The gendered and sexualized relationship between Israeli women journalists and their male news sources

Abstract

This article studies the ways in which the interactions between female Israeli journalists and their male news sources are gendered and sexually structured. The article is grounded in feminist critiques of journalism as well as feminist organizational and work studies and it is based on examination of the narratives of individual experiences of 32 female Israeli journalists, working for 10 newspapers. I set forth the attitudes of the male sources toward the female journalists as the journalists perceive them, and then I examine the practices that the journalists adopt in order to cope with these attitudes. Finally, I both set forth and examine the views that these female journalists express concerning the legitimacy of their own practices. The research findings illustrate how gender and sexuality interact in journalism by showing the dynamic character of this process in organizations. The findings demonstrate that gender and sexuality are key aspects of the relationship between the female journalists I studied and their male sources in the Israeli context.