Women underrepresented in news media
Women make up half of the global population but only 26% of those who are seen or heard in the news are women. This has barely changed in the last 15 years, with a nine-point change in 30 years, according to a study by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), produced by the international communication rights organization WACC and supported by UN Women.
“Women are marginally more likely to be featured in stories published online on websites dedicated to the news”, the report says.
People from racial, ethnic, religious and other minority groups make up six out of every 100 persons seen, heard or spoken about across traditional and digital news worldwide. Of these, women are 38%.
“The likelihood that a woman in the news is likely to be from a minority group is less than one in 10.”
The study says that North American news media are closest to parity, at four out of 10 subjects and sources being women.
Asian and Middle Eastern media are at the end, with just 19% women of the persons seen, heard or spoken about in the news in both regions.
“Women’s comparative presence in the core topics of politics and the economy rose 2 points and 1 point respectively between 2020 and 2025, 6 points in science and health stories – a “correction” of the 2020 Covid era status when women had been displaced from prominence in this topic.”
Various forms of gender-based violence (GBV) offline and online are featured in less than two out of every 100 news articles worldwide.
“A little over 50% of persons in GBV news are men. The position or occupation of 16% of them (and 31% of women) is not stated. For those whose vocations are given, males are most likely to be criminals, legal professionals or law enforcement personnel while females are celebrities, homemakers and children.”
“The Internet’s importance for news delivery that peaked during the pandemic period continues today. Yet, while the proportion of female online reporters shot up from 25% in 2015 to 42% in 2020, it rose just one point in 2025 to 43%.”
“Currently, women are slightly overrepresented as online news reporters in North America, and almost at parity in the Pacific and the Caribbeans regions.”
“The most severe underrepresentation is in Africa where the proportion fell 4 points from 2020 to 2025.”
“The gender gap in online news reporting widened in three regions – Africa (4-point decline), Latin America (-5 points) and the Middle East (-6 points).”
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