 Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Oct 22, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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BATTLE FOR EQUALITY: U.S. journalist Jodi Enda, who was in Chennai recently. CHENNAI: “Leading political journalists in the largest newspapers in America are white men. They set the tone of news coverage,” said Jodi Enda. A seasoned newspaper journalist, Ms. Enda currently serves as programme planner for the Knight Centre for Specialised Journalism in Washington DC. Her past roles have ranged from a reporter covering government and politics in The Philadelphia Inquirer, a daily in the U.S., to president of the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS), a platform which brings together women journalists in America. In an interview with The Hindu, she spoke of the U.S. media’s coverage of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and what that meant for the feminist movement. “Hillary Clinton was treated in a way that no man would ever be treated as a Presidential candidate,” said Ms. Enda. For instance, she said, consider the terms ‘too ambitious’ and ‘calculating’ chosen to describe her. Anyone who runs for President would be ambitious, said Ms. Enda. Calculating means that she tried to figure out the best way to get ahead. Barack Obama too calculated. He in fact, “out-calculated and outmanoeuvred Ms. Clinton.” But, in a man being ambitious and calculating were not considered as negative traits. A relatively unknown fact is that Mitt Romney, one of the candidates for the Republican nomination, cried. “No one spoke about this. But the treatment is different for a woman,” said Ms. Enda, referring to the reaction of the media when Ms. Clinton’s eyes misted on one occasion. Though Ms. Clinton did make a lot of mistakes, the effect of such coverage on her losing the campaign could not be discounted, surmised Ms. Enda. “Sexism undercut and undermined Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” she said. “It was an unpleasant awakening to see that America still had such a strong gender bias.” The battle for equal rights was really fought by women who are now in their sixties, seventies and eighties, said Ms. Enda. “They paid the price for all of us.” Women in their 40s and 50s benefited and, “we appreciate that,” she said. “Younger women have a slightly different attitude,” she added. They do not always realise what a battle it has been. “They know it intellectually, but do not feel it.” She said the feminist movement in America is undergoing a generational shift. “Today, women are trying to do everything. They want to balance a family and a career. They need help to do this,” she said. They needed affordable childcare centres and early childhood education. Without such support, women were forced to abdicate one part, for better or for worse. Ms. Enda said that when she joined the St. Louis Globe newspaper, which was her first job, she was one of the five women out of 40 reporters on the city desk. According to a survey done by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the percentage of women in newsrooms decreased marginally from 37.58 to 37.36 in 2008. The percentage of women supervisors was 35.2. “It is very clear that we have made progress, but there is a long way to go,” she said. “People who run things in the United States, be it in the government or corporations, are men,” said Ms. Enda. “We have won the battle for equality in numbers. The next is equality in power.”
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