Why There Aren't More Women In Radio

Women make up 50% of the U.S. population. Do they make up 50% of the air staffs at many radio stations? Do they make up 50% of management?

...no.

I've worked at plenty of stations where the majority of promotions interns and promotions staff were women. I've worked at plenty of stations where traffic and accounting were almost entirely women.

...but a mostly female air staff? Not once.
...what about management? Not once.

Out of all of the PDs I've worked for, only one was a woman. Out of all of the GMs I've worked for, only one was a woman.

IT MUS BE SEXIST!

...no. I don't believe that to be the case. Granted, there is some sexism in radio, but the greater issue is human nature.

A friend of mine taught a broadcasting class at a local community college, and I lectured there one day. The moment I stepped to the front of the class, I noticed two things:

#1: the class was almost entirely made up of men.
#2: the few women in the class were all sitting together.

I'm willing to bet that if the class had been theatre instead of radio, it would have had the exact opposite proportion of students. They'd have been mostly women, and the few men would almost certainly have been sitting together in a group. I'll address that second point in a bit - but first, let's just consider the problem inherent in the numbers.

Since we start with fewer women interested in pursuing radio as a career, we end up with fewer women in entry level programming positions, leading to fewer women in higher level programming positions, not to mention a smaller talent pool of women period. The smaller the talent pool, the fewer exceptional candidates there will be within it. That's just basic math.

As radio becomes more and more impersonal, I believe even fewer women will be attracted to the medium as a career. By impersonal, I'm referring to radio becoming less local and less live.

The numbers are easy to understand: fewer women entering the ranks which leads to fewer women rising within the ranks not to mention the smaller talent pool. The social aspect is far more challenging. I'm talking about discrimination - both intentional and unintentional.

There is a certain amount of discrimination in radio - as there is in any career. I don't believe it is extensive, but it exists, especially (but not exclusively) in smaller markets. Some GMs don't see women as management material. Some PDs see women as middays and morning sidekicks, nothing more.

Further complicating the problem of too few women in radio is our own human nature. There's a reason I mentioned how the women in that broadcasting class were all sitting together, and how, in a class of mostly women (theatre, for example), the few men would almost certainly sit together.

For better or for worse, it's just human nature. People enjoy the company of people similar to themselves.

Here's an example:

Do you know an asshole? Come on. I bet you do! Did you ever notice how assholes tend to hang out with assholes?

Ever notice how hippies tend to hang out with hippies?
And how geeks tend to hang out with geeks?

Find a Trekkie and I'm willing to bet you'll find a few more.
Find a Libertarian and I'm willing to bet you'll find a few more.
Find an over-acheiver and I'm willing to bet you'll find a few more.

People like people like themselves.

Here's an example of how random it can be. I'm sure it wouldn't surprise you to learn that I'm a strategy junkie. I love strategy-based board games and such, and I meet up with other board games fans now and then at a local pub. We're mostly strangers other than that we meet twice a month to drink beer and play games. As the group keeps meeting, smaller groups within the group start to form. The other night, somebody whipped out a few decks of cards, and just about everybody who'd been seated in the far side of the group started playing some game I'd never heard of. It's called Euchre and it's apparently popular in the midwest.

What are the odds that among a group of strangers, all of the people from the midwest would end up sitting together?

Pretty good, actually.

People like people like themselves. We seek people we have things in common with.

...but isn't it odd how people will move from the midwest to the west coast and end up hanging out with people from the place they left? Not at all, actually. Look at how many of our older cities have Polish neighborhoods, or Jewish neighborhoods, etc etc etc. People like people like themselves.

All of this is psychology 101. The problem is that it can lead to discrimination - often unintentional - because not only do people like people like themselves, people sometimes choose people like themselves.

I don't think discrimination is as common as it was years ago, but I believe it still exists, and sadly, I think it always will. But I also believe that by discussing it, we make ourselves more aware of it, which will hopefully lead to less of it in the future.

...only time will tell.