Stephanie Doctrow: Sexism in Journalism

I flipped through my reporter’s notebook, looking over my notes from the weekend’s journalism conference as I waited for my next session to start. I had been looking forward to the upcoming session since I got my program, a seminar on time management for magazine editors. As the speaker took the stage, I put down my Starbucks and got my pen and paper ready.

The session quickly took an unexpected turn. The speaker addressed the room full of student editors, leaders at their respective publications, in a condescending manner. Instead of discussing tips for time management, he went into a tirade about the things young journalists do that irritated him.

“Now ladies, here’s something that you all do that really isn’t good,” he said. I did a double take, noticing that all the student editors in the session with me were female.

“You should never bring more than one bag into an interview or a meeting with an editor. It’s unprofessional. And I know how you ladies are.”

Excuse me? I thought. Number one, who takes multiple bags to an interview? Number two, why did you feel the need to point that out?

I met my friend at the next session and told her about my experience. “Why did he point that out, like we have no idea what we’re doing?” I asked.

“He’s right you know,” a woman in front of us turned around and jumped into our conversation. “It’s a sexist world out there.” She looked us up and down and made a face. “No one would hire you in that outfit.”

Those two interactions completely shocked me. I know that magazine journalism used to be a male-dominated industry– it’s only been 40 years since the launch of Ms. magazine, the first publication edited by and written for intelligent females. In my experience in journalism so far, I’ve been discriminated against because of my age far more than my sex… but have I just been lucky?

Even in 2011, there is a gender imbalance in American newsrooms. According to this year’s American Society of Newspaper Editors Newsroom Census, only 36 percent of newsrooms are female. The New York Times appointed its first female executive editor this year. And even today, reporters and anchors are criticized more for their appearance and their lifestyles than their male counterparts (anyone remember Megyn Kelly, the Fox news anchor who was criticized on air for taking maternity leave?)

There is good news though, and maybe that’s what explains my positive interactions in journalism so far. The Poynter Institute reports that among journalists with fewer than five years of work experience, women are 54.2 percent, outnumbering men for the first time. In most journalism classrooms, you’re likely to find far more female than male students. At the Indiana University School of Journalism, for example, 75 percent of students are female.

Maybe sexism is a thing of the past. Maybe it still happens, and I haven’t had enough real world experience yet to see it. Whatever the case may be, I’d like to think that the bright, motivated women I am working and learning with now will have successful journalism careers that are not impacted by their genders. And I know one thing for sure– I’ll be there, pen and paper ready.