A Study on the Problems faced by Women Journalists

Abstract

During the years since World War II, the percentage of women in the work force has increased steadily. In the 1990’s the labor force was one-third female. By 2000, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that half of global workers would consist of women. With the advent of 1980’s the omen’s liberation movement gave way to the feminist movement. Women of this time straight way entered, invading the once staunch domain of men in increasingly greater number and in wider areas. Still they are discriminated in terms of their representation in creative and decision making position. There are number of constraints on them. It is due to the male domination in the organization. In order to encourage more women to join the profession, it is necessary to undertake a study to find out problems of women journalists. The sample frame for the present study includes both male and female respondents of various organizations in Chennai. The respondents comprised of editors, sub- editors, reporters, programme executives and free lancers in both print and electronic media. The samples were selected by purposive random sampling technique which was adopted to identify and include eligible respondents in the sample. At the first stage, it was decided to identify and select a convenient number of respondents using purposive sampling technique. The number of respondents and the geographical area chosen for the present study was determined on the basis of an estimate of the resources available to the researcher including availability of women journalist, time and social support needed to complete the investigation. Adhering to the above procedure the data was obtained using the questionnaire from 60 respondents in the complete form. The findings reveal that half of the women journalists admit that their profession often creates turbulence in the family and half of them do not agree with the view and also it shows that women are given responsibilities in the organizations. Majority of the respondents i.e. both men and women journalists agree that women at work should be given concessions so that they fulfill the family and social obligations. Eighty per cent of male and 70% of the female respondents feel that it is necessary to provide transport facilities for women to and from the work sport. It also shows that women are given important issues like political issue, foreign affairs etc for reporting without any discrimination. It reveals that their capability is recognized and it also shows that the situation has changed in the media.