ABSTRACT
Like its counterparts elsewhere, the Irish radio industry 1 employs many women. There are prominent and respected women fronting programmes, and making important background decisions in production and in management. Also like its counterparts elsewhere however, the mere presence of women has been used as an argument to suggest that all is well with regards to the female/male balance in the workforce. In point of fact, Ireland is no different from most other European countries in that there are less women than men working in the industry overall, particularly in the higher echelons of influence and responsibility. In addition, women and men tend to be segregated into different types of jobs. This situation has persisted throughout the media industry world-wide despite legislative and apparent attitudinal changes in many countries (van Zoonen 1994). Arriving in the new millennium it is pertinent to question yet again both why and how women are largely excluded from certain positions – in other words, to re-examine the operation of the ‘glass walls’ and the ‘glass ceilings’, the invisible barriers to women’s progress in this and many other industries.
