This is the critical question posed by "Glass Ceiling Two: An Audit of Women and Men in South African newsrooms." A project of the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) the second phase of the study has put some stark numbers to what the first study, released on Women's Day (9 August) 2006 revealed: a host of barriers to the advancement of women in the media profession.
This subsequent audit of women in newsrooms, conducted in collaboration with Gender Links, involved administering a factual questionnaire to the SABC, The Citizen, Kaya FM, Media 24, Primedia, SAPA, the Independent Group of newspapers, Johncom and the Mail and Guardian between September and December 2006. This study, which covered 4,364 employees (or an estimated half of all journalists), found that with 45 percent women in newsrooms (compared to 33 percent in a 1995 study), there is a progressive move towards achieving gender balance. But black women, who constitute 46 percent of the population, only account for 18 percent of newsroom staff (compared to 45 percent of the population and 28 percent of newsroom staff in the case of black men and four percent of the population and 28 percent of newsrooms in the case of white men). At R184, 387 per annum, the annual average salary of women in newsrooms is 21 percent less than the average annual salary of men (R233, 737). While the income differential between white men and black men in newsrooms is narrowing, black women earn, on average, 25 percent less than white men in newsrooms. (GenderLinks)
