Introduction

The stimulus for this volume has emerged from a series of seminars in the UK, funded by the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council (ESRC). The research focus of the seminar series is to develop methodologies and networks to challenge gendered media misrepresentations of women professionals and leaders. The media plays a critical role in society and is a recognized global power: It has the power to shape individuals’ realities, provide frameworks for interpretation, reproduce and influence culture, educate, influence politics and policy, and effect social change (Mazza & Alvarez, 2000). Representing and shaping the behavior of people, not least in workplaces (Czarniawska & Rhodes, 2006), the media therefore has significant influence on how individuals, and in turn organizations, business networks, and communities, make sense of and give sense to (Hellgren, Löwstedt, Puttonen, Tienari, Vaara, & Werr, 2002) women as professionals and leaders. Media representations of women professionals and leaders are often absent or gendered, are sexualized, and communicate contradictory messages. For example, we notice that on the one hand women leaders are championed, but on the other hand the media passes judgment on how women professionals “do gender well” against their feminine sex-category (Mavin & Grandy, 2013), evidenced by an excessive focus placed on women’s hair, makeup, clothes, children, and weight, thereby calling into question their presence and competence to serve in senior roles. Yet there remains a lack of critical attention in leadership research to how women leaders and professionals are represented in the media, and this gap formed the basis for the seminar series and this edited volume. The lack of research interrogation of gendered media representations of women leaders and professionals is a surprising omission given the wealth of evidence from stakeholders outside academia that reveals that women, and women leaders, continue to be underrepresented across all forms of media outlets. For example, the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) reports on an international study of women’s presence on television, radio, the internet, and in newspapers (Macharia, 2015). The findings highlight that only 24% of news subjects involve women, and that in news stories women are two to three times more likely to be portrayed as victims in comparison to men.