Women executives lost ground in the newspaper business in the past two years, as they dropped to 26 percent in 2002 from 29 percent in 2000, according to a new study by the Media Management Center at Northwestern University. This happened despite the fact that a few more reached the top positions of publisher or president.

"Women in Newspapers 2002: Still Fighting an Uphill Battle" is a 58-page report published by the Center and unveiled at its second Women in Newspapers Conference in June.

Why are women having such trouble reaching parity in the executive ranks? It's mainly because they got a late start, say the 15 media company CEOs and newspaper division presidents interviewed for the report. "It takes 20 years to grow a CEO," as one put it, and women have only been on the track to the top for 15-20 years.

But there are other, continuing problems, many of the CEOs said, agreeing with women executives interviewed two years ago. The male-dominated culture is inhospitable, leading to subtle exclusion, and is self-perpetuating. Women also have family issues. They usually bear the primary responsibility for raising children and newspaper companies do not always accommodate their needs.

Companies must adjust and be pro-active in opening doors for women, many of the CEOs said. Effective steps include making sure a woman is in every candidate pool, paying bonuses for achieving diversity, helping provide child care and having family-friendly policies.

Newspaper companies vary widely in how many women they have in their corporate executive offices, as publishers, and in the board room.

To learn more about the numbers and what CEOs had to say, you can order the printed report from the Center, by calling (847) 491-4900 or via the online order form. It is also on this Web site as a pdf file available for downloading.

 

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