Women in media ‘more dissatisfied than ever’
Career dissatisfaction among women in the media industry is worsening due to a “fundamental disconnect” between expectations of them and their realities, according to the latest Women in Media Industry Insight Report.
Financial pressure, stalled growth, and a lack of progress on equity are driving women out of the industry, with dissatisfaction at 59% — the highest it has been in the report’s four year history.
“There’s been this incremental rise every year, there’s a real consistency in the data. Fundamentally, there’s just this disconnect between what women are experiencing or hearing what should be happening, and what’s actually happening for them,” Petra Buchanan, strategic advisor to Women in Media and author of the report, told Mumbrella.
“There’s a general sense that equality and the purpose around it is important, they hear that, but it’s reached a point where women want to see real action.”
Buchanan said the report is designed to give a voice to women “in the trenches”.
“It’s about deconstructing the root causes of what’s causing this dissatisfaction, about helping organisations in the industry respond to that in a constructive way and move things forward.”
For the second year in a row, pay has overtaken other factors as the leading driver of attrition. Over one in three women (37%) are considering leaving their jobs, and nearly half are looking to exit the industry altogether. This is highest among mid-career and senior women.
Buchanan suggested this is because “the next rung on the ladder is just not there”. She said this sends a bad message to women in their early careers.
“You’ll be a recent graduate, then you’re mid-career, then you’re a senior. There’s a natural progression. We need to have people at every point of that process because they can provide the leadership and mentoring to younger generations,” she said.
“Only 23% of women make it to senior management, and we’ve got to address that issue and empower more women to be ready to step into leadership roles. But that can’t happen with this growing career dissatisfaction and increasing numbers of women considering exiting the industry.”
Buchanan used the example of ASX-listed media companies: at the moment, there is only one female CEO of an ASX-listed media company, Cathy O’Connor. When she departs in the second half of this year, the industry will be represented by only male CEOs.
“This is what we need to structurally be changing.”
Other key findings from this year’s report included what women consider to be top career barriers, including lack of promotional opportunity (45%), caregiving (19%), and lack of managerial support (17%).
Daily challenges, meanwhile, include budget cuts (48%), workload (47%), and limited pathways to promotion (46%).
And despite reforms such as the WGEA pay gap data and Respect@Work legislation, 74% of women say their employer has not taken clear action, or communicated it, on gender pay disparities. And 78% report no meaningful improvement in culture or safety.
“We have to remember gender equity is historic. It’s going to take some time to improve,” Buchanan said. “The opportunity of these policies is for organisations to build trust at a workplace level.
“The more organisations can lean in beyond their obligations, beyond the policy settings, to really understand and connect at a human level to talk about pay transparency, to talk about addressing historic disadvantage, the better.”
On a positive note, women in the media industry are feeling optimistic about AI use (71% feeling positive). There is strong demand for training.
The report recommends four key areas for employers to address: commit to gender equality by enhancing transparency; make clearer pathways for promotion; maintain focus on reforms and close the communications gap; and elevate women to tackle the persistent structural imbalance.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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