Working in a journalism education with close connections to most of the newsrooms in Norway, occasionally you learn things you would rather not hear. Like the chances for young women to get a steady job as a journalist in Norway today. They are just about zero. Why? "The moment they get a job, they get pregnant." Newspapers and broadcasters claim it is too expensive to hire women, so they don't. This trend is not immediately noticeable, because there is an all over trend towards using freelancers and temporary employees, so the differentiated hiring policies are blurred by the seemingly very harsh and random policies.
The men I work with don't tend towards exaggerations when it comes to the situation for women in working life. They did, for instance, think it was a grand joke to point out that somebody had left soft-porn magazines in the staff room today in order to increase the number of women in the room. We are now four women working here, with 20 men. The other three women are in 50% positions, one is temporary. Nothing is being actively done to change this. So when these guys discuss hiring policies as a problem for young female journalists, it not a group of paranoid hysterical feminists whining.
It got to me. Infertility or a hysterectomi would look good on your CV, if you are a young female journalist today. Fertile females are useless.
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Oh dear. I thought the situation was pretty poor here in Denmark. A recent article in the Danish paper, Information, reported that both Norway and Sweden were miles ahead of us, when it came to equal oppotunities for women. Looks like things are not quite up to speed. *sigh*
Tore Vesterby :: http://vesterblog.dk
I don't know how things are in similar places in Denmark. Officially, things are pretty good in Norway. In some ways, yes they are. But female journalists have a rough time. And occasionally, so does the minority of female journalist teachers...
It's rough since the unemployment rate is high, but I'm not sure that it's as rough as up north. My girlfriend studies journalism, so she hears many rumours from the field. DR, the national broadcasting company officially doesn't have a policy against women, but these days it only hires freelancers or temps. The thing is some people have had freelance positions for up to three years, which are renewed every month. In essense this means that if you get pregnant, your're not re-hired.
.: Tore
The situation is rather alarming in Finland as well. Many female journalists I know have freelance contracts that are renewed every two months. And this has been going for years, meaning that they don't dare become pregnant.
The trend of hiring freelancers is seen here too. I'm myself an example of a temporary employee in media, even though I've made clear that I would NOT mind a permanent job as a journalist. Could the reason be that I'm 25 and living in a stable union?
It just might be. Or there might be others who have been on the "I would like to be hired permanently" list much longer than you. When it is random and rough for everybody, we can only point to trends, not isolated cases. And one trend is that young women are certainly not being spoiled with offers for job opportunities.
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