My final projects discusses how women have evolved and are represented in newpapers and in media. Women have come a long way since the 1800's in receieving the same rights as men. It has been, and still is today a constant stuggle to get women represented in newspapers and and reporting on topics that doesn't include food, family, fashion, and furnishings. Although, women have become successful in many fields that were once designed to be prone to men, women are still being pushed to the side when it comes to newspapers and the media. Women are still being told to write topics that interest women instead of stories that represent women. Topics that include sports, politics, and corporate business are more likely to be represented by a man than a woman. Even when women are writing topics that are supposed to interest to women, men are portrayed more than a woman is.
The media plays a major role in framing public opinion and debate on women, and giving them a more serious and adequate look in the newspaper would help society take women more seriously. Because women are pushed to write about health, fashion, and beauty, we are perceieved as not being capapble to report and write news stories.
In a 1997 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, it was determined that despite women’s social, political, and professional advances, women are still far “more likely than men to be shown engaged in appearance-related activities such as grooming or dressing” (p. 13). Women are also much “less likely to be shown wearing business clothes or a work uniform, and more likely to be shown wearing only undergarments” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1997, p. 13). The kinds of stereotypes perpetuated by the media, then, only serve to further cloud the reality of working women.
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