ABSTRACT
If the relationship between gender and media can be characterized, in no small part, by struggles between those with more or less power, between those who can represent, promote or exclude, then some of Europe’s political and civil society institutions have been at the forefront of exploring the ways in which power and control are manifest across the European media landscape. The European Commission, the Council of Europe, the European Federation of Journalists, the European Women's Lobby, and others have all supported or undertaken research to reveal the power structures in play within the media industry. This chapter discusses the findings from one of the most recent studies, supported by the European Institute for Gender Equality and with the specific remit to assess the progress made against the Beijing Platform for Action’s 1995 Area J, which intended to “… increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through media and new technologies of communication, and promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.” The study on which this chapter draws was undertaken between 2012 and 2013 and comprised an analysis of women in decision-making positions across 99 major European media houses in all 28 EU Member States, which included all the public service broadcasters and a range of commercial organizations including newspapers, TV, and radio stations. We also monitored the prime-time output from two TV stations in each country (one PBS and one commercial) for seven days and interviewed 65 senior women media professionals. The study also explored the extent to which media companies have formalized their commitment to gender equality through the adoption of internal policies and guidelines, also in response to policy orientations coming from European institutions like the European Commission and Parliament, as well as the Council of Europe. The headline findings are that women occupy around one-third of senior or executive positions including on company boards and hold the position of CEO in 15 percent of the organizations we surveyed. In terms of TV content (both representation and production), women appear in just over one-third of programs we monitored, having a higher visibility in entertainment genres (42%) than news (33%). Our overall conclusion is that there are structural as well as behavioral and attitudinal barriers that mitigate gender equality and that while formal policies are not a widespread instrument across the European landscape, informal guidelines are more prevalent, but are also weak and mostly ineffective tools for change without a commitment to meaningful engagement with the equality agenda by senior management teams.
