HomeLearning CenterWhen Will the News Media Stop Defining Female CEOs by Their Age?

When Will the News Media Stop Defining Female CEOs by Their Age?

When it comes to media coverage about female business leaders, mainstream outlets are forever preoccupied with age.

That’s according to a new analysis by Cision, a platform for marketing and PR professionals. It took a look at the most commonly used adjectives to describe C-level leaders in print, broadcast, and online media coverage. For women, the adjectives “year-old” and “young” topped the list. In contrast, the adjectives most used to describe men in leadership positions were “strong” and “innovative.”

“The difference between the way women are discussed and the way men are discussed casts women and men in a different light,” Karen Stockert, Cision’s client insights manager, tells Fast Company. “Women are not given the same credibility as men are and there’s some language being used, intentionally or not, that’s taking some of their credibility and power away, because the consumers and the people reading that content are picking up on that.”

Fast Company

Back to News