EGiD - Hec-Ulg / projet Diane (UCM-Hainaut) financé par le FSE1 Women entrepreneur in the business...

EGiD - Hec-Ulg / projet Diane (UCM-Hainaut) financé par le FSE 1

Women entrepreneur in the business press: not enough visibility!

Annie CORNET, Full professor Valérie DUBOIS, ResearcherValérie DUBOIS, Researcher

EGiD, Diversity and Gender in ManagementEGiD, Diversity and Gender in Management

Research questions

• What is the visibility of women entrepreneurs in French Belgian business media, especially in “business heading”, presented as a personality of the economic sphere?

• What is the content of these articles?• Is it different from those about men?


Literature Review

• Few studies on the image of women in the media:– Image of women in advertising (ARPP-Pub, 2013)

– Image of women in politics (Sourd, 2005).• Only a few studies on the image of women

entrepreneur and of executive women in business media and on their visibility (Radu & Redien-Collot, 2008, Summers, Eikhof, & Carter, 2014)


Visibility of business women in media

• The Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) shows the underrepresentation of women in debate and news shows:

• 18% of experts,• 23,21% of representatives• 15,6% of people interviewed during newscasts

• Rea (CSA, 2011, p.184) argues that “media works through elitist cooperation. People we know are the ones we pick”.


Women in Politics in media

• Women’s body, style and family are frequently more mentioned than their skills (Sourd, 2005).

• They are also often portrayed as dominant women (The Huffington Post, janvier 2014).

• They are portrayed in their roles of wife and mother to show how they manage these roles linked with their professional life. Sometimes the article shows the choice they made like the ones who decided not to have children to be a leader in the economic sphere.

• In politics, “the daughter of…” or “the protected” are also used, as if women’s position was decided according to men.



Sample : French Belgian Economic Journals

• Weekly: - L’Echo

• Weekly: - Trends tendances

• Monthly: - Union et Actions, UCM- Forward (FEB)- CCI Mag (Liège/Brabant Wallon)


Too difficult to analyse all articles which speak about women: multiple and heterogeneous pieces of information

Focus on some recurrent articles (business headings) for an systematic analysis of the presence and

visibility of women in these articles (one year – 2012) / first study (2006)

Research Design


Presentation of the « business headings »

• In the Trends tendances:– “Bizz: Starter” presents, every week in a page, a start-up and the

people who founded it– “People” presents, every week in a page, a personality of the economic

sphere– “Le réseau de…” (the network of …”) is published every two weeks

and relates, as its name indicates, the network of a personality of the economic and/or political sphere

– ”Portrait” is also published every two weeks and describes in two pages a top manager

– “Parcours” draws each week the portray of three businessmen and/or businesswomen


• In L’Echo:– “Les décideurs” presents one or two people active in the economic

sphere each day• In the Forward (journal of the FEB):

– “People” presents, in a few pages, two personalities of the economic sphere

• In the CCI mag (Liège – Verviers – Namur / Brabant wallon – Hainaut – Wallonie Picardie)– “L’invité du mois” presents, in a few pages, a personality of the

economic sphere of the regions of Liège, Verviers and Namur.• In Union & Actions (UCM):

– “Portrait” presents in each publication a entrepreneur or an independent worker.


• 749 articles (439 in 2006) • 13% women (15% in 2006) • 87% men (85 % in 2006)

Results

• In Wallonia (French part of Belgium):• 33% women in self-employement

(INASTI)• 34% in senior management position

(OCDE)• 10% of the boards of listed companies

(OCDE)


Content analysis

• People in the article : Men / Women / sometimes both• Gender of the journalist • Length of the article• Editorial style (Interview – Portray – Reportage)• Photography• Information about the person:

• Age / Studies / Work experiences / Function as presented in the article: entrepreneur / administrator / manager / political man or woman / other

• Mention of physical aspects / skills / etc.


Data Collection

• Information on the industry:• Name / Sector / Revenues / Number of employees

• Thematic analysis: • Women in Male-Dominated Industries• Glass ceiling• Information about family and work life balance

Women’s profiles (N=94)

• Entrepreneur (27 % - 26/94)• Administrator / president / CEO ( 13% - 13/94)• Manager / chief officer / director (27% - 26/94)• Political woman (12% - 12/94)• Others such as journalist (0,02% - 2/94) / scientist (0,01% - 1/94 )/ writer

(0,01%-1/94)

• Two women cited twice:– Carine Doutrelepont (CEO- Belgacom Group)– Anne Marie Heller (Defimedia)



No place for women in some business media !

N.S. – O,O7 2012 (2006)

Men Women Total

Trends tendances 81 (85) % (=253) 19 (15) % (=61) 100 % (=314)

L’Echo 92 (81) % (=345) 8 (19) % (=32) 100 % (=377)

CCI – Hainaut 100 (83) % (=10) 0 (17) % (=0) 100 % (=10)

CCI – Liège 92% (=11) 8% (=1) 100 % (=12)

Forward 1000 (87) %(=11) 0 (14) % (=0) 100 % (=11)

Union&Actions(Ambassadrice et Mentor file)

100 (74)% (=25) 0 (26)% (=0)) 100 % (=25)

Total 87 (84,5) (=655) 13 (15,5%)(=94) 100 % (=749)


Per article with a single person (Sept 2005 – June 2006)

N.S. – O,O69 Men Women Total

Bizz starterTrends Tendances

76% (=56) 24% (=18) 100% (=74)

PeopleTrends Tendances

88 % (=51) 12% (=7) 100% (=58)

Le réseau de …Trends Tendances

95 % (=20) 5% (=1) 100% (=21)

PortraitTrends Tendances

90 % (=18) 10% (=2) 100% (=20)

ParcoursTrends Tendances

77 % (=108) 23% (=33) 100% (=141)



Les décideursL’Echo

92% (=345) 8% (=32) 100% (=377)

L’invité du moisCCI – Hainaut

100% (=10) 0% (=6) 100% (=0)

L’invité du moisCCI – Liège

92% (=11) 8% (=1) 100% (=12)

PeopleForward (FEB)

100% (=11) 0% (=0) 100% (=11)

PortraitUnion&Actions

100% (=25) 0% (=0) 100% (=25)

Some positive actions

• Trends tendances: Special Trends Women Awards linked with one special issue on women.

• Unions & Actions (2 special issues):– Ambassador women (Europe)– Mentor (Project Diane / women entrepreneurship)

• Prices and nominations – Women who receive the price GPWE (one category “women

entrepreneur”)



Sex of people in the address Book


Person who gives his/her address book 95 % (=20) 5 % (=1) 100 % (=21)

Political sphere 62 % 38 % (id.) 100 %

Circle of friends, family, mentor 83 % 17% (id.)

100 %

Business world 90 % 10 % 100 %

Cultural sphere or media 91% 9 % 100 %

Academic sphere 95 5% (2%) 100 %


Gender of journalists

• More men journalists (61 = 65%) than women (33 = 35%) • Women are authors of a greater number of articles

– 413 articles, 6.6 by men– 312 articles, 9.4 by women

• Women journalists write twice as many articles dedicated to women (17%) than men journalists (10%).

Mention of the look


• As often for women and for men: “to speak about the look is the way to make this portrait more human!”

• For men, their look is more often associated to the idea of power: – « Ce «géant» de deux mètres, […]. » (This two-meter ‘giant’) (Luiz

Fernando Edmond, L’Echo du 25 janvier 2012). – « Grand, Lars Olofsson impressionne par sa carrure et un indéniable

charisme. » (Big, Lars Olofsson impresses through its stature and its unquestionable charisma) (Lars Olofsson, L’Echo du 25 mai 2012).

– « Bref, Nicolay, c’est un réel appétit d’ogre, au sens propre – l'homme affiche 1,95m pour 120 kg – comme au sens figuré. » (In short, Nicolay eats like a horse, literally – the man is 1.95m tall for 120 kg – and figuratively) (Frédéric Nicolay, Trends Tendance du 23 février 2012).

Personnality

• A great number of traits have been attributed to the subjects, men and women:– Optimism, enthusiasm, – Ambition– Perseverance, tenacity, hard-working.– Importance accorded to human relations: interest for humans, human

contact and human relations, capacity to communicate, to discuss and to listen, empathy, openness of mind, respect of the others, solidarity, mutual aid, etc.


Specific for women

•A strong personality, women with a strong character•The dynamism•The energy•The creativity


Family

• Women (12%) mention slightly more the fact to be married than men (9%).

• Some men highlight the importance that their family and more particularly their wife has in the success of their professional life.

• Women mention their children (33%) twice as much as men (16%).

• When women talk about their children, they refer to time organisation. Time management is felt to be dealt with as efficiently as the others.


•The time spent with the family is, however, also perceived as important by men and is a factor that influences the choice of some professional decisions.


Picture of women in a male sector

• “Extraordinary” women• Clients and business partners to convince• To be a woman as an asset (not like the others)!


Women CEO and top management

• A discourse linked with the pressure to include women into the top management and CEOs.

• Women presented in these articles are often linked as having beneficiated from this movement.

• In these articles, it is often mentioned that these women are “the first women” to have such a function.

• “To be the first” makes someone popular.



Conclusion

• Underrepresentation of women in business media • Reasons:

– Individual• Choice of entrepreneur women / CEO (“they don’t

want to accept an interview” “they don’t want toto be view as special”)

• Stereotypes, representations, prejudices of journalists and redaction committees

– Organisational• Editorial policy (ex: only firm with high economic growth) • Network (male cooptation)

– Societal• Stereotypes, representations, prejudices

EGiD - Hec-Ulg / projet Diane (UCM-Hainaut) financé par le FSE1 Women entrepreneur in the business...

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