One step into The Columbia Chronicle newsroom reveals a ratio of about one man for every seven women on staff. Our staff is similar to other college publications and classrooms across the country where, each year, women comprise more than two-thirds of journalism or mass communications graduates. But the media industry is just one-third women, according to studies from the Poynter Institute. 

There is a clear disparity between college and professional journalism that is contributing to what is still a male-dominated field that often breeds a “bro” atmosphere filled with toxic masculinity. While other American industries have seen growth in female employment since the 1970s, journalism is flatlining with only 38 percent of female journalists receiving bylines in print and wire news outlets, according to the Women’s Media Center’s 2017 report.

How can an industry that is supposed to report stories fairly do so without the voices of women, a group that makes up just over half the U.S. population?

Journalists Charlie Rose, Mark Halperin and, most recently, Matt Lauer are facing various sexual misconduct allegations. For women who admired these men and their work, this news is devastating. While it is unclear exactly why young female journalists are not entering—or staying—in the industry post-graduation, they may be intimidated by a career in journalism, where the newsroom culture still demeans and sexualizes women the same way Hollywood producers and politicians do.

How many important stories are not being written because women are not at the editorial board meetings? Four different female journalists, from the Washington Post and New York Times, broke the Charlie Rose and Harvey Weinstein stories, respectively.

While it would be inaccurate to assume that having more women in the newsroom would decrease sexual misconduct, perhaps with the conversation started, more women will come forward with their stories about mistreatment in the workplace. But women need to be heard at the staff and management levels of newsrooms everywhere.

As women continue to leave careers in journalism, fewer fill leadership roles. According to a Feb. 17 Oxford Research article, feminist scholars think “undoing the maleness of news” requires women in top management, since change comes only from the top. The willingness of many news organizations to hire female reporters, however, is not accompanied by an equal willingness to promote women as editors and publishers.

Women run only three of the 25 largest newspaper titles in the U.S., according to the September 2014 Nieman Reports article “Where Are the Women?” It’s time for a change, and that can start by hiring, keeping and elevating women in the newsroom.

It could be dangerous to assume that sexual assault in major news corporations  like that of Lauer, Halperin and Rose are isolated incidents. According to the Rape, Abuse and & Incest National Network, there are 321,500 victims of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States on average. Sexual misconduct is likely happening in local newsrooms, too.

While it would take a strong cultural shift to change this behavior in and outside of journalism, it is important that women are not afraid to enter the journalism industry. There are stories that need to be told and women who need to tell them.