Who Needs Women’s History Month Anyway?
March 2006 Vol. 13 No. 6
Message from the Editor
By Lori Hope
Controversy swirled around the issue of designating February as Black History Month after actor Morgan Freeman appeared on 60 Minutes and called the notion ridiculous. The question he asked, “You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” could be asked about Women’s History Month, as well.
We at Bay Area BusinessWoman News wholeheartedly support a month commemorating the accomplishments of women throughout the nation and the world, and a day — March 8, International Women‘s Day — highlighting women’s progress worldwide.
Although at BABW, every month is Women’s History Month and every day IWD, we are an anomaly. Most women’s publications highlight fashion, beauty, relationship issues, and ways to increase our power through our sexuality. And the mainstream media exploit a women’s need for acceptance even more.
A newly released report based on a study of radio, TV, and newspaper content in 76 countries during one single day helps add more fuel to the fire of women’s under- and mis-representation in the media. The 2005 Global Media Monitoring Project shows:
• Women are central to the news in only 10 percent of stories. In economics reporting, women are the focus in only 3 percent of stories; in pieces about politics and government, women garner only 8 percent of the focus.
• Only 3 percent of stories challenge gender stereotypes.
• Just 4 percent of stories deal with gender equality.
This is due partly to who’s assigning the news stories. Women comprised 21 percent of news directors at U.S. television stations in 2004; among communications companies in the Fortune 500, women on average comprise 12 percent of board members. The percentage of top editor positions at mainstream newspapers was down to 20 percent in 2002; a mere quarter of syndicated columnists are women, and only 10 to 20 percent of op-ed columns are written by women.
Without more woman-owned and -managed media, we will never learn about most of the current and past accomplishments of women in politics, economics, government, and even some of the “softer” fields like entertainment, nonprofit management, and sports.
Were it not for the movie, North Country, starring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand, most of us would never have heard of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
At BABW News we continually commemorate women of the past and present who have had a tremendous impact on the Bay Area and the world. Some of the women we have highlighted include Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmworkers Union; Gloria Steinem, feminist and founder of Ms.Magazine; and this month, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, who helped change the way the world looks at complementary medicine.
We encourage you to educate us about outstanding women in the worlds of commerce, community, and the arts and sciences, so that we can continue to educate (and enlighten and entertain!) our readers each month, and hopefully inspire more young women to enter the world of media.
As Molly McGregor, the founder of the National Women’s History Project and subject of our cover story said, “It would be so perfect if someday we did not need a women’s history month.” In the meantime, we’re here to help celebrate it with you!
Temporarily available at: http://www.babwnews.com/article.php?id=519
