Women, laity struggle for voice in ELCA news
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Commentary
©Pretty Good Lutherans
UPDATE: Late this afternoon, the ELCA News Service issued a press release that quoted a lay female employee from the denomination’s main offices in Chicago.
It’s been 10 days since a female was mentioned in a press release issued by the ELCA News Service.
Studies of mainstream news coverage show that women remain largely invisible in stories despite a higher profile in society than ever before.
But what about news coverage in the religious media?
An evaluation of one month’s press releases issued by the ELCA News Service shows that women are less likely to be mentioned or quoted in stories than men.
References and quotes by clergymen — almost always depicted as the voices of authority on church matters — dominated the News Service’s coverage. For instance, an Oct. 13 story on mission funding referenced four pastors and one bishop — none of them women.
The following individuals are known murder victims with ELCA ties killed since Pretty Good Lutherans was started in September 2009: