According to a survey sponsored by Women, Men and Media, women are only involved in 15 percent of front-page news stories. The figure decreased from last year’s 19 percent. The survey looked at twenty newspapers in February for references to and photos of women and for bylines by women on front pages, opinion pages, and the first pages of business and local sections. Of the small number of women covered, over half were either victims or perpetrators of crimes or misconduct. Women in power received little coverage overall, and women made up less than one percent of references in front-page political stories.
As in 1995, women were in 33 percent of the photos, and women’s bylines increased slightly to 35 percent. Stories about the economy included very little coverage of Laura Tyson, President Clinton’s top economic advisor, New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, or other leading female economists and analysts. Women, Men and the Media, co-chaired by Betty Friedan and Nancy Woodhul,l is financed primarily by the Arlington-based Freedom Forum.