Author: Jasmine R. Linabary

Gender check: 8/30/11 – West

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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.

Website: Seattle Times

On the Seattle Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11:45 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 30, was titled “Jury convicts man in 2009 slaying, deadlocks on another.” Its subject was jurors verdicts on two men allegedly involved in the slaying of a man in 2009.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

None

Notes/analysis: The article relies completely on court documents. It also cites prosecutors by saying “prosecutors said” though no specific person is named.


Website: Seattle P-I

Seattle P-I, 8/30/2011
Seattle P-I, 8/30/2011

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11:45 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 30, was titled “High court decision on public defense prompts alarm.” Its subject was a decision by the state Supreme Court that public defenders and others working at firms formed by King County to offer legal services to defendants are considered “county ’employees,’ as defined by the state retirement system.”

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, attorney for the county and former justice
  2. Male, attorney for the public defenders
  3. Male, justice (in majority opinion)
  4. Male, justice (in dissenting opinion)

Notes/analysis: The Washington State Supreme Court is comprised of nine members, four women and five men.

Reflections and action from Women’s Equality Day

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Friday, Aug. 26, marked the 91st anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. To mark what is referred to as Women’s Equality Day, a number of news outlets, blogs and women’s groups as well as President Barack Obama shared thoughts, statements and stories about the anniversary.

Additionally, a number of women’s groups have gotten together to launch HERvotes, a campaign to mobilize women voters in 2012 specifically around the issues of health care and economic rights (Check out the website: www.hervotes.org).

In line with that effort, Ms. Magazine compiled a list of 10 laws that advanced women that are now being “threatened” or are at risk. That list includes women’s right to vote, which some argue is being challenged by new ID requirements that 34 states considered this year that aim at students, people of color and women, particularly since perhaps as many as 32 million women do not have the required documentation in their current legal name.

Here’s a selection of Women’s Equality Day coverage and commentary:

Find other interesting coverage of Women’s Equality Day? Share it in the comment section below.

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.

Report Your Thoughts: Why does it matter?

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Editor’s note: Our findings through our monitoring projects have served to identify and bring attention to the fact that women’s voices are missing, but have left us with more questions than answers. That’s why we’re taking our project a step further by starting a discussion on why this is the case and what can be done about it. This is part of a series of posts each week aiming to start a discussion on gender representations in online news. View past “Report Your Thoughts” discussions here.

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Question 3: Why does it matter?

For the past two weeks since we launched our “Report Your Thoughts” discussion, we’ve asked and discussed (mostly via the Twitter hashtag #GRdiscuss) the basic question of “Why?” — Why are women present in such low numbers in our byline counts of lead articles as well as our looks inside newsrooms? And why are women’s voices absent among news sources?

Now we want to turn the discussion in a different direction to the question: Why does it matter? If women are a quarter or less of news sources and slightly over a third of authors, what difference does that make?

We want to hear from you. Why is it important that women have a part in producing the news and have their voices heard as news sources? Share your thoughts in the comment section as well as on Twitter with the hashtag #GRdiscuss or on our Facebook page.

Update: As has been the case, most of the discussion for this week’s question took place via Twitter using the hashtag #GRdiscuss. A few people and organizations took part by commenting on the question. Others retweeted and shared parts of the discussion.

Here are some of the highlights:

Gender check: 8/25/11 – Midwest

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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.

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

"Man found dead in car was shot outside Moline Acres market" - Stltoday, 8/25/11

On Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:15 a.m. (PDT) Thursday, Aug. 25, was titled “Man found dead in car was shot outside Moline Acres market.” Its subject was findings related to a man discovered dead in a car.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, detective sgt.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:15 a.m. (PDT) Thursday, Aug. 25, was titled “Water tower down: Icon’s demise breaks ex-Chrysler worker’s link to past.” Its subject was a feature on the impact and life of a former longtime employee of a now closed and demolished Chrysler plant.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, former longtime employee

Notes/analysis: The article also includes a photo and multimedia about the man featured by a male photographer.

Gender check: 8/23/11 – 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

Seattle Times, 8/23/2011

On the Seattle Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:45 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 23, was titled “Aviation High soars into the future, landing next to Boeing Field.” Its subject was a lead up to the ground breaking of an aviation high school.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, CEO of Museum of Flight
  2. Female, principal
  3. Male, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes
  4. Male, graduate who will participate at fly-in


Website: Seattle P-I

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:45 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 23, was titled “Seattle woman robbed at gunpoint in her home.” Its subject was police looking for three men who robbed a woman at gunpoint.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Unnamed (“police said”)

Notes/analysis: The article contained no named sources, only references to “Seattle police reported.”