Women in media have nothing to prove

Stop overlooking women’s expertise and start being intentional about shouting about it, writes Nicola Kemp.

“I’m not an expert in that.” In over twenty years of journalism, I cannot tell you the number of times a talented, knowledgeable woman has turned down the opportunity to speak, write or share their knowledge. Even when talking about their own lived experience, the muscle memory to defer to someone else, usually a man, is well-worn.

The truth is, it’s 2026; yet as an industry, we are still punishing women for taking up space. There is no female Mark Ritson because a female columnist would have been told to shut her mouth the first time she had the audacity to call a piece of work shit.

As a junior journalist, a CEO once called a colleague to ask whether my husband worked at a rival insurance brand, after I had the audacity to express my opinion on an advertisement. The notion that I might have an opinion of my own had not entered his mind.

An editorial director I once had the misfortune of working with once publicly berated me for having the audacity to suggest the nature of influence was changing. As he explained to me, influence occurs when women see a product in a magazine and feel compelled to buy it. Silly me.

Both men held the armour of big job titles and big opinions; neither held the self-awareness to consider they might have anything left to learn. Active listening is increasingly a lost art.

Calling time on imposter syndrome

There is no question that the media industry would be a more innovative, creative engine if we had more women in leadership positions. Representation has never mattered more.

It’s easy to point to that one-size-fits-all diagnosis of ‘imposter syndrome’ or a simple lack of confidence as the reason we are still so far from equal representation in our industry. Women not stepping up is such a simple way to explain away the many manels I still see on industry conference stages.

Often, a female journalist is asked to step in at the last minute to moderate these panels. Spoiler alert: a woman chairing a manel is still a manel. Yet when I point out this simple fact, far too often the response quickly slides into defensiveness. It’s 2026, but ‘I asked all the women’ is still the default.

The impossible pursuit of proving yourself

The uncomfortable reality is that we continue to hold women to an entirely different standard. A truth which sets women on an impossible path of constantly having to prove themselves.

Even a cursory glance at the backlash to WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s pay package, scrutinised in an entirely different manner to Read or Sorrell beforehand, underlines that women in media are running an entirely different race.

In a fast-moving industry, a singular truth has been impossible to shift; what is merely mediocre in a man is unforgivable in a woman.

As author and journalist Mary Anne Sieghart explains:

We assume a man knows what he is talking about until he proves otherwise, but for a woman, it is all too often the other way round.”

You can get to the very top of the industry, defy the odds and build your expertise, yet you will still face the weight of having to prove yourself at every turn.

When self-improvement slides into self-sabotage

The result of this endless scrutiny is that women are increasingly hard-wired to doubt themselves and to sit on the fence. Even when the facts of their own lived experience are in the firing line.

Our industry mindlessly contributes to a media narrative that has made tearing women down something of a national bloodsport.

Imagine if the incoming director of the BBC were Alex Mahon instead of Matt Brittin, and consider the disproportionate scrutiny she would face. I predict no headlines about his choice of clothing. Meanwhile, the vicious personal scrutiny facing female leaders shows no signs of abating.

If we are genuinely committed to creating the space for the women leaders of today and tomorrow that this industry so desperately needs, we must stop punishing women for having an opinion.

We must collectively commit to elevating the experience and expertise of women in the industry. We can do more to champion the brilliant, creative, eclectic changemakers that have quietly woven the fabric of the media industry for so long. Let’s start singing the songs of praise for those unsung leaders, who are all too often disproportionately women.

And for the women on the constant treadmill of feeling you constantly have to prove yourself, turn this sentence into a permission slip to get off. Your energy matters.

An industry that holds women to an individual standard that keeps rising is one that is content to continue setting women up to fail.

And for the women reading this, shut out the noise and keep speaking up. For when you look in the mirror, you will see the expert we so desperately need staring right back at you.

Nicola Kemp has spent over two decades writing about diversity, equality and inclusion in media. She is now editorial director at Creativebrief and writes for The Media Leader each month.