Time Trends in Printed News Coverage of Female Subjects, 1880-2008

Former studies have suggested that female subjects are substantially underrepresented in most media. However, no study has systematically investigated historical trends in women's coverage over the last century. We use data collected by the Lydia text analysis system to assess the development in the coverage of female subjects in 13 daily newspapers, dating back to 1880. Our trend analysis shows that female subjects' representation has remained relatively low throughout modern history. Following a temporary rise during the 1930s, it declined until the 1960s, and then showed a modest uptake in recent decades. The data further demonstrate that no newspaper section comes even close to equality between male and female names.