Women in Media NGO surveyed Ukrainian media workers regarding the representation of women in managerial positions. The survey also asked about the availability and implementation of equality and non-discrimination policies, as well as women’s leadership opportunities in media organizations. The survey is based on indicators used by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

A survey on the gender analysis of editorial management, which is based on questionnaire responses from 173 representatives of 168 Ukrainian media, showed that, although women comprise the majority of editorial management bodies, men prevail among media owners.

The most common response is that all the indicated managerial positions are held by women — 41%. However, the ultimate beneficial owner of the media is a man — that is, in 38% of the surveyed newsrooms. Many responses (35%) also said that the ultimate beneficiary of the media is neither a man nor a woman. This applies to newsrooms that work in the form of organizations founded by collectives.

Among newsrooms not represented by women on positions involving strategic planning, the majority are regional. For context, it is also important to understand that the staff structure of most newsrooms does not involve a large number of managers. Thus, there are no women in managerial positions in 17 regional newsrooms, which is practically one in five regional media whose representatives participated in the survey.

In newsrooms where more than two people hold managerial positions, there is potentially an increased risk of higher gender imbalance. In particular, Section 2 “Advisory Bodies” shows how the statistical distribution of women’s representation depends on the quantitative increase in the respective positions. In other words, the more staff units of a specific type are available in the media outlet, the more likely it is that women will have lower representation.

The size of newsrooms affects not only gender representation, but also the workload of women managers. In small teams, there is a tendency for one person to hold several managerial positions at once, due to the lack of staff and resources. Some interviewees pointed out that it is the low incomes in the media that are the reason editorial offices consist mainly of women, who therefore occupy managerial positions.

More than a third of the respondents (34%) said that there was no formalized equality policy in their newsroom.

Among those who indicated having certain policies, the least common response was about policies to encourage women’s leadership. This was pointed out by representatives of 3% of the interviewed media.

Interestingly, despite the existence of policies, in most cases newsrooms have no officer, consultant, or mechanism for reporting violations of equality and non-discrimination policies. 68% don’t have them, 18% do, and 14% are not aware of such a mechanism being available or not available in their newsroom.

The situation is similar with training on tolerance, non-discrimination, women’s leadership which would be held for newsroom workers at least once a year, since 67% of the respondents indicated having no such practice at their workplace.

Based on the survey, we received comments from 9 representatives of newsrooms expressing interest in developing equality policies or conducting the aforementioned trainings for the teams of their media. This means that often newsrooms do not oppose gender equality, but do not have the time, resources, and expertise to think about the issue, and mistakenly underestimate its importance.

However, in several cases, the conviction remains that formalized policies and trainings are unnecessary, since problems with gender equality in the newsroom have not yet arisen or been voiced. This is due to the fact that Ukraine is one of the so-called “gender-blind countries.” Gender-blind countries are those whose media claim they have no issues with discrimination against women, and which do not understand the obstacles women face in this sector.

For the context and understanding of the obtained data, it is important to note that Ukrainian newsrooms work in the conditions of Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine. The dedicated research conducted by Women in Media NGO in 2022 explains how it affects the work of women in media.

The military draft significantly impacts the gender composition of newsrooms during martial law and the distribution of responsibilities within the team. There is a lack of men in the media for a number of reasons. The respondents cite challenges of military draft, reluctance to be employed officially, and low wages.