Financial news publication Bloomberg has become the first of its kind to mandate that news stories include female voices.
Bloomberg’s news editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler announced an historic change in a staff email circulated yesterday.
“All Bloomberg News enterprise work must include at least one woman’s voice, and preferably a balance of men and women,” he wrote.
“Women are engaged in every topic we cover. Our journalism should reflect that variety.”
This new rule means that no enterprise news story will be published by Bloomberg unless it includes at least one female voice. This kind of quota for experts and sources in the world of news is afirst.
To help his staff with the transition away from all-male stories, Winkler included a list of female sources they could refer to.
“See MSG6 BNWOMENSOURCE [Bloomberg resource] for a list of sources that includes more than 800 names. Send details of more female contacts to the list’s administrator, Tallin Ouzounian.”
This comment is telling. By pointing out that Bloomberg’s preliminary internal list of female experts and sources is already 800 names long, Winkler is reinforcing his earlier point: women are engaged in every topic they cover.
He is drawing attention to the gross misrepresentation that occurs when newspapers are dominated by male voices,experts, sources and bylines. The statistics of male to female voices in media suggests we have a shortage of female journalists and experts, but as Winkler points out, we don’t. The only problem is that reporting is not reflecting the reality of women’s engagement.
The statistics tell the story: Male front-page bylines still outnumber female bylines 3 to 1. On American Sunday talk shows last year, women made up on 14% of expert interviewees and only 29% of roundtable guests. Men consistently make up the overwhelming majority ofsources quoted across all news platforms: broadcast, print and radio.
This underrepresentation of women in media affects the narrative we are told about news, daily events and current affairs. As Winkler so aptly points out, women are involved in all of these realms of society, from the lowest to the highest level, and to exclude female voices from this narrative is misrepresentative.
The important thing about Winkler’s decision, though, is this: It is a recognition of the fact that on top of being a gross misrepresentation of reality, this bias is also bad journalism. And it has to stop.
If this change means the number of women quoted in the news – especially in a male-dominated sector like finance – improves even slightly, then it is a bold step in the right direction. Bravo, Bloomberg.
The good news for any Australian publishers, editors or journalists who would like to follow Bloomberg’s lead is that finding women to comment won’t be difficult. The Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia has a comprehensive database called Women for Media that is brimming with women who are available to comment on any range of topics.