A new study published in The Journal of Politics has identified specific scenarios in which women pundits speak less and are interrupted more in televised political commentary.
In an analysis of over 6,000 panel discussions aired on ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, and Fox News between 2000 and 2017, the study authors identified the relative speaking time and interruptions for more than 226,000 individual speech turns, ultimately measuring the ratio of words spoken by women to those spoken by men in each discussion.
On debate-style programs with male-dominated panels, women are interrupted more and speak less. Unsurprisingly, the opposite trend was found among debate-style panels where women make up a larger share of participants.
A different finding emerged when analyzing more cooperative programming. In shows that aim for civil discourse rather than combative discussions, the authors found no difference in how much men and women talk, regardless of the panel’s overall gender representation. However, these shows were found to have more interruptions with more women on the panel. Notably, these interruptions were particularly driven by male participants.
Based on their findings, the authors believe political commentary programming may be contributing to persistent gender inequities through demonstrating problematic behavioral norms to the public. They suggest television networks should implement better moderation strategies and strive for balanced representation on panel discussions.
The study was led by scholars at Ohio State University, in partnership with researchers at Duke University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of Texas at Dallas.