Inequality, still
Vivian Smith discusses the challenges of being a woman in journalism
For young reporters, journalism is a game of chicken. You can swerve away early, taking a relatively cushy job in public relations, but if you wait too long to jump ship, you might find yourself without a job at all. It’s hard to think about anything other than survival. That’s a metaphor that Vivian Smith […]
Keeping Up Appearances
For most women on camera, being young at heart is not enough. A look at the role that youth and beauty still play in TV news
In February, 1991, the CBC’s Toronto station, CBLT, aired a clever, facetious television commercial for its six o’clock newscast. In it, Barbie and Ken style dolls sat at an anchor desk, their plastic hair perfectly coiffed, grins stuck permanently in place. Staring vacantly into space, they engaged in some idle chatter: HE: Over to you, […]
Way Out of Bounds
How an ugly incident prompted the Star's Mary Ormsby to tackle locker-room sexism
In 1985, Toronto Star sportswriter Mary Ormsby became one of the first women in the history of the Canadian Football League to report from players’ locker rooms. By then, Ormsby had been in dozens of male athletes’ locker rooms. In her four years on the job, Ormsby, then 25, had learned to accept the reality […]
