A collective of French female journalists have launched a campaign against what they call the “invisibility” of women in the media and the often sexist stereotypes of women presented by the media. Their manifesto, published earlier this week with signatures of support from more than 400 media professionals, calls for tough new measures to guarantee gender parity in the journalistic profession and among pundits invited by the media, as already required by law. Here, Mediapart political correspondent Lénaïg Bredoux, a member of the newly-formed collective, explains why she and her colleagues have had enough of the macho media.
The treatment of women in the media reflects that found in wider society – if it’s not even worse; take all the many television discussion programmes made up exclusively of male pundits, the dubious jokes and sometimes crass sexism sprinkled on-air and in print, and the unequal pay of press professionals.
