Even as women outpace men among university graduates, journalism is still shaped by persistent gender inequalities. Ingrid Bachmann from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Mia Moody from Baylor University, and Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh from Butler University conducted an analysis drawing on discussions from the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) 2025 Syndicate to look at the state of journalism and gender education.
Diversity, bias, and structural inequalities remain a critical issue in journalism education, and sensitivity to gender is considered an essential professional skill (Contreras Gómez et al., 2020). Recent legislative attacks in many countries agains DEI, according to the authors, make this article even more important.
The WJEC Syndicate considered these new and continuing challenges to journalism and gender education (directly from the article):
- An increasingly precarious employment situation for men and women journalists, with women being affected disproportionately.
- Emerging mental health issues and gender-specific trauma driven by a global pandemic and sociopolitical climate.
- New gender divides because of the focus on innovation and technologies in journalism.
- A need to confront these issues on multiple fronts.
The authors make four recommendations, based on the discussions.
- Integrate intersectional frameworks into journalism curricula: intersectional approaches should be incorporated into journalism education, meaning how gender interacts with race, class, sexuality, and other identities – to ensure students understand the complexity of inequality
- Develop collaborative global modules: shared modules and international exchange programs to educate about international case studies and different media systems, and emphasize cross-cultural learning as important
- Prioritize media literacy and critical thinking: courses to emphasize critical analysis of media representations – especially on gender and inequality.
- Reinforce traditional news values in the curriculum: foundational values such as timeliness, prominence, accuracy, and objectivity should remain essential for credible journalism.
The article “Educating Journalism Students on Gender in Challenging Times” by Ingrid Bachmann, Mia Moody, and Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh is in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. (Free abstract).
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