News media are at their best when they call upon the wisdom of all the people whom they serve, when they reflect everyone’s experience and bring in the hopes and dreams of every sort of person.
Geneva Overholser, Pulitzer prize-winner
Women on Air is a community of like-minded women and men who want to hear and see more women on the airwaves.
Radio and TV producers continue to report that they have difficulty finding women to participate on the airwaves and, as a result, many programmes lack important gender balance. This is unsustainable and unjust.
Social policy is often influenced, and indeed changed, by views expressed on broadcast media and, viewed in that context, gender equality on the airwaves is an essential part of a fair and functioning democracy. Women consume media and pay for publicly funded media just as men do; they are entitled to hear their concerns, their views and most importantly their voices on the airwaves. Equally, ‘seeing is believing’ and we are firmly of the view that if women hear more of their own gender on the airwaves, it will encourage more to follow suit.
And that is Women on Air’s raison d’être! We run seminars, events and informal training workshops to help give women the skills and confidence to go on radio and television.
We have also established a database for media, of women who are ready, willing and able to contribute on broadcast media (link to the database), to give media greater visibility and easier access to women experts, contributors and commentators.
The people who make it all possible
Our Board members and speakers volunteer their time to ensure a greater diversity of voices on the airwaves. Our operational costs are funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Other friends and supporters include The Brussels Binder (an organisation supported by the European Commission which seeks to redress the gender balance on policy panels across the EU), NWCI, Manel Watch, The Ireland Funds, and The Dublin Shapers, an organisation affiliated to the World Economic Forum.
The community was originally founded in 2010 by journalist and entrepreneur Margaret E. Ward.
Women on Air is the registered business name of Women on Air Company Limited by Guarantee (“Women on Air CLG”).
Women on Air CLG is a company limited by guarantee registered in Ireland.
Company registration number: 588208
Registered office: 8 Highfield Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14