Today's Date: March 28, 2024
Argonne-Supported Critical Materials Assessment Tags Potential Supply Chain Bottlenecks   •   MDA SPACE INCLUDED IN THE GLOBE & MAIL'S ANNUAL WOMEN LEAD HERE RANKING   •   First Book and Ashoka Announce 15 Youth Challenge Winners in Time for Change Nationwide Initiative   •   Key Piece of “Titanic” Movie Memorabilia Purchased By Titanic Museum Attraction   •   Impact Communications Signs Best-Selling Book Author and Financial Advisor Coach Derrick Kinney   •   Terragia Secures $6M to Develop Cost-Competitive, Low-Carbon Biofuel Technology   •   Sila Moses Lake Manager Rosendo Alvarado to Speak at Big Bend Community College Building the Future Energy Workforce Event   •   Colibri Group Announces Partnership with The University of Tulsa for Professional Licensure Program for Students in Real Estate,   •   G&A INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES 2024 PATHFINDER WEBINAR SERIES: Navigating the New Regulatory Environment for Corporate Sustainabili   •   Tax Tip From MEFA: Send Your Tax Refund Directly to Your 529   •   $122.5 Million Healthcare Transformation Grant Launches Center for Better Aging   •   Consolidated Credit Launches Free Webinar Series to Empower Individuals During Challenging Economic Climate   •   RICE Announces Strategic Leadership Additions, Cementing Its Role as the Nation's Largest Entrepreneurial Hub   •   LambdaTest Launches The Phoenix Project, an Employee Resource Group for Women   •   Dawson-Forté Cashmere Shareholders Sell Majority Equity Stake to Tempus Partners   •   Newman University Receives $1.2M Towards Higher Education Access for Southwest Kansas Initiative   •   Ziebart Salutes Franchisees, Veterans & Community in Celebration of 65-Year Legacy and Reveals Future Initiatives   •   Six Degrees Marketing Recognized on the 2024 Inc. 5000 Regionals List   •   35 National Partners Representing Over 3 Million Women Join Women's Suffrage National Monument Foundation's Growing Coalition   •   Reveal Technology, Inc. Receives $3.2M Award With U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL)
Bookmark and Share

Does Women's Sex Appeal Diminish Credibility?

 BLOOMINGTON, IN - A new study from Indiana University shows that women looking to break through the glass ceiling into senior broadcast news positions or more prominent on-camera roles in television may hinder themselves when they succumb to pressures to dress in a more sexually alluring manner.

 

WOMEN NEWS, MINORITY NEWS, DISCRIMINATION, DIVERSITY, FEMALE, UNDERREPRESENTED, EQUALITY, GENDER BIAS, EQUALITY
Betsi Grabe

The study also supports the concerns of many female journalists who have faced gender discrimination as they get older in a news industry that disfavors aging women anchors.

The paper, which will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Communication Research, already has received much national attention for its findings that men retain less news information when a female anchor's appearance plays to her sexual features.

The paper's authors are Elizabeth Grabe, professor of telecommunications, and Lelia Samson, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Telecommunications in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Grabe and Samson had a 24-year-old woman do a short newscast twice, once wearing a conservative shapeless outfit and subtle makeup, and again while adorned in an outfit designed to accentuate her waist-to-hip ratio, a necklace that emphasized her neckline, and red lipstick. Nearly 400 participants were randomly assigned to watch one of the two newscasts and respond to questions.

 

WOMEN NEWS, MINORITY NEWS, DISCRIMINATION, DIVERSITY, FEMALE, UNDERREPRESENTED, EQUALITY, GENDER BIAS, EQUALITY
Lelia Samson

The findings suggest that enhanced sexual attractiveness boosted men's perceptions of her professionalism. Yet, when it came to assessing her competence for reporting on different kinds of news, men were not optimistic about her abilities to do a good job reporting on hard news topics.

"We saw a classic gender divide on that," Grabe said of their findings related to anchor credibility. "Men saw the sexualized anchor as less fit to report on hard news topics such as politics and economics than her unsexualized version. It might very well be hard for men to take sexually attractive women seriously."

At the same time, women who evaluated the anchor did not differ across the two versions in rating her competencies. Interestingly, women audience members remembered more newscasts delivered by the more sexualized anchor.

"We don't know why that is," said Grabe, who was a news producer before becoming a professor. "We think that women might feel a sense of competition with the sexualized version, so they pay more attention to her and what she's saying."

In a team of four researchers, they are working on a follow-up study to examine this more closely.

Grabe said they were prompted to do the study by apparent trends in how women are presented in television news, through their clothing choices and grooming as well as through set design. They also were prompted by the numerous gender discrimination lawsuits that have been filed by female journalists.

They felt it was important to examine how this affected journalism's mission to inform the public. "We understand that journalists have to make money. They have to sell ads. They have to draw eyeballs, but this might be a costly way of doing that -- at least in terms of their noble mission to inform," she said.

"Sexual cues harden men's perceptions of a woman's ineptness to report on traditionally masculine story topics," Samson and Grabe wrote in the article. "Given that men dominate executive decision-making positions in newsrooms, including story assignments, this discrepancy between how men and women see a sexually attractive woman's professional competence might fuel gender tension in the workplace.

"Despite the television news industry's focus on hiring young and attractive female anchors, the workplace environment they enter might very well be unfriendly. Being hired or fired -- at least in part -- for sexual attractiveness is unlikely to diversify avenues for professional development. Ultimately, this industry sensibility perpetuates a gendered rather than professional work environment for female journalists."

The authors received no financial support for the research.


STORY TAGS: WOMEN NEWS, MINORITY NEWS, DISCRIMINATION, DIVERSITY, FEMALE, UNDERREPRESENTED, EQUALITY, GENDER BIAS, EQUALITY



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News