Women and Media is a thoughtful cross-cultural examination of the ways in which women have worked inside and outside mainstream media organizations since the 1970s. Rooted in a series of interviews with women media workers and activists collected specifically for this book, the text provides an original insight into women's experiences.

Preface and acknowledgments vi About the authors ix 1 Introduction 1 Part I Research on women and media: a short history 15 2 Women in/as entertainment 17 3 Images of women in news and magazines 37 4 Women as audience 56 5 Women and production: gender and the political economy of media industries 75 Part II Women, media, and the public sphere: shifting the agenda 97 6 Toward a Model of Women’s Media Action 99 7 First path: politics to media 129 8 Second path: media profession to politics 155 9 Third path: advocate change agent 185 10 Fourth path: women’s media enterprises 208 11 Conclusion 231 Bibliography 240 Appendix: research participants 273 Name index 278 Subject index 284  

Women and Media is a thoughtful cross-cultural examination of the ways in which women have worked inside and outside mainstream media organizations since the 1970s. The book provides an overview of the key issues and developments in feminist media critiques and interventions over the last 30 years, beginning with the extant literature in this growing field and ending with a new study of women’s media activism in 20 nations. The authors recount and analyze the first-hand narratives of nearly 100 women media activists whose work has contributed to the making of a feminist public sphere that has moved women leaders and agendas more forcefully into their societies. This highly original empirical base, and the Model of Women's Media Action that the authors developed from it, provides a unique account of women’s struggles to improve, create, and otherwise employ media in pushing for social change. The text is written in a concise, engaging style, laying out the central concerns about the women–media relationship as it has operated in a variety of political/critical contexts. It can be used alongside Women and Media: International Perspectives (2004), by the same authors.

“Byerly and Ross not only advocate but succeed in integrating theory with empirical data, and may inspire a few readers to undertake their own media action.” Linda Steiner, Rutgers University “The first comprehensive attempt to theorize women's media activism and its relationship to social change. An inspiring chronicle of feminist interventions in media systems world-wide, and a welcome bridge between scholarship and practice.” Margaret Gallagher, author of Gender Setting: New Agendas for Media Monitoring and Advocacy “The essays are forays into areas of media studies which will only grow with the growing presence and innovations of women in this central field of contemporary culture.” Midwest Book Review "A useful outline of global feminist media scholarship for students and practitioners. The book opens up new directions for future research, tempering an engagement with historical development of women's media activism with attention to the real voices and experiences of current activists and practitioners." Culture and Policy