Gender Check 4/15/11 – South

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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: The Miami Herald

On the Miami Herald, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11 a.m. (EST) on Friday, April 15 was titled “How a Group of Cuban Exiles Set Up to Topple Fidel Casto.” Its subject was the first part in a series exploring Cuban History.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – commander in Bay of Pigs invasion (from historical records)

2. Male – army commander (from written comments)

3. Male – soldier

4. Male – soldier

5. Male – infantryman

6. Male – brigade member

7. Male – brigade pilot

8. Male – soldier

Notes/analysis: Since the story focused on accounts of soldiers from this historcial event 50 years ago, women would not have been involved in direct combat or the mission being discussed.

Website: Patch (Seminole Heights)

On Patch of Seminole Heights, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11 a.m. (EST) on Friday, April 15 was titled “Hope, Love and Suds .” Its subject was a feature on a laundromat with services for the homeless.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – operator of organization

2. Male – visitor to business

3. Female – volunteer

Notes/analysis: The names of human sources appeared in bold in this story, which is not a usual style choice for this site.

Gender Check 4/13/11 – Northeast

Joy BaconLeave 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: The New York Times

On The New York Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, April 13 was titled “Egyptian Prosecuters Order 15-Day Detention of Hosni Mubarak.” Its subject was the continuing struggle in Egypt for a accountability from its past leadership.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors: Male (dual byline)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – online news editor

Notes/analysis: This story was compiled mostly from press releases, AP reports, and government authorities who went unnamed.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, April 13 was titled “Critical Shortage of Army Neurologists for U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Its subject was policy changes in treatment requirements for soldiers suffering from brain injuries. It was co-published with NPR.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors: Male (dual byline)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Unknown – unnamed Army doctor

2. Male – Army general

3. Female – spokeswoman for Army Surgeon General

Notes/Analysis: This story was sparked by the release of a memo, from which much of the article’s information came.

Gender check: 4/12/11 – 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. (MST) Tuesday, April 12, was titled “Seattle won’t get shuttle — but will get full-size simulator.” Its subject was news that Seattle’s Museum of Flight would not be getting a space shuttle but would get a full-fuselage shuttle trainer.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, NASA administrator

2. Female, former astronaut who led effort

3. Female, U.S. senator

4. Male, U.S. representative

5. Female, Washington governor

6. Male, Museum of Flight president and CEO

Notes/analysis: This article had an even split of male and female sources.


Website: Seattle P-I

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. (MST) Tuesday, April 12, was titled “Charges dropped against men accused in Ballard fight with off-duty Seattle officer.” Its subject was about prosecutors dropping charges against three males accused of fighting a male off-duty police officer. The men claim they saw a man “accosting” a woman and were moving to intervene while the officer said he was following and confronting a woman who had tried to steal his coat.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Detective (unknown)

2. Male, defense attorney

3. Female, U.S. attorney

As shutdown loomed, focus was on abortion, women’s health

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

The biggest news story of the week was the potential shutdown of the federal government if Congress wasn’t able to reach a compromise on the budget. President Barack Obama signed a stop gap bill into law today to keep the government in action through next week until the budget deal for the rest of the fiscal year reached Friday night is finalized.

The hold-up and the threat of shutdown was directly tied to issues of abortion and, as a result, women’s health.

It appears the main abortion provisions Republicans sought were stripped out of the deal in exchange for deeper cuts in spending, including an effort to defund Planned Parenthood. However, a separate vote will be held on that issue next week, though Democrats are anticipated to defeat it. The compromise does, however, contain a provision that restricts abortion financing in Washington, D.C.

Though the focus of the debate is around Planned Parenthood’s abortion services, federal funds already can’t be used for abortions. As we’ve previously noted, only about 3 percent of its health services are abortion related. It provides family planning, cancer screenings, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and other services for both men and women but particularly for low-income women. (For a complete breakdown of Planned Parenthood does, check out this chart from the Washington Post).

The fact that this became a major issue in holding up a budget compromise reflected the culmination of several months worth of Republican action on issues of abortion and women’s health that the Gender Report has highlighted in earlier posts.

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.

ASNE finds women still make up nearly 37 percent of newsrooms

Jasmine R. Linabary1 Comment

Women make up about 36.9 percent of those working full-time at daily U.S. newspapers the American Society of News Editors reported today.

ASNE released key findings from its 2011 newsroom employment survey, which mainly focused on the fact that minority numbers plunged for third year in a row while newsroom employment increased slightly.

While the bulk of the organization’s report on its Newsroom Census focused on these issues, an updated gender breakdown was noted in its other findings. Women working full-time at daily papers totaled 15,400 and men accounted for nearly 25,300 in the survey. Minority women in the survey made up 19.3 percent of female staffers, while minority men accounted for just 10.8 percent of male staffers.

About 58.4 percent of daily print and online newspapers responded to this year’s survey. The report does note that responding newsrooms identified 1,581 journalists as working online only and broke out that 18.72 percent were minority. It did not specify a gender breakdown of those journalists.

In its Newsroom Census tables that include data from 1999 through 2010, ASNE shows that the percentage of women in newsrooms has remained relatively stable in that time period. It hovered between a high of 37.7 percent in 2006 and a low of 36.6 percent, which came in 2010.

For more studies and resources on gender in the news media, view our “Useful Resources” page.