Some Male Editors Don't See Newsroom Sexism

By: Joe Strupp Some male editors and publishers disagree that sexism prevents female editors from advancing in the newsroom. A survey released last week showed that many women editors see a lack of opportunity for promotion.

Only one in three of top women editors questioned in the study said they expected to move up at their current newspaper. Among those women who believed they were blocked from advancement, 64% said their employers normally favored male candidates. More than half expect to leave their current company or the newspaper business altogether.

Some men who have spent decades in the industry said they didn't see sexism at such high levels, citing the recent appointments of first-time women chief editors in several cities.

"It doesn't track with my own experience," said Heath J. Meriwether, the Detroit Free Press publisher who recently appointed that paper's first woman editor. "I don't think sexism is a barrier, but it is important to deal with that perception."

William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and CEO of MediaNews Group Inc., agreed. "I've never noticed that there was any discrimination based on sex," he said. "But I don't see every newsroom and every newspaper."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editor and Senior Vice President John G. Craig has also seen little evidence of discrimination: "My sense is that it is not true."

The study found that men and women editors tended to have similar leadership traits, visions for newspaper content, and job satisfaction. Where they differed, however, was in the outlook on prospects for advancement, the drive to move up, and the need for time with family.

Other findings from the API/Pew study showed 27% of the women predicted they would prematurely leave the newspaper industry, while just 6% of the men expected to depart; 35% of women said they would probably not be promoted to the next level at their current papers, compared with 24% of men; and 40% of the women said they were not politically savvy enough, compared with 12% of men.

Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that only 20% of women - compared with 36% of men -- say they "definitely" want to move up in the industry.

"It is discouraging," said Mary Glick, an API associate director who worked on the report. "We knew this was going on, and it is not surprising that there is sexism out there."

But Earl Maucker, the editor and senior vice president at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, responds: "I haven't seen that level of sexism. It's sad to hear that so many feel that way."

The American Press Institute and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism jointly released the survey Thursday. The telephone poll was made public at an API seminar on "Women in Newsroom Leadership" in Reston, Va. Between Aug. 28 and Sept. 17, pollsters questioned editors, managing editors, and assistant managing editors at newspapers with daily circulation of 50,000 or more. Of the 273 people interviewed, 202 were men and 71 were women.

To read E&P's recent report on women editors, click here.

For more information on the study, please visit the API's Web site at http://americanpressinstitute.org/2002curtis.