Blokey' newsrooms still a battleground for female journalists

This paper reports on the largest survey of female journalists in the Australian news media. The goal was to investigate issues confronting women, including the extent of perceived gender discrimination in promotion, job segregation and working conditions. It is the first quantitative research of its type in 16 years, building on a smaller survey by the Australian media industry union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). That 1996 report found there was significant gender discrimination in Australian newsrooms and that sexual harassment, in particular, was a systemic problem. This 2012 online survey of 577 female journalists working across all media platforms in metropolitan, regional, rural and suburban news media organisations demonstrates that little has changed. The paper compares and contrasts key data from the 2012 and 1996 surveys to ascertain the challenges still evident for female journalists.