Women newspaper editors in NZ: Short term love affair

Abstract

New Zealand has had three women prime ministers, and the first country in the world to give women a vote, but there is still a gender gap in leadership in the traditionally staid arena of daily newspapers. One-third of the country’s daily newspapers have never had a female editor. The gender imbalance is significant in an industry that still breaks the majority of news items, and is influential in public information. The low ratio of women editors is incongruous with the fact the majority of journalism students are female, and a large number new hires are women. This longitudinal study has interviewed every woman who has held the position of editor, which totals only 15. The good news is that currently there are more women in editorships than ever before, the sad news is that this still represents only 29 percent of daily editors. The attitudinal interviews show the editors love the job, but quit after only a few short years, but this may be changing.

Keywords

• daily newspapers
• digital journalism
• female newspaper editors
• gender
• journalism
• New Zealand