Women represent half of the population, but they speak out less than one time out of three in the Quebec media, notes a new monitoring tool created by the organization Femmes expertes, which urges the community to act to finally achieve the parity.
The Parity Radar, which will be officially launched on Thursday evening, measures in real time the proportion of men and women quoted in the online news articles of six of the main French-language media, namely The Press, The dutyRadio Canada, THE Montreal Journal, The right and TVA Nouvelles.
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The duty was able to use it first, and the observation is unequivocal. For the year 2022, women represent on average 29% of the sources cited in these six media – i.e. in nearly half a million articles analyzed by the digital tool –, compared to 71% for men.
“Considering the public discourse of recent years, the ideas circulating on the importance of the representation of women in different spheres of society, it is surprising to see that it does not translate into figures at all and that it does not does not increase faster than that”, notes with regret Laura Shine, director of Women experts.
When we look in fine detail, the proportion of women quoted tends to be around 27-28% in The Press, The dutyTVA News and The rightit is 25% in The Journal of Montreal and 33% in Radio-Canada articles.
This better performance by Radio-Canada can be explained in particular by its mandate as a public broadcaster, which involves representing the diversity of the voices of the Canadian population as well as possible. “At Radio-Canada, they have also put in place calculation tools internally to precisely monitor the situation and change these figures. Like what, keeping the account, it also changes the situation, ”adds Laura Shine.
And in the English media?
As for the English-language media, the situation is much the same. Remember that the parent organization of Women Experts, Informed Opinions, has already been measuring since 2018, using the Gender Gap Tracker, the ratio of men and women quoted in ten major media, namely CBC News, CTV News, Global News , National Post, Globe and Mail And The Star.
For the year 2022, 29.3% of interventions in these media were made by women, compared to 70.7% by men. Here again, CBC News stands out slightly, with 37% of women quoted. CTV News (34%) and Global News (33%) follow closely.
When she looks at the figures on the English side, which have therefore been compiled for five years, the director of Women Experts says she is especially concerned about the slowness with which things are changing. In 2018, when the Gender Gap Tracker was launched, the proportion of women cited was 27%.
When it launched in 2019, the organization hoped to achieve parity in Canadian media by 2025, and even made it its slogan. A goal that seems difficult to achieve today, sadly recognizes Laura Shine. “We are also thinking about updating our slogan, because the current data no longer allow us to hope to achieve this kind of results! »
Do better
The purpose of the Parity Radar is not to lay blame or stigmatize this or that media, she wishes to emphasize, however. “It’s more to show that we still have a long way to go. With precise measurement tools, the media — and the public — will follow where we are, where we are going, what still needs to be done for a greater presence of women in the media space. »
She also explains that this under-representation of women is not solely the fault of the media. “It also comes from a disproportion of women in society in general. They are less present in the public space, within institutions, in politics, etc. It is men who often find themselves at the heart of the news. »
Nevertheless, journalists have the power to choose who they include in their stories. “You have to develop this reflex of also giving women a voice when possible, and that very often is. Women experts exist, there are many of them,” says Laura Shine.
The organization she co-founded in 2019 has created a directory, which today has more than 800 names, of women specialists in various fields and ready to speak in the media. One way to help journalists better balance their reporting. “We can do better, we must do better. »