The survey is available in English, Spanish, French and Arabic. Members should complete survey by 31 March at the latest.

Global reports show that men occupy 73% of the top media management jobs, whereas women occupy just 27% of the highest positions. Among the ranks of reporters, men hold nearly two-thirds of the jobs.  However, companies are recognising that having women in all levels of the organisation, including management and the boardroom, also makes business sense.

As a representative body to the world’s press, WAN-IFRA is uniquely placed to identify industry-led solutions to promote gender equality in news media. We also know that many of our members are undertaking serious measures to promote gender equality in their newsrooms and boardrooms (See Winning Strategies hand book here).

We want to learn more to begin a conversation about how work together as an industry to accelerate this change.

Click here to contribute to the survey (English version).

Click here for the Spanish, French and Arabic version of the survey. 

Since 2010, WAN-IFRA has been working to increase women’s leadership and voices in the global news industry through its sector-leading Women in News programme.

As part of these efforts, WAN-IFRA is committed to examining its own internal approach to gender equality and in December 2016 the Board passed a resolution committing itself to improving diversity in its own governance bodies. This Gender Reality Check is a first step in activating this commitment.

This survey builds upon UNESCO's Gender Sensitive Media Indicators and supports UNESCO's Who Makes the News initiative. It also supports the ‘Step it Up’ UN Women Gender Equality Media Compact, an initiative to promote women’s leadership within the media industry and reduce gender bias in the news. WAN-IFRA is proud to support UN Women in its goal to achieve a 50/50 representation of women across all industries by 2030, and UNESCO’s “Women Make The News” campaign.

This survey builds upon UNESCO's Gender Sensitive Media Indicators and supports UNESCO's Who Makes the News initiative.

For more information please contact Melanie Walker, Director, Media Development: melanie.walker@wan-ifra.org