Women’s occupations are still misrepresented in European media

The 6th Global Media Monitoring Project has portrayed a concerning picture of how women’s occupations are presented in European media.

While they are indeed overrepresented in the domestic sphere or associated with feminized occupations—such as homemaker, parent, child, young person, health worker, social worker, and childcare worker—women face a systemic underrepresentation in almost all specialist, professional, academic, manual, governmental, finance, sports, and religious occupations. Here is an example: the largest occupational category across all media, covered the 34% of the total, is the occupation of ‘politician’. Out of 34% of politicians on TV, though, only 22% are women. At the same time as sources of media content, they are overrepresented in the ‘sex worker’ category. 

These patterns reflect what the 2015 GMMP data had already shown, although in 2020 female representation for the category child and young person in television, radio, and print media, seems to have increased from 26% (2015) to 55%.

Another mild good news is that women’s representation increased slightly for the category of science/technology professional in television, radio, and print media, going from 6% in 2015 to 13% in 2020, and for the sportsperson category in television, radio, and print, from 9% in 2015 to 19% in 2020.

ENWE is working to create a network of European databases involved in offering the media an extensive selection of prestigious female profiles for interviews, conferences, and panels. Find out more about our network of partners here.