Women and leadership in the news media 2024: evidence from 12 markets

Report

In this Reuters Institute factsheet, we analyse the gender breakdown of top editors in a strategic sample of 240 major online and offline news outlets in 12 markets across five continents. Building off work started in 2020, we find in 2024 that only 24% of the 174 top editors across the 240 brands covered are women. In 2023, this percentage was 22% across the 240 brands covered. The percentage of women in top editorial positions varies significantly by market, from 0% in Japan to 43% in the US. In all 12 markets, the majority of top editors are men, including in countries where women outnumber men among working journalists. We find a weak positive correlation between the percentage of women working in journalism with the percentage of women in top editorial positions. A linear projection suggests that, at the current pace of change, there could be gender parity in top editorial positions by 2074.

Authors: Ross Arguedas, A; Mukherjee, M; Nielsen, RK

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
• Series: Reuters Institute Factsheets
• Place of publication: Oxford
• Publication date: 2024-03-08
• DOI: 10.60625/risj-0ttb-6h80
• Language: English
• Keywords: newsroom diversity; inequality; media leadership; gender; news; women in journalism