A Pink Collar Profession?

A recent article in the University of Texas alumni magazine, The Alcalde, brought up an interesting bit about broadcast news. According to the article, 70 % of students in the U of T journalism school are female, and female-dominated newsrooms are becoming the norm nationwide. While I certainly couldn't find much additional research backing up these claims, it does seem to be reaffirming what I've seen myself.

In the newsrooms I've been in, there are usually more women than men. In the journalism classes in which I've been a student or a teacher, I can't think of one time the men outnumbered the women. In my masters program, it was the same. Girls, girls, girls. Why?

This week I posed that question to my students in a discussion forum, and got a firestorm of a response. It's sometimes hard to get any responses, so I was thrilled to hit upon some controversy. While they idealistically believe the best person should always be hired for the job, most seemed to agree it was about the money.

Here are a few reponses that I thought were interesting:

.....So I e-mailed (blank) a reporter from fox 16 news, and she totally thought that it made sense that women would be coming into the field of journalism due to the fact that they are just so excellent at multi-tasking.

.....I agree with (blank) when she said that men look for the big money dollar job. I know I would like that. Some men feel that they do have to "bring the bacon home" and know that journalism isn't the best option for big bucks. It's all an ego thing. Men just like to be the provider. Thats probably the most logical reason why there are not many men in the field.

.......Seriously, it goes to the money and ego aspect of it. I believe men would rather not work in this field than have to answer to a woman and make as much as or less than women in the newsroom. That's not the case for most but I know when I worked at a TV station in Monroe, LA that was the case for a couple of the new reporters and was a reason one of the anchors left, he couldn't stand having a woman for a boss.

........One of the most important is probably because journalism isn't a field where most people make tons of money. Most everyone wants a job where they can earn a substanial amount of money per year. Men in this society are still seen as being the provider for their family. It's sort of the macho type of thinking but it still happens even in 2008.

...... I really don't feel like it matters who is presenting the news, if they are competent to do so. I think what should be looked at instead is the age factor. Why do people leave the profession at that age? What things could be changed within the industry to raise the level of retention? The fact that there aren't many anchors over the age of 40 could be because they are taking jobs off camera that pay more, but are still working in the industry.