Haley Shapley: Balance in the newsroom

I was given less than a day to write this column. Although not much time to formulate a goodbye, I am writing it primarily for one reason.

Look at the other writers on this page: David, Garrett, Jeff, Josh, Cezary. I've met them all, and I respect them all. I spent countless hours with many of them inside of a windowless building as DP editors. One of them had the good fortune of sharing an office with me for an entire year (though "good fortune" may not be quite how he would describe it).

While their contributions to campus journalism are numerous and impressive, one thing bothers me about this particular compilation of goodbye columnists.

They are all men.

I am not against men, nor am I against male journalists. But I am against the underrepresentation of females in journalism.

Although women make up two-thirds of students in journalism school, they are only one-third of newsroom employees. The number has not increased in the past 20 years. At some of the country's top papers, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, women write fewer than 20 percent of the columns which appear on the op-ed pages.

The balance is even more skewed in the top editor ranks. And research shows that the fewer women who work as editors at an organization, the fewer women who are cited as sources or profiled as subjects in stories. Gender of editors can, and often does, affect coverage.

I am lucky in that I've grown up believing I could do anything I wanted, and I still feel that way. I don't look at my gender as a deterrent, and I think any committed woman could ascend the ladder of journalism if she really wanted to. But the numbers are disheartening. The obstacles are still there.

I don't want my younger sister or cousins to open up this paper -- or any other paper -- and see only male bylines. Subtle but consistent messages that newspapers are a man's world are detrimental to young girls who may one day want to enter the field of journalism.

So I didn't have much time (or space) to write this column, but the message, I hope, is still clear: Guys are great, but balance is better.

Here's to all of the 2006 female graduates with journalistic aspirations making those dreams a reality.

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