Feminist Looking Glass

Charlie Gibson is retiring from ABC’s World News Tonight, and Diane Sawyer is slotted to replace him. She joins CBS’ Katie Couric to make 2 of the 3 leading news anchors female. For the first time, women will actually represent the majority of leading anchors delivering the network nightly news.

Women have historically had difficulty reaching the top levels of the broadcast journalism industry. Studies have found that female reporters or anchors are thrown “softer” stories, while men report on politics. Additionally, female experts are interviewed far less often. This has obviously made it difficult for female newscasters to be taken seriously and to ascend the ranks.

If you’re wondering how seriously female anchors are taken, try searching on google for “female anchors statistics.”  This mostly yields results on the “Top 10 Hottest Female Anchors” or the “Sexiest Female reporters.”

Women of color, of course, continue to be underrepresented in the industry.

Filed under: Pop Culture, Workplace Tagged: | charlie gibson, diane sawyer, journalism, news