Pew Research Center Report Examines Gender Diversity in the Nation’s Newsrooms

A new study from the Pew Research Center offers data on women journalists. The study of 12,000 journalist found that nationwide, 46 percent of all reporting journalists in the United States are women. Reporting journalists are those who indicated that they have one of the following job titles: reporter, columnist, writer, correspondent, photojournalist, video journalist, data visualization journalist, host, anchor, commentator, or blogger.

The report found larger gender disparities in the beats covered by reporting journalists. For example, nearly two thirds of all reporting journalists whose primary beat was either health or education were women. Women were 58 percent of all reporting journalists who focused on social issues and policy,

In contrast, women were only 15 percent of all reporting journalists in sports. Women were 39 percent of all reporting journalists who concentrated on government and politics and 38 percent of journalists who primarily covered science and technology.

The Pew Research Center also found that two-thirds or reporting journalist say their organization has achieved sufficient gender diversity. Some 59 percent of women journalists said their organization lacks sufficient racial and ethnic diversity. Only 46 percent of male journalists agreed.

Only 61 percent of women journalists said that everyone in their organization is generally treated fairly regardless of their gender. But 77 percent of male journalists thought everyone was treated fairly.