Status of Women 2009 Abstracts
Commission on the Status of Women
False Rape and Media Frenzy: Newspapers’ Framing of the Duke University Lacrosse Case • Barbara Barnett, University of Kansas • In 2006 three white members of the Duke University lacrosse team were charged with raping and sexually assaulting a black woman hired to dance at a team party. The case generated hundreds of news stories, and the charges ultimately proved to be false. This qualitative analysis examines how U.S. journalists framed the story and suggests they focused on the legal twists and turns in the case, rather than the larger issue of rape.
Behind the Scenes of Women’s Broadcast Ownership • Carolyn Byerly, Howard University • Recent research shows that women’s ownership of broadcast stations — FM and AM radio, and television — has dropped to the single digits in this era of deregulation and the media conglomeration that has resulted. This paper contributes to an understanding of women’s relationship to media structures by reporting the qualitative portion of a larger study on women broadcast ownership in the United States.
Patients’ Privacy and the Internet: Where Abortion Rights and the First Amendment Overlap • Deborah Carver, University of Minnesota • On September 3, 2008, Jezebel.com reported that a web site, AbortionTracker.com, claims to have a database of the personal information of women who have had abortions since the 1940s. This paper explores what legal remedies patients currently would have to remove their information from the database and discusses a feminist treatment of the First Amendment, arguing that the web site’s database should not be protected.
Does Gender Influence Students’ Evaluations of College Professors? A Qualitative Content Analysis of RateMyProfessors.com • Mackenzie Cato, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • RateMyProfessors.com, a rapidly growing online destination for students, now boasts more than 6.6 million user-generated ratings of more than 900,000 college professors. Students use the site’s free services to plan their class schedules and rate professors they have taken in the past. Does a professor’s gender play a dominant role in students’ evaluations? The purpose of this study is to qualitatively analyze students’ evaluative postings of college professors on the Web site RateMyProfessor.com.
A Descriptive Analysis of NBC’s Primetime Coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics • Charles A. Tuggle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Kelly Davis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study examines NBC’s United States broadcast coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games for gender equality and compares that coverage to previous years. Olympic coverage is particularly important to female athletes because many receive little media attention beyond Olympic competition. The study found that, while female participation in the Olympics has increased, NBC coverage of women’s events has not, and 97% of airtime devoted to women’s events was confined to six “socially acceptable” sports.
The Feminism of Bernarr Macfadden: Physical Culture and the Empowerment of Women • Kathleen Endres, University of Akron • This paper looks at the feminism of publisher/editor Berrnarr Macfadden as presented on the pages of Physical Culture magazine during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Two phases were identified. During the first decade, Macfadden focused on health feminism. During the second decade, Macfadden’s feminism had extended to embrace political, economic and legal equality for women.
Sports reporting and gender: Women journalists who broke the locker room barrier • Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas; Laura Matysiak, University of North Texas • This qualitative study examined the influences of female sportswriters who broke the locker room barrier in the 1970s and 1980s. Interviews with 12 women who were key members of sports media during this period showed that the women fought hard to gain access to athletes’ inner sanctum. Once they gained access, they endured harassment and embarrassment, but ultimately landed compelling stories from their subjects.
Gender Differences in Chinese Journalists’ J-blogs • Fangfang Gao, University of Florida; Renee Martin-Kratzer, University of Florida • The explosion of Internet users and j-bloggers in China makes Chinese j-blogs an area worthy of examination. This study focused on the differences in j-blogs written by male and female Chinese journalists. Topics, formats, reader comments, j-bloggers’ responses, hyperlinks, and multimedia features were examined to gain insight into gender influences on online journalism in China. The findings reveal that traditional social norms for gender influenced the content and format of j-blogs.
Riding the Wave: The Evolution of a Broadcast Feminist, Alison Owings, 1966-77 • Sarah Guthrie, Ohio University • Alison Owings was one of an important group of women in broadcast news, those who pushed for substantial changes in the way women were treated in broadcast and ultimately for changes in the way that women were covered in news. Not all women could be the “first” but there were many small stones in the shoes of the established, male hierarchy.
Susan Faludi’s Backlash: A Book’s Role in Building the Media Agenda for Coverage of Sexual Harassment in the Early ‘90s • Lynette Holman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study investigates the notion that a book’s publication may have influenced the media agenda, or at least built it around the topic of feminism, and more specifically, the issue of sexual harassment.
Television as a Societal-Level Influence on Rape Perceptions: The Cultivation of Rape Myths • LeeAnn Kahlor, University of Texas at Austin; Matthew Eastin, UT-Austin • Cultivation theory, feminist theory, and ecological models guided this study of television as a societal-level contributor to the acceptance of rape myths. Results from an online cross-sectional survey of 1064 U.S. adults (371 males, 693 females) confirmed a significant positive correlation between television viewing and rape myth acceptance. As predicted, this relationship was stronger for men.
“He leads with his head and she follows her heart”?: Maya & Miguel’s representation of gender • Emily S. Kinsky, Pepperdine University • Using qualitative methods, the children’s program Maya & Miguel, which airs on PBS in the United States, is analyzed for its depiction of gender using the circuit of culture (du Gay et al., 1997). Through a textual analysis of 12 episodes, the author examines the portrayal of characters and their gender. Some gender stereotypes are maintained (e.g., boys are more sports focused), while others are broken (e.g., Miguel is depicted as musical and artistic).
Look Who Is Talking: Candidates’ Self Presentation on Campaign Websites and Viability In 2006 U.S. Senate, House and Gubernatorial Races • Jayeon Lee, The Ohio State University; Kideuk Hyun, The University of Texas at Austin • This study applied Expectancy Violations Theory to the relationship between political candidates’ self-presentation on their campaign websites and electoral consequences in 2006 U.S. Senate, House and gubernatorial races. The results show that female candidates are more likely to emphasize male traits than their male counterparts, but there is no difference across males and female candidates in their emphasis of male versus female issues.
Sexism at any Altitude?: Stewardess Advertising and Second-Wave Feminist Protest • Katherine Lehman, Albright College • In 1960s-70s airline advertising, flight attendants appeared as prospective brides or swinging singles. While this advertising strategy reflected women’s limited work and social roles, I argue it had broader economic and political implications. Throughout this period, airlines used stewardesses’ perceived sexual availability as a marketing tool to navigate heightened competition. Feminist protests against stewardess images in the early 1970s helped change the tone of advertising, and sparked broader discussion of gender discrimination in the workplace.
Framing Saint Johanna: Media coverage of Iceland’s first female (and openly gay) Prime Minister • Dean Mundy, UNC Chapel Hill • On February 1, 2009, Johanna Sigurdardottir became Iceland’s first female (and the world’s first openly gay) prime minister. She inherited a collapsed government and economy, as well as a brief timeline to prove her abilities. Accordingly, Iceland’s unique international position represents a significant opportunity to understand how media frame the first female and first openly gay prime minister.
Feminist Discourse and “Real” Ideology in The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty • Dara Persis Murray, Rutgers University • This paper interrogates the representation of women and cooption of feminist discourse around the Western cultural notion of beauty in The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (CFRB). A semiotic analysis focuses on CFRB’s United States advertising. This textual investigation reveals that CFRB employs feminist signs to reference a key binary opposition in feminist politics – liberation and oppression – in the presentation of an ideology of “real beauty.”
The Self-Body Image: An Integrated Model of Body Image and Beauty Ideals • Temple Northup, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • While there has been no shortage of literature examining body image as well as beauty ideals, there has been relatively little that has tried to explore and explicate exactly what is meant by the terms body image or beauty ideal in mass communication research, and how those concepts are then related. Indeed, those terms are often used interchangeably.
Ms. Vice President: Media exposure and voter views on gender stereotypes and women in politics • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Brett Harmon, The University of Alabama; Sarah Belanger, The University of Alabama; Sarah Beth Combs, The University of Alabama • This study surveyed 221 college students about their political ideology, media use and views on gender and women in politics in the wake of the 2008 presidential election, which included women vying for the two highest posts in American government. Informed by media priming and gender gap in policy preferences theories, the study found a relationship between media exposure and respondent views on women in politics and gender roles in society.
Women leaders in public relations: A qualitative analysis • Katie Place, University of Maryland • “Women leaders in public relations: A qualitative analysis” examines what factors women public relations leaders believe affect their success and how women public relations leaders perform leadership. Literature regarding feminist theory of public relations and women, leadership and public relations framed the study. A qualitative method was used to conduct semi-structured face-to-face interviews with women public relations executives, vice presidents and senior managers on the East Coast.
Fifty Years Later: Mid-Career Women of Color Against the Glass Ceiling in Communications Organizations • Donnalyn Pompper, Temple University • Little scholarly attention has focused on the interplay of age, ethnicity and gender dimensions among working women challenging the organizational glass ceiling. For the current study, 36 midlife-aged women of color working in mediated message industries were invited to discuss how — as beneficiaries of socio-political movements and legislation spanning nearly five decades — they negotiate organizational hierarchies and balance public and private work spheres.
Run Faster, Train Harder, Look Sexier? Examining the Pressure Female Athletes Feel to be Sexy • Lauren Reichart, University of Alabama • One hundred and sixty female athletes from five Division I universities in the southeastern and northeastern United States were surveyed to determine if sexualized and glamorized media frames of elite athletes resulted in a negative social comparison by collegiate athletes, and if greater exposure to such media frames resulted in more acceptance of those media frames.
Restricting or liberating? Female journalists’ experiences of managerial competencies in traditionally male-dominated Nepali newsrooms – an exploratory study • Elanie Steyn, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma; Kathryn Jenson White, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma • Organizations worldwide recognize people as their most important resource. However, many countries struggle to acknowledge women as leaders, creating significant imbalances. Reasons contributing to this are male-dominated management environments, religious and cultural barriers. This study qualitatively explores female journalists’ experiences of management in traditionally male-dominated Nepali media environments. It highlights gaps between the importance and implementation of three managerial competencies in these newsrooms, which currently restrict Nepali women’s professional roles.
The Candidates’ Wives : Newspaper Coverage of Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election • Jenna Swan, Denison University • The 2008 Presidential race offered an opportunity to challenge the mold of the “preferred” First Ladies, constructed in news as embodying model American femininity. News stereotypes of African American women tend to run counter to the normative “ideal” of First Ladies. A content analysis of 166 newspaper articles found that Cindy McCain more closely meets expectations of “ideal First Ladies”, suggesting the presence of a racialized gender norm bias.
“I don’t feel like I’m up against a wall of men!”: Negotiating difference, identity and the glass ceiling in sports information • Erin Whiteside, The Pennsylvania State University; Marie Hardin, Penn State • This research explores how women in college sports public relations, commonly called sports information, cope with their minority status and the related notion of a glass ceiling at their workplace. It follows the work of Wrigley (2002), who argues that women in public relations use several strategies to cope with existence of a glass ceiling, together which form a concept she calls “negotiated resignation.” We explore this concept through conversations with women sports information directors and theorize about the implications of those characterizations.
More than just a pretty face?: Framing analysis of women and women journalists in Columbia Journalism Review, 1961-1991 • Amber Willard Hinsley, University of Texas-Austin • Women in American society are defined through the media, and journalists are powerful in selecting how women are framed. By studying a prominent trade publication, we discover how journalists may “learn” which frames to use when writing about women in general and in the journalism profession. Columbia Journalism Review was analyzed over thirty years, and three dominant themes emerged – women and female journalists as invisible figures, as wives and mothers, and as victims of discrimination.
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