Gender relations on the radio: women have only one third of power

The editors are mostly female, the offspring also, only the executive floors are dominated by men: In terms of gender equality, the German broadcasters reflect many other industries - on the one hand. On the other hand, a recent study by the association ProQuote Medien on gender distribution in journalistic management positions also shows positive developments.

For the first time since the founding of the association in the summer of 2012, he has taken a closer look at the management levels in public and private television and radio stations. After all, the so-called "weighted share of women power", calculated with the Pro Quote Media, the power ratio of women in companies, in the journalistic-programmatic area on average at 37.7 percent. A value that is above the national average in executive floors. The Federal Statistics Office stated that for the year 2017 at 29.2 percent.

Of parity, however, can be in very few cases, the speech. Only 37.6 percent of the "Tagesthemen" comments were spoken by women. Of the foreign correspondents, 31.6 percent are female and 24.8 percent of those responsible for radio programs, and one quarter of the major political TV magazines are editorially run by women.

In management and control functions outnumber the men

Distributed to the individual broadcasters, a very different picture emerges: in the case of Deutsche Welle, for example, the proportion of women is 51.9 percent and RBB 51 percent. Thus, the two institutions are the only one to meet the pro-quota demand for half of the power. Far away are particularly smaller institutions such as Radio Bremen (32.3 percent) and the Saarland Radio (25.6 percent).

Particularly positive is the development of the RBB: He has a woman as director, in the Broadcasting Council sit about 60 percent women and on the Board, with the foreign correspondents and the radio program line there is gender parity.

At the management level, however, none of the 13 public service broadcasters have women in the majority, and the controlling bodies are also mostly male. However, a comparison with the 2016 figures shows, according to the authors, that the female share tends to increase slightly.

For the private broadcasters neither RTL nor ProSiebenSat.1 could be seen in the cards. However, from the few data available for the study, the authors conclude that women are more underrepresented there. Although there are more women than men in the workforces and journalistic offspring. In the executive floors, however, this relationship turns, especially in the top management is still far from a balance.

Even female directors still outnumbered

For directors in film and television, the situation is similar: sobering present, gentle departure for the future. According to a study by the organization Pro Quote Film, only one in five German cinema films was staged by a woman in 2017. Only 19.8 percent of ARD's TV films and series were directed by women, and even fewer at ZDF: 16.9 percent.

After all, the director of the MDR, Karola Wille, gave a signal for the departure: in the future, a quota in the MDR should ensure that 40 percent of the content is staged by women. It should be achieved within three years.