“The Girls at the Desk”: Timeless Blokishness in the Newsroom Culture in the British Press?

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the lived experiences of women working in journalism in the UK. To do this, 20 interviews were conducted with women who worked in newspapers and magazines from the 1970s to the present day. The research was conceptualised using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and works previously conducted in journalism studies on blokish culture in newsrooms. The purpose of the paper was to further explore blokish culture in newsrooms by looking into expectations of women and the work culture. Thematic analysis was used in analysing findings. The results show that not much has changed in newsroom culture and interviewees who worked in journalism across decades report the same issue with blokish culture and cultural masculinity in work expectations. Besides, results show that women face both direct and indirect sexism and deeply entrenched blokish culture that impedes opportunities for women. Results indicate that the situation in women’s magazines, as predominantly female-led environments, is more relaxed and women who work in magazines do not report blokish culture. Finally, abductive analysis of results showed a link between early socialisation and blokishness expressed in newsrooms among women who internalised masculine habitus.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• journalism
• newsroom culture
• blokishness
• masculinities
• UK

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Leeds Business School: [Grant Number HEFCE internal funding].