Gendered Lens

The authors conducted a nationwide mail survey of 246 local TV news anchors to examine anchors’ perceptions of hindrances to their career progress. Women anchors’ highest-rated barrier was the overemphasis on their physical appearance; lack of professional networks and support groups ranked the highest for men. Career barriers ranked highly by anchors of both sexes included: balance between work and family life, conflicting roles of wife/mother or husband/father and professional newscaster, and relocation.

In the U.S., half af all TV news reporters and anchors are women (Stone, 1997). Twenty-five years ago, women made up only 13% of the television news workforce (Stone, 1997). This dramatic increase in the number of women in a once maie- dominated profession serves as onc result of what Pamela Creedon calls the “gender switch,” which occurred during the mid-1970s when more women than men enrolled in college journalism and mass communication courses (1989). While the “gender switch” has resulted in increased numbers...