The state of female broadcast journalists in the age of the Harvey Weinstein scandal

Abstract

When the New York Times broke the news of the decades of sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, it marked a turning point in the national reckoning of sexual harassment. At a time when harassment in the workplace has become topical in the public eye, I conducted nine interviews with male and female journalists in Washington, D.C. about their experiences with gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the television and digital news industry. I interviewed four men and five women with professional experience ranging from less than two years to more than thirty years in broadcast journalism. My findings paint a picture of an industry in flux that still has gender discrimination ingrained in its culture. For the most part, young women I spoke to felt like equal players in the newsroom. However, women still have to overcome workplace hurdles that men do not on a daily basis. In particular, female journalists who work in the field experience sexual harassment regularly, and they consider it a "necessary part of the job" that they must endure. Women have not yet cracked the glass ceiling, as men continue to dominate the high-management and executive levels in the industry. As TV broadcast news undergoes structure changes to adapt to the digital space, there is potential for a more collaborative and equality-driven work culture to emerge.