Sarah Beth Hensley, the digital news director at a radio station based in Washington DC (WTOP-FM) is at her office, submitted by Sarah Beth Hensley.
Women make up only 22% of top editors at major news outlets, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and in a 2019 diversity survey facilitated by the News Leaders Association, only 2% of newsroom managers identified as non-binary.
Sarah Beth Hensley, digital news director at WTOP-FM, a radio station based in Washington DC, said that women have had less privilege than men in the journalism field and that it’s been a struggle.
“There’s a whole lot of mansplaining that goes on,” said Hensley, “Women are constantly having to tackle that and to break down barriers to show their value, their worth, and their voice.”
While men hold the majority of leadership positions in media, Riley Rogerson, editor-in-chief of Georgetown University’s paper, The Hoya, pointed out that “men are really the minority at our organization.”
But even though her newsroom is made up of a female majority, male-dominance subtly creeps in as Rogerson interacts with her sources.
Staff of the Hoya, Georgetown University's paper, gather in the Leavey Center, their official newsroom since 1988. Credits to Patrick Neil.
“Having a unisex name like Riley...they [sources she had reached out to] always assume I’m a man,” said Rogerson. “They were always shocked when I showed up and was not who they were expecting.”
William and Mary College’s paper, The Flat Hat, also has a staff of mostly women. Claire Hogan, the editor-in-chief, said that this is “interesting” since it contradicts the gender ratio of newsroom staff at major media corporations. She goes on to say that men often don’t know how to respond to women in power.
“I think it’s very subtle...things, like, male colleagues cutting off female colleagues when they’re expressing ideas or telling them what to do when they’re not in a position of power over them.” said Hogan. “...subverting your [non-males] authority and diverting your ability, not, like, big, sexist tropes.”
Hogan said she had one piece of advice for aspiring women journalists.
“Go in with the blind confidence of a white man,” said Hogan, “I feel like a lot of women tend to doubt themselves, like, a lot more than men do.”