Year: 2011

Gender Check 10/21/11 – Northeast

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*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Note: Typically the Gender Check for the Northeast appears on Wednesdays.

Website: The New York Times

On The New York Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. EST on Friday, October 21 was titled “Libyan Leaders Appear to Differ Over Qaddafi Burial.” Its subject was the recent death of the former Libyan dictator.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors:  Male (2)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male -Libyan governmental minister (from released statements)
  2. Male – interim prime minister (from released statements)
  3. Male – spokesman (from released statements)
  4. Male – NATO admiral

Notes/Analysis: The photograph accompanying this story was of Qaddafi’s body.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. EST on Friday, October 21 was titled “Did Citi Get a Sweet Deal? Bank Claims SEC Settlement On One CDO Clears It On All Others.” Its subject was a recent ruling in favor of the banking group and its litigation history.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors: Male (2)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned)

  1. Male – spokesman (from an email)
  2. Male – securities litigator

Gender check: 10/20/11 – Midwest

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (stltoday.com)

Stltoday.com, 10/20/2011

On Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:10 a.m. (PDT) Thursday, Oct. 20, was titled “Prep work at Busch Stadium begins before dawn.” Its subject was a day in the life of the stadium.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male and female shared byline

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, stadium worker
  2. Male, regional executive chef
  3. Female, executive chef
  4. Male, chef
  5. Male, stadium worker
  6. Male, Rangers fan
  7. Male, Rangers fan
  8. Male, camera operator
  9. Male, ballpark cam tech
  10. Male, stadium worker, deliverer
  11. Male, district sales manager
  12. Male, senior VP for standards and on-field operations
  13. Male, one-man ticket brokerage
  14. Male, autograph hunter
  15. Male, baseball writer
  16. Male, camped out
  17. Male, broadcaster
  18. Male, special instructor coach

Notes/analysis: This article goes to show what a man’s world baseball must be. However, two of three photos with people who can be identified feature females.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:10 a.m. (PDT) Thursday, Oct. 20, was titled “McCaskill presses Pentagon to make changes to curb wasteful contracting.” Its subject was pressure put on to put into place recommendations regarding fraud and waste in wartime contracting.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female, U.S. senator (D)
  2. Male, Pentagon undersecretary in charge of acquisition
  3. Male, joint staffs logistics director
  4. Male and female (joint statement), contracting commission members

Notes/analysis: The article includes one mug shot, of the main female source.

‘Miss Representation’ tackles media representations of women, girls

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

A documentary film aimed at challenging media representations of women and girls is now screening at a variety of locations and airs at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 20, on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

“Miss Representation,” which first premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, is written, directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. According to the film’s description, it draws attention to the ways the media’s “limited and often disparaging” representations of women and girls make it difficult for women to feel powerful or to move up into leadership positions. It includes interviews with a number of powerful and well-known women like Katie Couric, Gloria Steinem, Rosario Dawson and Condoleezza Rice, but also asks teenage girls about their experiences.

We’ll let the trailer speak for itself:

You can join the movement inspired by the film by visiting missrepresentation.org to take a pledge to help spread the film’s messages and to help challenge these portrayals. You can also follow @RepresentPledge on Twitter and “like” Miss Representation on Facebook.

Update: Here are additional links to coverage of the film:

Gender check: 10/18/11 – West

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: Seattle Times

On the Seattle Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Oct. 18, was titled “Sources: Charges to be filed in Seattle schools scandal.” Its subject was news that a felony theft charge will be filed against a (male) former school district employee.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Unknown (unnamed source)
  2. Unknown (unnamed source)
  3. Male, prosecuting attorney
  4. Male, accused
  5. Unknown, auditor

Notes/analysis: This story is mostly based on unnamed sources and information from the news source’s archives.


Website: Seattle P-I

Seattle P-I, 10/18/2011

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Oct. 18, was titled “Police: Seattle public masturbator arrested.” Its subject was the arrest of a man who had exposed himself to several young girls in North Seattle.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female, detective

Women continue to play visible role in revolutions

Joy BaconLeave a comment

As upheaval continues across the Middle East, women have stayed in prominent positions in protests in many countries throughout the region.

As we’ve covered in earlier posts, women played crucial roles in political revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. Now as violence continues in other countries, women have followed suit and stepped into the spotlight. This week in Yemen, thousands gathered to march in honor of Tawakkol Karman, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize (along with two other women) for her work, the first Arab woman to receive the honor. Karman had played a key role as an Islamic journalist in Yemen’s political revolution. During the marches, dozens were injured as pro-government gangs attacked the women with rocks and batons.

According to CNN, female protesters marched in three Yemeni provinces –Taiz, Shabwa and Sanaa. The largest took place in Sanaa where at least 15,000 females marched down the capital’s Cairo Street. The marchers called for the United Nations to impose sanctions against Yemen’s ruling family as well as for Saleh to step down from power. Check out this CNN video for interviews with the women involved:

For more coverage of the Nobel Peace Prize Awards, check out these sources:

This is the Gender Report’s Week in Review, a weekly post that highlights some of the major stories related to gender issues this week. Some of these stories may have already appeared in our News Feed or in the week’s Gender Checks. We’ll at times include a longer analysis of stories as well as bring attention to stories that may have slipped through the cracks of the week’s news cycle.