POLITICS & INSTITUTIONS - POLITICS
Gender parity

Female representation in Luxembourg media still too low

Teodor Georgiev

Written by Teodor Georgiev

Published on 04.10.2021 • Edited on 07.10.2021 at 12:34

In 2010 women made up only 20% of cited sources in Luxembourgish media, today they made up 24,9%. Photo: Shutterstock

In 2010 women made up only 20% of cited sources in Luxembourgish media, today they made up 24,9%. Photo: Shutterstock

Sources cited in Luxembourgish media are three times more likely to be men than women, according to a study by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP).

There has been progress when it comes to gender parity in media interventions of persons such as experts, but it has been rather slow. In 2010 women made up only 20% of cited sources in Luxembourgish media, today they made up 24,9%.

Luxembourg’s participation in the Global Media Monitoring Project--the largest international study of gender representation in news media—was led by the non-profit association, the national council of women of Luxembourg (CNFL), and CID-Fraen an Gender. The research included 18 media outlets from the grand duchy including Luxembourger Wort, Tageblatt, RTL, Paperjam, le Quotidien, Contacto and others.

“In general, the survey showed that women and girls only cover a quarter of the people represented in the selected articles. Although it is necessary to differentiate between the different media (print, audiovisual and online media) as well as the specific themes with some nuances in favour of the female gender, female representation has hardly progressed compared to previous editions,” said minister for equality between men and women, Taina Bofferding (LSAP) during the presentation of the study’s results.

Articles covering topics such as politics, government and the economy saw women at around 20%. Female sources were cited slightly more often when it came to health and science, 27% in traditional media and 31% in digital media. In fact, online articles showed a higher women representation, for example in topics treating crime and violence (83%), gender (64%), or celebrities, art and sports (47%).

The same tendency could be noted across Europe where women were represented more in articles covering topics such as gender but less in those regarding the economy or politics.

It should be noted that the leading topics in Luxembourgish media according to the study were politics and government, science and health as well as economy.

The study also showed that 30.2% of reporters or news anchors in Luxembourg were women. Women were less present on Twitter (14%) and on radio stations (0%) but more present online (43%) and on TV (36%).