Abstract:
The study of role that given to female journalists’ role at EBC in light of ‘critical mass’
and‘glass ceiling’ as underpinning theoretical frameworks was the aim of this study. The design
of the study data were collected through self completion questionnaires that were answered by
71 femalejournalists working in Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. In addition, five individual
interviews were conducted toenrich the data obtained from the survey. Analysis of data showed
that theentrance of women to the media in Ethiopia is scanty, for various reasons, compared to
the average of women journalists working in the media worldwide, and that of journalists in
many African and Latin American countries. It was alsoknown that it is rare to see women
journalists penetrating to high decision makingpositions as the path is greasy and steep. The
findings also suggest that journalismgenerally preferred by young, single, well-educated women
who do not intend tostay long in the career because of family pressure and inconvenient
workingconditions. Women’s’ feelings about what assignments to undertake does not differ from
their male colleague but at the issue of women and women affair women seems control over it
because the feeling of the issue is mutual. Women’s harassment in the media should not be
overlooked as a sizable numberof respondents, were found to have faced sexual harassment,
mostly from news source. The study concluded that the number of female journalist is not
proportion with that of men journalists, therefore the media managers have to work hard to
increase their role in the media.
