"Women and the Media" Blog by Ralitsa Vassileva

"Women and the media"

May 24, 2009

Posted by: CNN Anchor, Ralitsa Vassileva

From http://inthefield.blogs.cnn.com

Last week I was asked to speak about women and the media at a Global Women's Summit in Chile.

As I prepared my speech, I found some disturbing statistics - global surveys showing women are both marginalized in news coverage and underrepresented in top positions. My personal experience did not fit these statistics, most of my bosses have been women. But that didn't make the problem less important. So what was I going to say? The search for an answer would lead me to question my basic professional values.

According to the Global Monitoring Survey only 21 percent of the news covers issues important to women. Studies show the imbalance can be corrected if there are more women in decision-making positions. But according to the International Federation of Journalists, only 12 percent of executive positions in the media are held by women.

So what should we journalists do? Should we try to correct the imbalance? In other words, should we have an agenda?

I believe the media cannot have an agenda, no matter how noble the cause! Having experienced communist censorship first hand in my native Bulgaria, I've seen agendas get corrupted. Communism was sold as a society where all were supposed to be equal, but in George Orwell's words, some became "more equal." So if the media can't have an agenda, how do we correct the imbalance?

A few years ago I read a book by one of CNN's former female executives. Gayle Evans wrote: "Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman." She used her experience as a CNN executive to chart a roadmap for female success in the corporate world.

As an executive, she found herself in a game where the rules had been set by men, since they were the first to start playing. So she started playing like a man, learning the rules and getting good at it. That enabled her to eventually start winning like a woman, on her own terms. She strongly believes that the more women engage in the game, the more the rules start to change to the benefit of both sets of players.

Some at the conference disagreed with me, saying my way would take too long. But I just can't accept an agenda for the media. Our role is to inform people, to take every story on its merit. And speaking of merit, that's where we women journalists can help, by explaining the merits of stories that matter to us as women and more men will understand.

I remember a conversation with my doctor who told me he didn't quite get the glass ceiling women faced in society, until he had three daughters. He thought he and his three brothers did, but it was not until he was personally exposed to the issues, did he truly understand ...

Ralitsa Vassileva anchors "Your World Today" and "World News" for CNN International. Since she assumed her duties at CNN International in 1992, Ms. Vassileva has anchored coverage of many major international news stories including most recently Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.