PWA Milan: Newsletter 2008 - Women and the media

WOMEN AND THE MEDIA

Moderator: Rosanna D’Antona, President D’Antona & Partners – Communication strategies

Participants:

Il Sole-24 Ore, Adriana Cerretelli
Financial Times, Adrian Michaels
Les Echos, Marie-Laure Cittanova
Associated Press, former director Dennis Redmont
El Pais, Miguel Mora
Handelsblatt, Katharina Kort (vice president Stampa Estera Milano)

Introduction
It’s a well-known fact that the position of women in the workforce and on career paths is slowly but continually rising all over the world. In this context, the media plays a vital role. Specifically, those in media that deal with the economic and business community can significantly influence the evolution of the human resources field in the following areas:

Contribute to the acceleration of the trend of positive growth – both by supporting the goals of the accords reached at the European Council 2000 Summit at Lisbon for increased participation of women in the workforce http://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/lis1_en.htm and by validating women’s talent and leadership capabilities.
Contribute to the perception of the value added by women in the workplace through their ability to complement the traditional men’s vision in defining the objectives that an organization sets for itself.
Debunk myths, stereotypes and popular wisdom, because in reality there are women who commit themselves, work and contribute to the development of this country and not simply to entertain or to boost sales for automobiles and cellular telephones.
Promote the evolution of the culture and traditions that make up our past towards more openness in a truly modern society.
Highlight the positive behaviours, but also the negative that occur in the workplace, whether they are based on law or policies in force in firms.
Influence both politics and the social conscience of this country

Assuming all of this to be true, when we analyze the media as industry, we note that this sector as well has very limited numbers of women in management positions. We’d like to know why, as in other sectors, this disparity exists and we’d like to work together to identify the tools that can help close this gap. We know that when there is a woman at the top, the “women call other women” effect occurs and this could be an effective means for change. Taking Italy as an example, we can roughly estimate the number of women editors-in-chief of daily publications at 1%: only one single woman in management of Provincia Pavese, but the percentages remain equal, if not declining when we extend the exercise to weekly economic publication where the presence of women is practically zero. In the 8 news magazines, under the management of L’Espresso where there is one woman, the finding is 12%. Overall in approximately 280 periodicals excluding women’s magazines, women account for only 14% of management positions.

Conclusion
I am inviting all of the groups present that work for the empowerment of women in our country to join a Manifesto to work for equal rights in the media and equal treatment of men and women by the media, the themes we have discussed today. The Manifesto will strive to become a guide of best practices and a benchmark, to be presented to the Federation of Editors and to directors of the printed press, radio and television in order to push for cultural change through articles and investigative reporting, ultimately heightening our society’s awareness of the position of women in the workplace in Italy. Together we can influence those who influence opinions in our country.