Gender equality remains a problem in news media


A study conducted by Global Media Monitoring Project 2015 (GMMP) revealed that media coverage of women is less than the coverage of men, and only 24 percent of news anchors are female. Sarah Macharia, the coordinator of GMMP said the gender equality results have not changed since they started monitoring the representation of women in the news media 20 years ago. She added that, according to the results, gender equality in media will only be achieved in 75 years. "In 1995, women were 17 percent of the people interviewed and the subjects in the news, compared to 24 percent today," Macharia said. The study showed that gender discrimination also exists in digital media, and one in every four online news pieces is about women. On the other hand, women are represented more in news about science and health instead of politics. According to the report, women are visible in 16 percent of political news, and they stand out in 35 percent of science and health news, which covers only 8 percent of overall news around the world. As the study suggested, women are more visible in South American media while they are underrepresented mainly in Middle Eastern media.