Only one in four news sources worldwide are women

Data from the Global Media Monitoring Project show setbacks in the inclusion of women's voices and in the coverage of gender-based violence.

A new indicator from the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) has shown that although women make up more than half of the world's population, they account for only 26% of news sources worldwide. The GMMP warns that women remain invisible in the stories that shape public opinion, political debate and democratic discourse.

The GMMP is the world's largest study on gender in the news media and has collected data in five-year cycles since 1995. Its research has taken the pulse of selected gender indicators in the media, studying the presence of women relative to men, gender bias and stereotypes in content, working together with UN Women, UNESCO and the Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG). 

Regarding the latest GMMP analysis, UN Women Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director Kirsi Madi stated that “when women are missing, democracy is incomplete.” This is a forceful warning from UN Women, backed by three decades of data, since the figure has not changed significantly in the last 15 years.

According to the GMMP, women's voices in the media have not only stagnated but are now under threat. On radio and television, women's voices remain largely invisible, and journalism that challenges stereotypes has fallen to just 2% of all stories.

Along these lines, Kalliopi Mingeirou, Chief of the Ending Violence against Women and Girls Section at UN Women, stated that women are still only one in four of the people seen, heard or read about in the news, and that this is not linked to a lack of expertise or leadership. 

Mingeirou said that it is because newsroom practices, sourcing habits and structural biases have not changed, and that the media continue to rely on the same narrow pool of voices, often turning to men as experts and decision-makers. She adds that the media are not just a mirror of reality, but actively shape it.

A democratic problem

UN Women notes that the latest findings reveal a sad reality: women remain largely invisible in the stories that shape public opinion, political debate and democratic discourse.

On this point, Kalliopi Mingeirou stresses that democracy depends on informed debate and inclusive decision-making. She adds that when women's voices are missing, the public is denied half the story, and that this distorts reality and shrinks democratic space. 

“If women remain invisible, so do their perspectives on politics, peace, the economy and everyday life. In the current context of backlash against gender equality, the exclusion of women from the news is not just a gender issue, it is a democratic deficit,” Mingeirou added.

Violence silenced, stereotypes reinforced

The GMMP study also revealed an alarming finding: gender-based violence is underreported, with nearly 2 out of every 100 news stories addressing the abuse suffered by women.

UN Women warns that this absence reinforces existing biases and perpetuates a culture of silence around violence and discrimination, and calls on editors to adopt survivor-centered coverage guidelines, invest in training for journalists and allocate dedicated resources to cover violence against women responsibly.

UN Women Assistant Secretary-General Kirsi Madi stresses that “amid the current backlash against gender equality, these findings are both a wake-up call and a call to action. A radical rethink is needed so that the media can fulfill their role in advancing equality. Without women's voices, there is no complete story, no fair democracy, no lasting security and no shared future.”

Although the 2020 GMMP report showed that more women were speaking about the economy, which represented progress, in areas such as sports men account for almost 96% of voices, with no prospect of change. As UN Women rightly points out, it is not a matter of ability or knowledge; those spaces are still closed to women, and until women are equally represented, half of the world's stories will remain untold and, therefore, democracy will remain incomplete. 

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia