Women represent more than half of the world’s population but only make a quarter of news’ subjects, says the Global Media Monitoring Project 2025.
The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) is a world report that analyses every five years the place of women in the news across the globe. Its latest findings found that women only make 26% of news subjects, a one percent increase since the last monitoring in 2020. A nine percent increase in 30 years of monitoring.
Thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), the GMMP 2025 shows that while women make up half of the world’s population, they only represent 26% of the people seen, heard or spoken about in print and broadcast news. The story on dedicated news websites is only marginally better, at 29%.
Section J of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action specifically addresses women and the media. It recognises the powerful role of media in shaping public opinion, influencing decision-making and either reinforcing or challenging gender inequality.
Since the first media monitoring in 1995, women’s presence has increased by only nine percent, with even lower visibility for women from minority groups. The GMMP findings highlight how far the media still are from fulfilling long-standing global commitments on gender equality.
The GMMP 2025 data reveal a broad plateau across key indicators. Men’s voices continue to dominate positions of authority in the news, particularly among experts and spokespersons, while gender stereotypes remain largely unchallenged. Coverage of gender-based violence is strikingly low, representing less than 2% of all news stories, despite the scale of this human rights violation worldwide.
Although women’s representation as reporters has improved over time, the report shows progress has slowed significantly, especially in digital media, where figures have remained virtually unchanged for years.
“We need to rethink our gender strategy in order to advance equality for women journalists and also balance the presence of women in the news,” said María Ángeles Samperio, president of the IFJ Gender Council.
“There is no doubt that the consequences of the pandemic and the rise of far-right governments are attempting to halt or reverse the progress made in gender equality.“
The IFJ views these findings as an urgent call for newsrooms to change mindsets and to embed a genuine culture of gender equality in their structures and policies. It highlights its Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists as a clear reminder of core ethical principles, including the obligation not to discriminate on the basis of gender. The IFJ encourages journalists’ unions and associations to urgently reflect on the GMMP results, raise awareness among their members and engage in concrete dialogue with media organisations to change newsrooms’ mindsets towards more gender equality awareness and protection. The IFJ recalls one of its latest project, Rewriting the Story, which underscores the importance of respecting gender equality both in news content and within newsrooms and provides a set of useful tools to make a change.
Source: IFJ
