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Gender & Development

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Women and Journalism

Ganiyat Tij ani-Adenle
Published online: 26 Jun 2014.

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 Book reviews

Gender and Development 22 (2014)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2014.920996
Franks, Suzanne
Women and Journalism
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London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2013, ISBN: 978 1 78076 585 3, 85 pp.

Suzanne Frank’s Women and Journalism is an insightful book which is in line with the
current paradigm shift in women and media studies that is focused, according to
Louise North, on ‘examining the gendered nature of production processes’ and finding
out ‘how journalists have experienced industry change’ (North 2009, 1). It forms part of
a literature that is not only concerned with the number of women in journalism, but the
significant absence of women in top managerial positions and the considerable
difference in their salaries (low when compared to their male colleagues), and, more
importantly, the diverse ways in which women experience the practice of journalism.
Suzanne Franks, demonstrating a great deal of empirical research, discusses the
major issues affecting women in journalism: the high enrolment and graduation of
female students on journalism courses but their low levels of employment in the media
industry; the clustering of women in soft news areas (such as lifestyle, arts, and human-
interest stories) referred to as ‘pink-ghettoes’ (p. 23); their inability to break the glass
ceiling to reach top editorial and/or management positions; the exclusion of older
women journalists from visible journalistic roles; the pulling out of women journalists
from traditional media after marriage or from the onset of childbirth (due to the hectic
nature of the job); and the innovative and increasing opportunities that the new media,
freelancing, and rise in lifestyle journalism hold for women.
In the first chapter, Suzanne Franks discusses the progression of women in
journalism, showing the lack of steady growth towards the full equality of women in
the profession. This is tied to something that comes up in subsequent chapters – the
assumption that the problem of lack of access for women has been solved because a
few women have been able to break ‘into spheres of influence’ (p. 35). This is an
important point, as it is crucial to see beyond the few success stories in order to sustain
advocacy for equal opportunities for women in journalism.
Women and Journalism shows that media employers and entrepreneurs have a lot to
gain from employing women in the media. Apart from ensuring a ‘multiplicity of
voices’ (p. viii), the author argues that women journalists can bring a creativity and

Gender & Development, 2014

Vol. 22, No. 2, 389–405
389
 Book reviews

warmth into reporting that can generate innovative content and reporting styles
(pp. 31, 48).
In clear and uncomplicated language, Suzanne Franks presents a comprehensive
account of what is a complex issue in an accessible style, making the book both an
interesting read and a resource for academics, students, activists, journalists, policy-
makers and civil society. It is particularly valuable for students studying journalism and
gender studies. However, as comprehensive as Suzanne Frank’s work is, I see a
concentration on the status of women journalists in the North, with little reference to
those in the South. This may be due to inadequate literature on the experiences of
women journalists in the South, or a lack of engagement with what is available. There
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is an opportunity here to analyse the status of women journalists in the South and
how their forms of government and culture affect their status. This is important
because, as Suzanne Franks herself argues, ‘some of the hurdles faced by women
working in journalism are difficult to disentangle from the wider context’ (p. 53). Also,
there is a general assumption in Women and Journalism that globally, the salaries of
women journalists are lower (or different) from those received by men (at the same
professional level). This is not the case in sub-Saharan Africa. Men at top management
levels may enjoy some privileges of office, but salaries are basically the same for men
and women (Byerly 2011, 79).
Although Suzanne Franks refers very briefly to the fact that female faculty in
journalism training are in the minority (p. 7), she did not elaborate further on the
implications of this for the status of women journalists. However, other, researchers
have come to associate the number and status of women in journalism education with
the inadequate preparedness of female journalism students for the challenges awaiting
them in the (news) media industry (see Beasley 2007).
What I appreciate most about Suzanne Frank’s Women and Journalism is the
concluding chapter, which highlights familiar but essential steps that can be taken to
make ‘realising the full potential of women journalists a reality’ (p. 53). This is indeed at
the heart of transformative feminist research, which is not just concerned with
critiquing reality, but taking steps to effect change, in this case, the situation of women
journalists. This places the book in the tradition of the work of numerous feminist
media scholars (see, e.g., Byerly 2005; Carter et al. 1998; de Bruin and Ross 2004; North
2009) who have all looked at gendered production practices and newsroom culture
with the aim of furthering the cause of women journalists. Suzanne Franks’ Women and
Journalism is a valuable addition to this body of scholarship.

References
Beasley, Maurine H. (2007) ‘How to stir up a hornets’ nest: Studying the implications
of women journalism majors’, in J. Creedon Pamela and Judith Cramer (eds.) Women in
Mass Communication (3rd ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 23–32

390 Gender & Development Vol. 22, No. 2, 2014

 Book reviews

Byerly, Carolyn M. (2011) Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media,
Washington: International Women Media Foundation
Byerly, Carolyn M. (2005) ‘Feminist Interventions in Newsrooms’, in Karen Ross and
Carolyn Byerly (eds.) Women and Media: International Perspectives, Malden, MA: John
Wiley & Sons, pp. 109–31
Carter, Cynthia, Gill Branston, and Stuart Allan (eds.) (1998) News, Gender and Power,
London and New York: Routledge
de Bruin, Marjan, and Karen Ross (eds.) (2004) Gender and Newsroom Culture: Identities at
Work, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press
North, Louise (2009) The Gendered Newsroom: How Journalists Experience the Changing World
of Media, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press
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© 2014, Ganiyat Tijani-Adenle, Lagos State University School of Communication, Nigeria,

email: ganiyat.adenle@lasu.edu.ng

Gender and Development 22 (2014)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2014.920994
Dunaway, Wilma A. (ed.)
Gendered Commodity Chains: Seeing Women’s Work and Households in Global Production
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-8047-8908, 285 pp.

The significant increase in women’s participation in production stimulated by

globalisation has long been the focus of feminist researchers. However, much analysis
of the role of commodity chains1 in global production has largely (though not always)
overlooked the gender dimension. This book addresses this significant gap. It brings
together a range of contributions by researchers providing important insights into the
gendered dimensions of commodity chains. Some contributions are more focused on
analytical exploration of the topic from a World Systems perspective (see below), others
provide detailed empirical case studies of women’s engagement across different sectors
of production and contexts.
A central argument of the book is that it is necessary to analyse not only production
but also social reproduction and households as critical dimensions of commodity
chains. It highlights the important roles played by gender relations in shaping every
node of chains from producer to consumer ends, but that gender often remains hidden
in commodity chain analysis. It argues that capitalists externalise the costs of
reproduction, and that women’s underpaid or unpaid labour in households is the
basis for the extraction of surplus. Commodity chains are then the mechanism for
unequal transfers of surplus between periphery, semi-periphery, and core countries. It
shines a light on complex ways in which commodity chains and relations of production
and social reproduction intersect in diverse contexts. It provides powerful testimony for
the need to extend commodity chains analysis to its full extent, including household
production and consumption.

Gender & Development Vol. 22, No. 2, 2014 391