When Morning Show host, Karl Stefanovic highlighted the double standards between men and women on television by revealing he’d been wearing the same suit for an entire year (and no one noticed), a team of women from CNN celebrated.
These female journalists constantly grapple with what to wear, despite dealing with some of the most significant media work of our time. No matter what the situation or crisis they’re reporting on, the seemingly unimportant matter of clothing is still an issue.
Leading CNN foreign correspondent Hala Gorani revealed as much, speaking at the Women World Changers Summit in Sydney on Wednesday.
Having spent her career reporting from all over the world, including extensive coverage of the conflict in Syria and anchoring CNN’s The World Right Now, Gorani noted some of the key challenges facing female journalists. She cited research that found female correspondents in their thirties were more likely to be single than the general population, and more likely to participate in substance abuse.
The problem for viewers or readers taking in the news from home, is that 75% of those commenting on foreign policy are male.
Gorani highlighted the realities of how certain news stories are covered and how we take them in.
She noted how the front pages of certain major US newspapers covered the day Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential nominee – by picturing her husband Bill Clinton.
She also highlighted the media’s choice in what leads the news – a terrorist attack in Paris doesn’t rationally deserve wider coverage than one in Beirut – but is, instead, a reflection of what viewers will tune into. “News that is closer to home, that is more rare, is more newsworthy,” she said.
Still, journalists have a responsibility to tell stories in more compelling ways.
“There’s fatigue with Syria. There’s fatigue with refugees. You see deliberate attacks on Syria every day. Do you even look up anymore? It is our responsibility to come up with new ways of telling stories.”
Syria is particularly close to Gorani. Her parents are both from Aleppo, and says each bomb strike is like a personal wound.
Gorani also noted that should Hillary Clinton win the US presidential election this November, three of the world’s six largest economics will be run by women, including Germany, the UK and the United States.
Asked if the treatment of Clinton during her campaign may hinder the ambitions of other aspiring female leaders, Gorani said no.
“I get attacked on Twitter all the time. I get called the C word etc non stop … Does that make we want to retract from public life? No. It gives me a thicker skin. We’ve all heard sexist talk around us. We’ve all pretended we couldn’t hear it, or we weren’t offended by it, but we were. Does that give you reason not to move ahead with your career? I don’t think so.”
