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research-article2020
JMCXXX10.1177/1077695820901927Journalism & Mass Communication EducatorGeertsema-Sligh et al.

Special Section: World Journalism Education Congress

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator

Educating Journalism
2020, Vol. 75(1) 69­–74
© AEJMC 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1077695820901927
https://doi.org/10.1177/1077695820901927
Inequality http://journals.sagepub.com/home/jmc

Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh1,
Ingrid Bachmann2, and Mia Moody-Ramirez3

Abstract
Around the world, journalism remains a male-dominated profession. This syndicate
discussed the current state of the field and made recommendations on how to
educate journalism students on gender and inequality. Participants agreed that good
journalism is sensitive to gender and inequality issues and that course work should
address these issues. Furthermore, schools must make a commitment to gender
equality and diversity and offer resources to help faculty and students understand and
better relate to these issues.

Keywords
diversity, gender equality, gender mainstreaming, global journalism education,
intersectionality

State of the Field

Journalism has always been a male-dominated profession. In the early 19th century,
journalism was seen as an unsuitable profession for women, as they were associated
with the private sphere of the home. White, middle-class women in the United States
and the United Kingdom entered the newsroom in the middle of the 19th century to
write “women’s stories” to increase the number of female readers (Chambers et al.,
2004). Today, global studies indicate women continue to be underrepresented in
newsrooms as reporters and that women are also underrepresented at the newsroom

1
Butler University, Indianapolis, IN, USA
2
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
3
Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:
Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh, Butler University, 4600 Sunset Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46208, USA.
Email: mgeertse@butler.edu
70 Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 75(1)

management level. Beyond numbers, newsroom cultures remain masculine in most

countries.
In 1995, participants at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in
Beijing, China, adopted a Platform for Action. In particular, Section J of the Platform
focused on women and media, and it recommended that various role players should
take action to educate women for careers in media industries. Since then, United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been
involved in several publications related to gender in journalism education. For exam-
ple, in 2010, Brown created A Gender Toolkit for Educators: Techniques to Assist
Educators in Mainstreaming Gender. In 2012, UNESCO published Gender-Sensitive
Indicators for Media that included a section on “Gender Balance in Education and
Training” (Grizzle, 2012). In 2013, as part of a publication titled Model Curricula for
Journalism Education, UNESCO published a course on gender and journalism
(Payette & Lebel, 2013), while acknowledging that “in most countries, gender is rarely
incorporated in journalism curricula” (p. 130). A promising development is the recent
publication of Gender, Media & ICTs: New Approaches for Research, Education &
Training (French et al., 2019). This publication is the result of work by participants in
UNESCO’s University Twinning (UNITWIN) and Networking Program on the devel-
opment of syllabi for universities.
“Gender mainstreaming” is an approach to include gender in journalism education
that educators globally often attempt today, with mixed results. Gender mainstreaming
means that gender should be included or infused into all aspects of the journalism cur-
riculum (see Geertsema-Sligh, 2014; “Gender Mainstreaming,” 2018; Lowe Morna &
Shilongo, 2004). Several scholars have conducted research on the impact of gender
mainstreaming in journalism education. A study of media departments in Uganda,
Rwanda, and Ethiopia found “minimal, unclear and uncoordinated GM activities
within most departmental policies, curricula, assessment and research” (Dralega et al.,
2016, p. 252). In Spain, researchers found that about a quarter of universities that offer
journalism studies included a subject with a gender perspective. However, they pointed
out that these subjects depended on individual faculty members who are interested in
gender issues (Larrondo & Rivero, 2019). In an audit of 25 educational institutions in
13 countries of the Southern African Development Community, Made (2010) similarly
found that attention to gender topics depended on the knowledge of individual instruc-
tors and that gender remained largely absent from curricula. The Southern African
organization Gender Links and the Department of Media Technology at the Polytechnic
of Namibia (PON) implemented a gender mainstreaming project from 2001 to 2004,
but Made (2010) found that gender was not systematically mainstreamed into the
curriculum.
In other countries, gender remains on the margins of journalism education. In
Australia, North (2010) found that “no journalism program offers a unit that specifi-
cally addressed the portrayal of women in the media, or, importantly, the gendered
production of news and gendered newsroom culture” (p. 103). This only changed
when North introduced the first gender unit in an Australian journalism program in
2011 (see North, 2015). In Chile, Alarcón Espinoza (2015) reported that gender is
Geertsema-Sligh et al. 71

systematically marginalized in journalism education. Alarcón Espinoza (2015) argues

that although she did not find an absence of gender, she did find a “hegemonic pres-
ence of masculinity” (p. v). Scholars have reported similar findings throughout Latin
America, although gender is increasingly included in journalism curricula (Villalobos
et al., 2005).

Discussion Highlights
In times when journalism education faces multiple challenges, teaching students how
to deal with gendered issues and inequality remains an important discussion. As stated
above, journalism remains a male-dominated industry, even though most countries
report that more women than men enroll and graduate from journalism programs. Few
journalism schools offer gender and inequality courses, although several schools and
administrators express they are committed to gender equality and diversity.
The debate now has more to do with how than whether journalism educators should
train students on matters of gender and inequality, be it within a single class, across
curricula or both. Regardless of the approach, the key is to reflect seriously on these
issues. The world is diverse, and it is crucial to convince students that they need to be
open and listen to diverse voices. It would be negligent of journalism educators to do
otherwise. This is particularly important in cultural contexts where sexist and patriar-
chal attitudes easily translate into newsrooms and journalistic practice, from women
leaving the industry due to masculine newsroom cultures, lack of mentorship, or lack
of support and encouragement. Reporters sometimes indicate that it is hard to find
women sources, but even some women professors reported a reluctance to appear as
expert sources in the news because of potential backlash.
There is no consensus on the best approach to solving these issues. They are not
about women versus men or what is considered to be properly feminine or masculine.
Rather, it is about being gender sensitive, an approach that contributes to good journal-
ism—which is, after all, about getting different perspectives and voices. A good start-
ing point is to acknowledge nonbinary conceptions of gender as well as intersectionality,
the overlapping markers of difference including those based on gender, race, class,
ability, sexuality, gender identity, and nationality.
This is not an easy task. When teaching students about gender, diversity, and
inequality, journalism instructors often aim for their students to explore their own
biases, which could be eye-opening and distressing—students do not necessarily like
to have their beliefs challenged. Similarly, teaching women students about all the
problems they may face in their careers might be depressing and discouraging rather
than informative. Addressing these issues in class could thus lead to bad student evalu-
ations or a negative perception among students. When considering that women faculty
often teach these classes, the situation is even more complex.
Still, journalism educators must make students aware of their own ideologies and
often misleading unquestioned understanding with regard to gender and inequality,
and a plus about talking about these topics in class is that students could learn to rec-
ognize, or, even better, overcome their biases. Assignments on gender and other biases
72 Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 75(1)

in news content (or the students’ own stories) can be empowering and an important
means to teach students to engage with their communities. Inviting speakers from
outside academia also helps, as students sometimes relate more easily with profession-
als from the field (“the real world”) rather than the so-called ivory tower. For example,
deliberate efforts in schools in Australia to have mostly women as guest speakers have
proven successful and not hard to accomplish, which shows that more can be done to
teach journalism students about gender and the news industry. It is also clear that more
research is needed on matters of gender—especially nonbinary conceptions of gender
—and inequality. Research informs journalism educators’ teaching, consulting, and
service, and empirical data can help tackle these issues in the right way, or, at least, in
a more informed fashion.
Commitment to gender and inequality issues goes beyond the classroom or journal-
ism courses, and schools could do more in terms of promoting diversity and equality.
These topics should be included in both student orientation and faculty training, and
diversity advocacy should be considered in class innovations, professional develop-
ment initiatives, search and hiring committees, and even in faculty evaluations.
Instructors need institutional initiatives to make these issues relevant across campuses,
and leadership should support such pushes. Given how receptive people are to these
discussions today, it is the right time to incorporate issues of gender and inequality into
curricula.

Recommendations: Roadmap for the Future

Syndicate participants highlighted the following five recommendations to address the
issues discussed above. Journalism programs should

1. Make journalism students aware that great journalism includes both gender-
and diversity-sensitive reporting.
2. Offer gender and inequality content. Universities should include gender and
inequality issues across the curriculum, integrating them in classroom discus-
sions, research, presentations, and hands-on activities.
3. Make an explicit commitment to gender and diversity issues, including nonbi-
nary conceptions of gender, and hold university administrators, faculty, and
staff accountable to demonstrate a commitment to inclusion (for instance, in
evaluations and tenure guidelines).
4. Make diversity and inclusion efforts/issues visible and relatable for students,
staff, and faculty, equipping them with at least a basic knowledge and specific
tools to address and critically dissect gender-related issues. This includes man-
datory sensitivity training for all and orientation and mentoring for new faculty
and staff.
5. Offer resources to help faculty, staff, and students become more knowledgeable
about gender-related issues. Make them visible through workshops, speaker
presentations, and assignments, and provide examples of “good” journalism.
And provide funds to conduct research and to implement these initiatives.
Geertsema-Sligh et al. 73

Conclusion
Members of this syndicate were unanimous that gender and inequality issues must be
included in journalism curricula and through an intersectional lens. Good journalism
reflects diverse voices. As discussed above, issues of gender and inequality can be
taught in a stand-alone class or across the journalism curriculum. However, in addition
to curricula, schools will do well to expand efforts through workshops, presentations,
and most importantly, funding for these initiatives. Faculty, staff, and administrators
also need to be held accountable for inclusivity.

Authors’ Note
Educating Journalism Students on Gender and Inequality syndicate participants: Ambrish
Saxena, DME Media School, India; Anna Makharadze, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs,
Georgia; Ariane Denoyel, École de Journalisme de Grenoble, France; Arsisto (Tito) Ambyo,
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia; Cathy Strong, Massey University, New
Zealand; Kathryn Shine, Curtin University, Australia; Lori Bergen, University of Colorado
Boulder, USA; Meg Heckman, Northeastern University, USA; Mpidi Abaas, Media Challenge
Initiative, Uganda; Roxane Coche, University of Florida, USA; Susmita Bala, DME Media
School, India; Tina Tsomaia, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, Georgia; and Todd Milbourn,
University of Oregon, USA.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.

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Author Biographies
Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh is the Richard M. Fairbanks Chair of Communication and the
chair of the Department of Entertainment Media and Journalism at Butler University. She is a
former chair of the International Communication Division of the AEJMC and co-chair of the
Gender and Communication Section of IAMCR.
Ingrid Bachmann is an associate professor in the School of Communications at Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile. A former reporter, her research interests include gender, political
communication, and language. Her work addresses the role of the news media in the definition
of identities and meanings.
Mia Moody-Ramirez, PhD, is professor and chair of journalism, public relations, and new
media in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences. She is the former Head of the
Minorities and Communication Division and Secretary for the Commission on the Status of
Women of the AEJMC.