McMaster study finds 5 to 1 ratio of male to female opinion
Another recent study of commentary pieces in Canada’s two major English-language newspapers also shows that women’s authorship remains at 1/5th the level of men’s, and remains largely absent from newspapers’ traditional “hard news” issues of politics, economics, and current events.
Sarah Marinelli and Philip Savage of McMaster University analyzed a random sample of 80 opinion-editorials in 2009 from The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, examining not only the gender of op-ed authorship, but also the issues addressed, and authors’ professions. The 80-20% gender split was consistent in both papers and similar to the findings of a recent US study conducted by the Op Ed Project, which has recently updated this research.
Approximately 75% of the subjects addressed in the Canadian sample were in “hard news” areas of politics (40%), economics (15%), and foreign and national affairs (10% each). The remaining 25% was split among traditional soft news subjects such as social issues, health care, culture and the environment.
Whereas women comprised 20% of total Op-ed authorship, in the “hard news” subject areas their proportion of authorship dropped by half to 10%, with men writing 90% of all commentary on politics, national and international affairs, and business/economics. By contrast in the softer subject areas (which represented a smaller proportion of total op-eds published – about one-quarter) female authorship rose to 35%.
Hypothesizing that profession would be a key indicator for confidence in writing for the op-ed pages, the study found a substantial number of media professionals on the op-ed pages, including 47.5% of male authors and the majority (73%) of female authors. Among the other 27% of female authors, there were no female politicians or academics, whereas 21% of male authors were academics and 15% were politicians.