The importance of representative voices in the media was highlighted by recent research exploring whether the lack of migrant voices in the media played a part in the attitude of many towards immigrants.  It’s a hypothesis that new research from Simon Fraser University also mines, as it shows that women’s voices continue to be underrepresented in the Canadian media.

The study found that between October 2018 and September 2020, men outnumber women by about three to one, with just 29% of the people quoted in media stories being women in that timeframe.  This is also perhaps bolstered by the pandemic as nearly all of the most quoted women in that time were public health officials, whereas the most quoted men were all politicians.

“What this study shows is that we are very far from parity in mainstream news,” the researchers say. “This has profound implications, as we tend to look for role models in the media.”

Media voices

The analysis found that politicians were the most commonly quoted people in the media, followed by athletes and other sports figures.  The pandemic also saw a marked increase in the number of healthcare professionals quoted in the media.

“We found that, although men and women politicians appear regularly, men are quoted far more often. This is the case even despite Canada’s gender-balanced cabinet,” the authors say.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Donald Trump was the most quoted figure, followed by Justin Trudeau.  Among the most quoted women were Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and Canada’s Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.

Quotable commentary

The researchers found that articles written by women quote more women (34 per cent for articles authored by women compared to 25 per cent for articles authored by men) and suggest part of the solution to addressing the gender gap in media includes hiring more women as reporters.

The study was conducted in partnership with Informed Opinions, which encourages media to diversify their sources and better reflect both genders. While the Gender Gap Tracker can only capture one kind of diversity, since it relies on names to assign gender to sources, the authors suggest considering other forms of diversity, given many other groups are underrepresented in the news.

The Gender Gap Tracker is available online (gendergaptracker.informedopinions.org) and updates every 24 hours.