Written by Tracey Spicer
First featured on The Walkley Foundation website
10th December 2012
Tracey Spicer has encountered an alphabet of sexism in her career
Over the past 25 years working in the media, I’ve become familiar with the F word. And the C word. But not the M word.
Misogyny was evident: in the selection of stories, allocation of journalists and treatment of news presenters. But, to paraphrase Lord Alfred Douglas, it was the hate that dare not speak its name.
The prime minister’s speech in federal parliament gave voice to many who’d suffered in silence. On behalf of these women, I published a sardonic “thank you” letter to Dear Mr Misogynist, the transcript of an address to a Women of Letters event.
The mysterious Mr M was not one man. He was a hydra of bosses in commercial TV and radio stations around Australia.
It was a time capsule containing quotes like, “You need to stick your tits out more”, “I want two inches off your hair and two inches off your arse”, and “Men don’t want to hear women on the radio; they get enough nagging at home.”
I received thousands of emails, phone calls, and tweets.*
Many were from men who worried about the future of their daughters, sisters, and mothers. Some had themselves been discriminated against, for failing to fit in to testosterone-fuelled newsrooms.
Others were from female journalists who’d left the industry, sick of the bullying boys’ club.
One former magazine editor told how, as the “token female” on a radio panel, she wasn’t invited to a contributors’ lunch because, “We thought the men coming would be uncomfortable with a pregnant woman in the room.”
A TV reporter of 20 years’ experience had requested an assignment to Iraq, only to be told by the news director, “Do you think it’s an appropriate place to be going, as a mother?”
I guess he’d never heard of Christiane Amanpour.
The network eventually sent a male reporter, the father of two school-aged children.
The history of newsrooms is littered with women sidelined into the ‘softer’ rounds.
“Women are better at health stories, because they’re more nurturing,” one was told.
Richard Glover described this, in the previous issue of The Walkley Magazine, as “the sexism that defines some subjects as serious hard news and the other material as lifestyle”.
News Limited is in the process of integrating the so-called ‘women’s pages’ into the body of its newspapers. But there’s still a long way to go.
Research by UK industry watchdog Women in Journalism found 78 per cent of bylined articles in nine British major dailies were written by men; only 26 per cent of the op-eds were authored by women.
Since the wider publication of my article, from women’s website The Hoopla to The Age and The Guardian newspapers, many have asked if times are changing.
The answer is, yes.
In the 1980s, sexism was the newsroom vernacular. For many men, it became a bad habit.
Now, they’ve gone on a 12-step program to beat the addiction. Some fall off the wagon.
One journalist, who’d spent the past seven years working on Capitol Hill, emailed me about her recent job interview at a major metropolitan TV station.
“He told me to ‘go show my tits off to Sydney’. I’d just had breast implants because I had three cysts removed.”
Any opinion that challenges the orthodoxy inevitably draws criticism.
I’ve been called a man-hater (I love men; I even married one), an embittered failure (I feel happier and more successful now than at any other time in my career), and a whinger (because any woman who complains is a nagger).
Not all men are bastards.
Last year, talkback radio legend John Brennan tried to create a double-headed female show for 2UE. Sky News chief executive, Angelos Frangopoulos, works his anchors’ shifts around childcare commitments.
“We don’t care what your hair looks like, Trace,” he once said. “Here, it’s all about what comes out of your mouth.”
During my years in electronic and print media, I’ve had terrific male mentors including Steve Palmer, Colin Tyrus, John White, Neil Miller, JC, Tim McDermott, Garry Linnell and David Penberthy.
(It’s interesting to note I’ve only ever had one female boss, Carmel Travers.)
But the mainstream media is struggling to keep up with the new world order in which “the power has shifted from the publisher to the consumer”, in the words of Fairfax Metro Media CEO Jack Matthews.
It’s as if we are living in a parallel universe.
Old media is dominated by middle-aged Anglo-Celtic males; new media is a kaleidoscope of gender, race, and age.
People want to see their reflection in the media they consume. So, they’re voting with the fingers instead of their feet: turning off the TV to click on the mouse.
Suddenly, there’s a demand for different voices: It’s time for women to speak out.
After all, one of the crucial steps in addressing a problem is daring to speak its name.
*Several emails were from women in high-profile media jobs who are apprehensive about speaking publicly.
Tracey Spicer is an anchor on Sky News, broadcaster at Radio 2UE, columnist for News Ltd. and www.thehoopla.com.au, presentation trainer at AFTRS, and corporate video producer at www.spicercommunications.biz
Lindsay Foyle is former deputy editor of The Bulletin and a past president of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association, working freelance since 2008
