#MGHangout

Why a women’s site?

Anne Taylor commented on a Grubstreet story regarding the M&G women’s site saying:

“Let me just recall the Media Monitoring’s Gender Baseline study (back in 2000 or so), which showed “the level of women speaking in the media is still way below 50%. When women do speak, their roles are often limited to victims, family of somebody or when they are celebrities. Professional people, when quoted, on the other hand are almost all men.”Does having a women’s section change this? Does it put women’s voices into front-page stories? Does it? Just asking…”

Thoughtleader blogger Talia Meer wrote a piece earlier this year saying:

“While this seems like a fairly benign prospect, the beginnings of what sounds like an M&G online version of Huisgenoot is indicative of how we see women in society ... That is not to say women should not be able to articulate their own issues, or create spaces within which to do this. But that all people should be compelled to listen to these grievances, they should be part of a serious and transformative national dialogue, and they should not be relegated to the periphery of mainstream media, or framed as ‘lifestyle’ issues.”

Gillian McAinsh, editor of the women’s section of The Herald newspaper also wrote on GrubStreet

“It is not about dumbing down, sunshine journalism or sexism but as including a lighter lifestyle mix – including fun stuff – as well as the hard news on Page 1. It has always been needed, it always will be. We wordsmiths and gender activists may care what this section is labelled but very few in the world at large do,” she writes.