Years ago at WBAI in the 1970's, a group of women, myself among them, took over an on air WBAI program to protest the male dominance of the station. Women's programs and a certain level of women's consciousness developed. As years went on, much of the women's programming was dropped. Women's consciousness is more often seen now as something negative: no overtly sexist jokes or comments does seem to have taken hold as a baseline. A positive women's consciousness where women have the right to be equally represented both on air and in management and where people think to speak of women's issues as a matter of course does not, as far as I am concerned, exist on a broad level.

Gender imbalance shows itself in all sorts of ways. The study Janet Coleman and I did concentrates on on-air hosts, those people who have the air and decide what goes on their air.

Bylaws are the core of an organization. Bylaws discussions have taken place around the need to include mandates for female representation. Women are incredibly underrepresented in the stations. By having at least 50% women on the local governing boards and on the national governing board, women have a shot at being crow barred into the stations.

People have little idea of how bad the gender imbalance really is. This study tells them.

Susan Lee

WBAI ON AIR GENDER STUDY

We knew that the overall sound on WBAI seemed more male than female. We did not know how dramatic the imbalances are between women and men on air. We discovered the following:

" Overall, 69% of air time belongs to male hosts, 14% to female hosts, 16% to balanced female-male blends, and 1% to tba. " Weekends are 79% male hosts, 12% female hosts, with 8% blends and 1% tba.
" Strips are 72% male hosts and 14% female hosts with 14% female-male host duos.
" New programming has the most pronounced imbalance: 77% male hosts, 6% female hosts, 17% balanced female-male blends.

At this point, we are sending this study to the IPNB and putting this study out on the list serves. We are asking the board and other stations to look into gender disparity on air as well as in management in the network. We are asking for support and suggestions as to our next steps.

Susan Lee
Janet Coleman

Sept 1, 2002
Contact: SusanLee@compuserve.com

WBAI ON AIR GENDER STUDY
Percentage breakdown
WBAI	total	male	female	female -male duos	balanced mix including news	tba
	%
prime time 6-10 am weekdays	100	50	25	25
weekday 12-2pm (except Mon & Fri 1-2 pm)	100	100
prime time 3 - 6 pm weekdays	100	93	7
weekends						2
Saturday - 24 hours	100	88	10
Sunday - 24 hours	100	71	12	15	2
weekday 10-12 am	100	35	15	25	5	20
weekday (non-strips)	100	57	14	29
evening weekday 6- 12 pm	100	50	17	3	30
overnight wkdays 12 - 6 pm	100	78	17	5
Total	100	69	14	10	6	1

Hours breakdown
WBAI	total hours	male	female	female- male duos	balanced mix including news	tba
prime time 6-10 am weekdays	20	10	5	5
weekday 12-2pm strips (except Mon & Fri 1-2 pm)	8	8
prime time 3 - 6 pm weekdays	15	14	1
weekends
Saturday - 24 hours	24	21	2.5	0.5
Sunday - 24 hours	24	17	3	3.5	0.5
weekday 10-12 am	10	3.5	1.5	2.5	0.5	2
weekday (non-strips) Tues-Fri 2-3 pm & Mon & Fri 1-2 pm	7	4	1	2
evening weekday
6- 12 pm	30	15	5	1	9
overnight wkdays
12 - 6 pm	30	23.5	5	1.5
TOTAL	168	116	24	15.5	10	2.5

Total programming - Weekend/weekday breakdown
	total hours	male	female	female- male duos	balanced mix including news	tba
Weekends	48	38	5.5	3.5	0.5	0.5
Weekdays	120	78	18.5	12	9.5	2
Total	168	116	24	15.5	10	2.5
	total %
Weekends	100	79	12	7	1	1
Weekdays	100	65	15	10	8	2
TOTAL	100	69	14	10	6	1

Pilot programs
	total hours	male	female	female-male duos	balanced mix including news)	tba
Pilot programs	23.5	18	1.5	3	1
	total percentage
Pilot programs	100	77	6	13	4