Women journalists sick and tired of gender pay gap -March 2012

Female journalists are paid less, receive fewer benefits and are more often without a fixed contract than their male colleagues. They know it and it makes them less satisfied with their wage, working environment and – indeed – their colleagues, then men. Yet it seems hard to remedy these situations of factual discrimination in terms of working conditions. This finding is in line with the persistent pay gap typical for all gender relations of the working population, whatever their occupation, branch of industry, or region of the world they work in. It is however telling that this structural deprivation persists even amongst that part of the workforce that is supposedly well informed and assertive when it comes to getting things done.    

 

Male wages exceed female wages in all 16 studied countries, from the EU, the former Soviet Union and in Central and Latin America. The only asset women broadly share seems to be that they, less then their male colleagues, work in shifts or at irregular hours, on Saturdays, Sundays, or in the evenings, or do telework. But their more regular working week apparently does not compensate enough to make them feel as satisfied with their jobs as the men they work with on an equal footing.

 

These are the main findings of the report Gender Pay Gap in Journalism, March 2012. It is based on the international dataset of wages per occupation, compiled through the Wage Indicator Salary Surveys from 2009 till 2011. During this period nearly 2,000 journalists across the globe completed the questionnaire.

 The Gender Pay Gap in Journalism report has been made in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists .

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