feminist news round-up: 22.02.14
Image: Daniel Lobo
Women’s Media Centre annual report reveals sad stats
The progress towards gender equality in the media is slow going, according to the latest annual report from the Women’s Media Centre. According to the report, women had the fewest speaking parts in film in 2012 since 2007; the highest paid female movie star gets paid the same as the lowest paid males; and female representation in the newsrooms of the US is in fact less than in 1999.
You’re more likely to die of old age than see gender quality in leadership roles
In another article about the Women’s Media Centre report, the LA Times discusses how women won’t have equal footing with men in leadership roles in politics, business, entrepreneurship and nonprofits until 2085. This report “really gives you the whole story for women in media across the board, and the news is bad news, it’s hard. We are not anywhere near gender-blind parity,” Julie Burton, president of the Women’s Media Center, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.
Sports journalism was one area of the report that was particularly troubling. Over 90% of sports journalists in the States are male and white. That’s despite the fact that recent studies show women make up between 33 and 45% of NFL audiences, showing a clear interest in sport.
Pussy Riot release video featuring brutal attack by Cossacks
Feminist rock group Pussy Riot have released an anti-Putin, anti-Olympics video featuring their recent beating by Cossacks. The horrifying images of the attack include shots of the women being sprayed with pepper spray, being whipped, and at least one woman being thrown to the ground and kicked. The lyrics refer to the cost of the Olympics, to the new law against gay propaganda, and to the repression of dissent and the stifling of Russia’s last independent TV station Dozhd TV.
In Other News …
Working single mothers are disproportionately likely to live in poverty
One Australian woman is hospitalised every three hours due to abuse
How House of Cards deals with sexuality and sexual assault
On Lip This Week …
Australia and New Zealand experience higher than global average rates of violence against women.
Meet Saudi Arabia’s first woman news paper editor.
German artist claims women don’t have what it takes to be great painters.
Women in Kazakhstan protest ban on lace panties.
What’s been on your news radar this week, Lipsters?
Anything interesting that we’ve missed?
Share it with us in the comments!
