Women possess sets of attributes that are often viewed negatively in any job. Many assume certain job positions must be filled by men because of their typical skills, mindset, and predisposition, which are generally thought of as masculine traits that women lack. Thus, employers sanction women for violations of expectations concerning physical attractiveness and punish them for "unladylike" behavior or "inappropriate language." (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011)
Most women report multiple types of discrimination. It is common for women to face harassment, particularly sexual harassment, and/or unequal working conditions prior to being fired or otherwise discharged. Indeed, when it comes to female workers, issues such as unequal pay and a lack of workplace flexibility are on the agenda; others, such as the growing risk of online and sexual harassment, are common in the journalism field. (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011)
When we look at the Romanian scenario, where the story we want to tell you takes place, we see that 22 percent of women have experienced harassment in the last 5 years, and 9 percent have been subjected to cyber harassment in the same period. (EIGE, 2019)
What steps have been taken to resolve the situation? As of today, there is a new integrated National Strategy on gender equality and preventing and combating domestic violence for the 2018–2021 period that focuses on specific areas of intervention through concrete measures and actions. (Rovența-Frumușani & Surugiu, 2020)
The truth of the matter is that pursuing a career in any field takes more effort for women than it does for men. Regardless, since the 1990s, the number of women journalists has constantly increased. (Ross & Padovani, 2017)
We need to bear in mind that not everything that glitters is gold. In fact, this increase isn’t equally distributed among all positions: women tend to be relegated to lower positions, whereas men continue to hold a great majority of management positions in media organizations. Today we can state that journalism is a feminised profession, with women representing the basis of this profession, especially at the bottom level. (Ross & Padovani, 2017)
According to the research conducted by the Global Monitoring Media Project, Romanian women lack a dose of gender awareness at the very least, but sometimes we can talk about "blatant gender blindness". While waiting for a favorable context, women try to create one for themselves by accepting conditions that a man would tend to reject. They are more likely to agree to do certain chores after little to no negotiation as they feel that working in the news environment is worthwhile, but this also reflects on their salaries, which are generally lower than men’s. (Ross & Padovani, 2017)
One of these chores is making themselves appear on TV in a way that appeals to the general public, and they’ve become so good at it that they've created an effective standardized image. But what if a young girl’s dream is to become a news anchor? To be just like Andreea Esca, one of the most well-known in Romania. Unfortunately, nightmares qualify as dreams as well.
Alina Greavu, thanks to her mother, had the opportunity to attend the courses of Intact Media Academy to learn more about her dream profession. Now known as “Aluziva”, she described herself as having been lucky because she managed to get the news anchor position for Digi 24 Constanța despite her minimal experience in television. The job has not lived up to her expectations; certain workplace circumstances have dulled the excitement she sought when she was younger.
This is not a story about a woman who quit her job at the end of a live transmission, but about the reasons that led her to this decision. As a Digi 24 TV anchor, she had to "get rid of" her personality as the news institution has a reputation to maintain but no funds to do so. Alina was required to have clothes from expensive fast-fashion brands and her hair always styled but was not given any additional resources to do so.
"To earn money so I can go to work."
Her salary didn’t allow for these lavish expectations to be met. Moreover, it was not directly proportional to the amount of hours she was working weekly and the number of things she had to do either. Instead of four news programs a day, she also had to do live transmissions. Instead of working five days a week (as the contract entitled), she only had four days off per month. She was not granted sick leave when she should have. The reason for "having to do it all" was that she was appealing to the eye despite having "a big mouth" as she was told when she complained about the unfair conditions at the workplace. (ALUZIVA, 2019)
By this point, probably everyone is wondering why she didn’t quit her job, but she did try, twice. The first time she wanted to present her resignation, Alina was not taken seriously, and her boss simply tore apart the paper. She stopped showing up to work, but both she and her mother were called non-stop. So, to stop everything, she decided to go in one last time and at the end of the live transmission, she mentioned that it would be her last.
Violence against women journalists can take many forms and should be talked about freely and openly. Alina Greavu’s case is a prime example of that, as this is something that happened in 2012-2013, but was only talked about on a grand scale in 2019 (ALUZIVA, 2019). Big media outlets in Romania brought awareness to the situation as society progressed, which led to her online statement being uploaded on her YouTube channel. We hope that her case, as well as our article, will inspire more women to speak up, and society to do better so that enthusiastic dreams are not killed by unfair circumstances.
an article written by Daria-Teodora Badea, Viviana Borroni, Anna Galiazzo, Elisa Iseppi, Ana Maria Oancea
References
ALUZIVA. (2019, February 7). DE CE MI-AM DAT DEMISIA IN DIRECT LA TV /// CUM E SA FII REPORTER SI PREZENTATOARE #STORYTIME. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnjLWRK9ybA
Bobbitt-Zeher, D. (2011). (Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011, GENDER DISCRIMINATION AT WORK: Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional, Policies, and Gender Composition of Workplace) . Sage Publications, Inc.
EIGE. (2019). Gender equality in national parliaments across the EU and the European Parliament.
Ross, K., & Padovani, C. (2017). Gender Equality and the Media, A Challenge for Europe. Routledge.
Rovența-Frumușani , D., & Surugiu, R. (2020). Retrieved from https://gamag.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Romania.pdf
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