Inequalities between men and women in the face of information persist in France, according to a report presented on Wednesday January 19 in Paris. This hexagonal survey is part of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), the first edition of which dates back to 1995. Organized every five years, the study took place in 116 countries in 2020.
One of the conclusions is that women are still in the minority in the media. They are the subject or the source of the news only in 29.8% of cases, which places France in the European average, according to the study. However, this is five points more than in the previous survey, in 2015.
To reach these conclusions, an army of volunteers combed through the news of September 29, 2020 in 10 French television channels, 10 radio stations and six national daily newspapers, one economic and three regional, as well as several news sites in line. On this day of surveys, women represent 39% of journalists, against 37% in 2015. Journalism remains a largely male profession, despite the growing feminization in newsrooms and massive in schools.
It is also noted that the women cited as experts are always in the minority. “In a maximum of one in four cases, the experts or spokespersons are women. They only come close to parity when it comes to telling their personal experience (46%) or serving as witnesses (39%)”, notes the report.
Television is, according to the survey, the most “gender-friendly” media (attentive to gender specificities), and radio, the least welcoming to women. “Contrary to all expectations, #MeToo does not seem to have had a significant impact on the respective place of women and men in the media: the media remains a largely androcentric world (centered around men)”, note the authors of the report.
On the day studied, September 29, 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic occupies almost a quarter of the day’s news, according to the survey. However, the epidemic works as an accelerator of parity for journalists: 47% of the news covered are by women journalists, against 39% for all themes combined.