We need to change the negative news reporting of women

Tags

Dr David Paul, Elizabeth Renzetti column, feminine leadership, Gina Lazenby, Olympics women athletes news reporting, women and media

Here’s the third video (in the series of seven on feminine leadership) from my conversation with Dr David Paul in Sydney. We’re talking about how the media filters stories and comments on women and what we can do about it.

Two current stories about women and the Olympics caught my attention. Right now, I’m travelling in Canada so I am missing the Olympics in London.  I managed to see the Opening Ceremony live  but I’ve not had much chance to watch any further TV coverage. However I have been scanning the Canadian papers for commentary.

A story that I did take note of was about coverage of female Olympians. US research published in June of television coverage of the Olympics by Professor James Angelini of the University of Delaware who analysed all 64 hours of American network NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, found several key differences in the way men’s and women’s sports were depicted. Sportscasters framed men’s and women’s successes and failures in different ways. Male athletes’ achievements were more frequently attributed to athletic ability and commitment to sport, whereas women’s successes were more likely to be put down to luck. When female athletes failed, their physical ability and commitment were questioned, whereas men’s failures were presented in the context of their competitors’ success. The same was noted when the 2008 Games in Beijing were studied.

How damaging is this to women’s psyche and for our self esteem …… I bet most of this goes unnoticed because it’s subtle. Yet it must surely add to a woman feeling “less than”. Some media disrespect and bias against women is much more obvious. This media treatment was spotted by Elizabeth Renzetti, a columnist in Canada’s Globe and Mail who shared her disappointment at the focus of the attention at the press conference for the British Women’s beach volleyball team. “The first question to the athletes” she writes, “was: Will you promise to wear your bikinis even if it rains? …. The male athletes sat there while no one asked them a question, because we already knew they weren’t going to wear bikinis. They were free to think about boring stuff like training routines and nutrition.” Apparently, this year the women’s beach volleyball teams have been given the option of wearing shorts and long-sleeved tops instead of bikinis. She also goes on to point out that Australia’s minister for sport had to comment on criticism of one of the country’s female athlete’s weight saying that the comments were “appalling” while Britain’s Jessica Ennis, even with her washboard abs has been called “fat” by high-ranking officials in her sport.

Now this isn’t in the least bit subtle. What to do about it? How do we divert the media’s attention to a more positive appraisal and reporting of women? That is something David Paul touches on in our conversation in this week’s video. He urges the need for us to have transformative conversations so we can clarify our messages …. basically constructing and planning for more positive PR for women. He says we need to get organised. It’s a very interesting suggestion. He points out that in order for the media to stop criticising the hairstyle of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, she needs to divert their inane conversation and give them clearer messages of what she stands for.

Notes from this conversation with Dr David Paul:
* the media focuses on what Julia Gillard wears….. Nobody else is interested. The news is filtered through the masculine lens of the media and press. There are many transformational possibilities with the media.

* The media shapes everyone’s thinking, whether we like it or not, subconsciously the messages get through.  With Julia, we focus on her hairstyle and what she’s wearing as opposed the messages.  We listen to this because there is nothing else to listen to.

* Julia Gillard needs coaching on really stating her messages and reiterating them. Most people don’t know what she stands for apart from a couple of things: carbon tax and taxing mining companies. We really don’t know what she stands for and women need a vision, that’s the key to our transformation.  Men would get on the bandwagon too if they saw that it was a vision they wanted to follow.

* Oprah Winfrey has created a vision, she is a brand and a presence. She has single-handedly made a success of her programme.  She has created a transformational space where she has invited men and women to change the world. Somehow we don’t focus on the schools that she has created in Africa. We need to start focusing on the good that women do.

* Julia Gillard does not focus on the good that she has achieved because she always says she needs to strive for more.
So the message is:
What is our vision?
What we strive for?
What do we want to change?

We need a clear articulation. It starts with a conversation:
What is important to us?
Articulate it clearly
Get behind it
Put out simple messages.

* We need to improve our public relations and have the right message then push it out through the media and social media. We need to get organised.

* Why do women say my husband does not listen to me?
The message is not said in succinct ways. And it’s not repeated often enough.
To tackle a man’s mind you have to say your message very clearly, men have a very small attention span!    We have to say “this is our message” and we have to keep repeating it, be very clear.

*That is exactly what President Obama does. Martin Luther King said I have a dream about 25 times in one speech.  He anchors this key phrase into our memory. That’s exactly what Margaret Thatcher did, she was a very good communicator.

Be clear
Know our priorities……  narrow down what is important after discussion
Go out and make changes from there.

* In these transforming conversations:
Be succinct and clear
Stay on course, keep with the vision and don’t wander all over the place.
Sell the message: our current systems are not working.

* Women need to get on the bandwagon, we need to talk about what the change could be even though we don’t know what it is. Nobody knows it so discuss it and find out. We have to step forward, women are innovators, we create, out of nothing, the most amazing things. Men are always amazed at what women can do!

Previous postings of conversations with Dr David Paul on feminine leadership:

1) The importance of feminine qualities in women leaders

2) More women needed on boards

Advertisement

Olympic Golden Girls & Yahoo’s Mama-to-be CEO show new role models are emerging

Tags

Dr David Paul, feminine leadership, Gina Lazenby, Olympics women athletes news reporting

As female faces have shone out from the TV screens with one female participant referring to them as the “Girlie Games”, these 2012 Olympics are being called a real stepping stone for women’s sport. According to an editorial in the Guardian, prior to the Games just “5% of media coverage was given to women’s sports in non-Olympic years, and 0.5% of sponsorship”. With public interest in these dedicated super heroine athletes now at record levels this is surely set to change. This Olympics has been fantastic for women – every national team had female competitors and each sport had female representation. The USA team had more women than men and they even won more medals! Jessica Ennis and the British Golden girls are all fantastic role models for achievement for young girls.

an image from an article illustrating women on boards

This is certainly a shift we need. In this week’s video, my conversation with Dr David Paul highlights the lack of positive role models of women in business. We discussed how the portrayal of women in senior positions is often as surrogate men.  In a recent business magazine article about women on company boards, the illustrations show older women with white hair, playing golf and smoking big fat cigars.  In other words, they are there as women but they are doing the male thing.  This really seems to defeat the object of a woman being on a Board. It seems we cannot express our femininity and bring a woman’s feminine perspective if we are having to play the man’s game and do things the masculine way.

In addition to the Olympics, another high profile event happened this summer when a pregnant Marissa Mayer was hired as CEO of Yahoo. Now that was a bit of a game-changer. Reactions were varied but in general extremely positive.
Among the commentary about this significant appointment there does not seem to be a single other example of a major company recruiting a six months pregnant woman for the top job. A BBC report relayed that  TechCrunch says Mayer may well be “the first ever pregnant CEO of a Fortune 500 tech company” and calls the announcement “trailblazing”. Dr Fiona Moore, a senior lecturer in human resource management at the University of London, was quoted as saying Yahoo’s move is to be celebrated.  “We’re gradually getting towards the realisation that pregnancy and motherhood does not render women unable to do business.”      This is indeed a sign of an important shift !

Here is the fifth video in the series on Feminine Leadership where I am in conversation with Dr David Paul talking about role models for women. See the transcript below ………

The transcript from this interview:

* In a recent article about women on company boards, in the illustrations older women were shown with white hair, playing golf and smoking big fat cigars.  In other words, they are there as women but they are doing the male thing.  This really seems to defeat the object of a woman being on a Board. It seems we cannot express our femininity and bring a woman’s feminine perspective if we are having to play the man’s game and do things the masculine way.
* Who are the well rounded successful business women role models?   Do we have any that the media highlights?  Look at the dysfunctional successful woman in the movie ‘Devil Wears Prada’ and the sacrifices that had to be made for her to be at the top.  We lack of role models of successful women achieving success in a different way.
For example in the UK, Michelle Mone is a very successful business leader who when interviewed recently described herself as very focused and driven, and this seemed to be a key reason that her marriage foundered. It feels like we either have personal success or business success, one or the other but not both.
* Are these the only role models for young women? Girls are being given the impression that they will have to drive themselves so much that they can only have a successful career/business or marriage/life: a choice between one or the other.
* We want success but we don’t want to put the rest of our lives at risk. We need more role models of women who have achieved a better balance.
* David gives two examples of famous women who have achieved some balance.   Meryl Streep combines these 2 roles very well, and talks a lot about work-life balance. Gail Kelly of the Westpac Bank is a woman at the highest level of banking in Australia and also has a family.

* David says the problem is that women see themselves as either/or instead of both/and…  We have to break that down and change it.   We must bring other people in to our business to help us so that we don’t end up doing it all ourselves. He says that when JK Rowling worked on the Harry Potter films she brought in help for that.    The real point here is that we need to look at the models that don’t work, we can’t look at 20th-century models because they don’t work today in the new paradigms.

* It is very difficult for women when the corporate system really does not support motherhood. There are women who do want a family and also they want to express themselves outside the home and realise their potential. They are not given the working hours or ways that support them having young children. So they then make a decision for either/or – that is more the fault of the system.The system does not recognise their value as a woman.

* David says that we have to work from the top down with new policies that create work friendly organisations.   We also have to work from the bottom up and this is what women need to say…… this is what we demand.

Other conversations on video in the series can be found on these blog links:

1 The importance of feminine qualities in women leaders

2 More women needed on Boards

3 We need to change the negative news reporting of women & create clear messages

4 Women need to find their “gold” inside to drive change