College Journalism Draws More Women

      At the June commencement exercises for the University of Maryland College of Journalism, more than 70% of the graduates were female.
      This mirrors the national average where 70% of journalism undergraduates are female and 30% are male, according to Frank Quine, director of development for the College of Journalism, which has 500 undergraduates enrolled in broadcast, print and online journalism programs.
      "We’re 70/30 and so is every journalism program in America," Quine said. He added that the ratio has been pretty stable for a number of years.
       There have been a number of reasons cited for the change from a mostly male field, including the emergence in the 1970s of women in high visibility positions at newspapers, on television and in radio, said Quine. Women saw role models emerge in the field and became more interested in journalism as the opportunities for careers in the field increased.
      Another factor was the inclusion of advertising and public relations in many journalism programs, he said. These have traditionally been fields that attracted a large number of women, and many women are heads of advertising and public relations firms.
      At the University of Maryland, the public relations program has been moved to the Department of Communications and there is no longer an advertising program, said Quine.
      Still the ratio of 70% women to 30% men has been fairly constant, he said.