Gender Check: 2/18/11 South

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 Miami Herald

On the Miami Herald, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3 p.m. (EST) on Friday, Feb. 18 was titled “Accused Child Abusers’ Granddaughter Also A Victim.” Its subject was the developing legal case involving alleged abuse of a grandparents’ adopted children as well as their biological granddaughter.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female – mother of the victim

2. Female – judge

3. Female – child welfare lawyer (as quoted from court documents)

4. unknown- group of unidentified prosecutors

Notes/analysis: No male sources were directly quoted in the article. Both the male and female grandparents are being charged with attempted murder. Both male and female victims were targeted.


Website: Patch (Seminole Heights)

On Patch of Seminole Heights, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3:30 p.m. (EST) on Friday, Feb. 18 was titled “Early Voting for Tampa Election Begins Saturday.” Its subject was a basic summary of information for voters in the upcoming municipal election.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – county supervisor of elections

Notes/analysis: For this election in Tampa, 1 of the 5 mayoral candidates is female, and 8 of the 28 city council candidates are female. Tampa currently has a female mayor and 3 of 7 city council members are female.

Gender check: 2/17/11 – 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)

On Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3 p.m. (MST) Thursday, Feb. 17, was titled “Missouri House OKs local control for St. Louis police.” Its subject was the Missouri House of Representatives giving its (initial) approval to provide city officials authority over the city’s police department.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female, state representative, Democrat

2. Male, governor (paraphrased)

3. Male, speaker of the house, Republican

Notes/analysis: Click here for an earlier Gender Check that looked at the gender breakdown in the Missouri Legislature.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3 p.m. (MST) Thursday, Feb. 17, was titled “Razing Chrysler North plant raises lots of question.” Its subject was the debate around the use and marketing of a no-longer-in-use Chrysler plant and whether it should be demolished.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female, U.S. senator, Democrat

2. Male, mayor

3. Male, county executive

4. Male, state representative, Republican

5. Male, state senator, Republican

Notes/analysis: In both articles this week, a woman’s actions led the story — whether it was her bill in the legislature or her letter she sent about her concerns. Even though women made up only one-fourth of the sources between the two stories (two women to six men), they were the cause of the news.

Gender Check: 2/16/11 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 3 p.m. EST on Feb. 16 was titled “As the Mainland Shivers, Hawaii Basks in Tourism’s Glow.” Its subject was the increased travel to Hawaii from the continental United States in recent months and potential reasons for the increase.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – tourist visiting Hawaii

2. Male – tourist visiting Hawaii

3. female – president of marketing for a California-based tour operator

4. male – president of Hawaiian hotel chain

5. male – professor

6. male – vice president of brand management for Hawaii Tourism Authority

7. male – vice president for sales at a national hotel chain

8. male -meteorologist

9. male – president of a hotel consulting firm

10. male -tourist

11. female – tourist

Notes/analysis: The gender imbalance in this story is particularly striking because of the relatively high number of sources for a story of this length. A small accompanying photo appears to picture two women, although the shot does not show their faces.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3 p.m. EST on Feb. 16 was titled “The Reform for Disabled Borrowers that the Education Dept Refuses to Adopt.” Its subject was a follow-up to an investigation into the policies surrounding student loan repayments for the disabled.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. male – spokesman for department of education

2. male – educational consultant

3. female – lawyer

Notes/analysis: Because this story makes several references to previous quotes or stories, I only included the breakdown of newly included sources.

Gender check: 2/15/11 – West

Jasmine R. Linabary1 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 12:30 p.m. (MST) Tuesday, Feb. 15, was titled “Data center may be too big for state needs.” Its subject was the cost of a complex being built to consolidate roughly three dozen state data centers.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female, spokeswoman, Department of Information Services

2. Male, representative to state legislature (Republican)

3. Male, representative (Democrat)

4. Female, development manager

5. Male, OFM deputy director

Notes/analysis: Both women mentioned are with the department that will operate the center.


Website: Seattle P-I

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 12:30 p.m. (MST) Tuesday, Feb. 15, was titled “Teen kicked by Seattle cop wants $450,000 from city.” Its subject subject was a case of alleged police abuse during a drug bust as well as a roundup of recent cases of police abuse caught on video.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, attorney

2. Male, deputy chief

3. Male, officers guild president

4. Male, prosecutor

5. Male, city attorney

Notes/analysis: Most sources were paraphrased. Most of the individuals mentioned in the story are male, with the exception of two teenage girls (one of which was punched in the face by an officer) and U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, who with others will meet to respond to requests to investigate the department.

Week in Review: Feb. 7 – Feb. 11

Jasmine R. Linabary6 Comments

*Week in Review is 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.

Women in the publishing industry

VIDA, an organization for women in the literary arts, recently released statistics from 2010 that showed a disparity in the number of female book reviewers and books by women that are reviewed in magazines and literary journals compared to men. The group showed its findings through 40 different pie charts looking at 14 magazines. Only on two charts did women outnumber men (cover to cover authors at The Atlantic and in authors reviewed at Poetry). Here are some examples of their findings:

Graph by VIDA
  • Only about 14 percent of the authors reviewed by The New Republic werefemale — 55 male authors and nine females.
  • The New York Times Book Review had 438 male bylines and 295 female bylines,and those reviewed a total of 807authors, 283 of which were women.
  • The New York Review of Books women had 39 bylines to men’s 200 and 59 female authors were reviewed compared to 306 men.

The issue was picked up across the web, mostly by women and a few men, and spurred debate this week around why this gap exists. Continue reading →