular, have a responsibility to provide a diversity of experts on every subject.
Not hearing from expert female and diverse leaders means we’re only getting half the story and, as we seek to attract more diverse talent into sectors and roles where women and professionals from a BAME background are underrepresented, we are missing the opportunity to shine a brighter spotlight on role models. Professional services marketers can therefore make a huge difference by increasing the diversity of their expert spokespeople.
1. The Gender News Gap
For some years now, my team at Man Bites Dog has been campaigning to close The Gender Say Gap by increasing the representation of women and diverse experts. This year, we wanted to examine the other side of the representation equation – the media – so we teamed up with Women in Journalism to conduct ground-breaking new research on The Gender News Gap.
This study – six months in the making – involved 1,200 male and female journalists and investigated the state of gender diversity in UK journalism and its impact on female journalists, the media and society more broadly.
Our research revealed that fewer than one in five female journalists believe that there is adequate gender diversity in UK journalism, and less than a quarter of all UK journalists rate gender diversity in the media as good or excellent.
The Gender News Gap is this lack of gender diversity in UK journalism – the difference between the number of women who should be shaping the news agenda and the proportion we actually hear from – both as journalists and as expert contributors.
“Diversity, of course, has the power to cultivate further diversity…It’s here marketing professionals have the greatest opportunity to help close The Gender Say Gap and harness the full potential of diverse experts to ensure society can benefit from their ideas and insights.”
2. So, why does the Gender News Gap matter?
Equality in journalism is a critical foundation for a more equal society. The overwhelming majority of UK journalists (92%) believe that the media has a duty to reflect the diversity of the society it serves. It’s also good business! The media needs a diversity of journalists to be relevant and interesting to readers, and both male and female journalists believe gender balance is essential to properly represent key societal issues.
Within media organisations, the Gender News Gap impacts business and content decisions, influencing which stories are told and who tells them. From there, a lack of diversity filters through to public opinion, affecting how women and diverse communities are represented, how our experiences and concerns are reflected, and how we make our voices heard to create change. This Say Inequality is leading to huge gaps in information, representation and policy – so critical social issues are going unspoken and being ignored for decades.
Diversity has, of course, the power to cultivate further diversity, with almost all (96%) UK journalists believing that visible female experts can inspire women to enter professions and sectors where they may be currently underrepresented and, beyond that, more than eight in 10 (84%) female journalists argue that if we only have male experts, we will only tell half the story.
It’s here that marketing professionals have the greatest opportunity to help close The Gender Say Gap and harness the full potential of diverse experts to ensure that society can benefit from their ideas and insights.
3. What is the role of marketers in closing the Gender Say Gap?
In The Gender News Gap, we call on media organisations - and women and men in journalism - to take action to make journalism the inclusive profession our society deserves.
At the same time, we as marketing and communications experts need to think carefully about the content and commentary we provide to the media. Who do we choose to put forward as expert commentators? Who are we elevating as thought leaders, and how are we representing women and diverse groups in our marketing communications?
In light of our research, I would like to challenge professional services marketers to:
- Audit your firm’s Gender Say Gap: How do your expert spokespeople compare with the composition of your organisation’s wider workforce and client base – and the workforce and clients you aspire to grow in the future? How does your expert diversity footprint compare with your competitors?
- Aim high: Set bold goals to increase the diversity of your expert spokespeople and ensure that the diversity agenda is supported at the highest level.
- Develop diverse talent: Create an expert development programme to unleash new speakers and thinkers. Build the confidence and capability of experts from a range of diverse groups and inspire them to step forward as expert ambassadors for your organisation.
- Supply diversity to media: Even before the demand exists, we can make the stories we tell more compelling by featuring diverse experts and commentators in communications, to represent a variety of views and opinions.
- Active allyship: Ask how to improve access and progression within our own networks and fields, helping more diverse talent break through glass ceilings. It’s essential that we enable underrepresented groups to share the floor, and advocate for the visibility of those not yet in the room.
The Gender News Gap report is based on research amongst 1,200 UK journalists, conducted by Man Bites Dog in partnership with Women In Journalism. For more information and to read the full Gender News Gap report, visit