Gender Inequality in Media and Entertainment Industry
Source: Unsplash
Despite multiple protests and revolutions over the ages, gender inequality is still a boiling topic even during the 21st century. one of the most promising and growing industries in today’s world is the media and entertainment sector. But studies and researches have revealed that women remain deserted to reach the top roles in the industry.
Across the globe, it is observed that women are a very strong workforce as well as consumers of the media and entertainment sector. Therefore, they represent commendable demography for the industry at large along with its sponsors.
Although women are represented well in the media industry, at the same time they experience certain unexplained barriers that prevent them from reaching the top managerial and leadership positions.
Researches have revealed that, during early tenures, women experience equal representation at par with their male counterparts. It has also been observed that they, progress even better than men and are quite satisfied with their career choices. But the rate of this progress gradually slows down to a considerable extent as you close the higher ranks. On top of this, the daily work experiences of the women in the workplace are far worse than men’s. respondents have expressed their belief based on observations that, in the work field women are judged on different parameters than men. This is the principal hindrance that prohibits the women at large to proceed at par with men in the higher managerial role.
Source: Unsplash
Statistical trend
Studies have shown that at entry-level tenure, women are progressing at a much faster rate than men. Up until the manager level, this trend is present. Women of the media and entertainment industry report a slightly higher career satisfaction rates of 77% than men having 75%. Moreover, the lack of the trend of women not being promoted to senior roles does not involve the lack of interest on their part.
Lack of women trend in senior leadership
The general trend shows that at the entry-level if there are 5 women among every 10 people hired in the industry, during higher promotional grades like a senior manager or vice president, at least 1 woman will invariably drop out of the group. To break free from this unjustified trend, the media and the entertainment industries need to enhance the women’s access to the ways to the top, potentially challenging the existing norms and patterns that are followed. More than 35% of the women in this industry have reported that their gender has played a hard role in getting a raise or a promotion.
Probable solutions:
1. Appointing more women in the board positions
Employing more women employees in the board positions may reduce gender disparity. Moreover, this sort of board diversity may also act as motivation for multiple talented and befitting hires from a broader spectrum.
2. Committed culture of accountability
The companies of the media and the entertainment industry must ensure that the people who hold top-ranking positions are responsible and accountable for gender equality. This will improve the dearth of competent women candidates in higher managerial ranks.
3. Fair evaluation
The organizations should focus on establishing a fair and performance-based evaluation method for their employees. In this way, the performance of the candidate(s) will be emphasized more than gender. This may break the unequal gender representations on the higher rungs of the corporate ladder.
There exists a considerable awareness gap between men and women workers in the media and the entertainment industry. This results in such a biased approach. A primary step to curtail this lack of understanding is to organize a competent training program for the employees at all levels—to show them and train them up about the best possible methods and approaches to work with a diverse team. This will also possibly reduce the tendency of microaggressions.
The media and entertainment industry is a very powerful industry at large. If it starts off with the consistent and successful implementation of the steps discussed above, then the running trend will alter making it easier for competent women counterparts to reach the higher managerial ranks. Although certain meager attempts can be observed, a lot of more consistent effort and conscious work is essential to attain the desired goal.