Lisa Kassenaar is a veteran reporter and editor for Bloomberg News and the driving force behind the Bloomberg News Women’s Project, an initiative to ensure women are better represented in the news.
In Depth recently spoke with Lisa to discuss the origins of the project and the extent of her involvement. To learn more, view a recording of this National Press Club panel, “Ms. Quote: Why Are Women Missing From the News?”, which editor-in-chief Matt Winkler participated in.
Q: Where did this idea come from? How did the Bloomberg News Women’s Project come to be?
LK: In 2010, Bloomberg News began a project to infuse all of our journalism with more women – as sources and voices, and as newsmakers in business, markets, politics and government. We know that women haven’t been running things – just 4 percent of S&P 500 CEOs are female – but we also know that women are half the people, and an underreported influence on the evolving global economic story.
Q: How did you get involved?
LK: I was a senior writer at Bloomberg Markets and had been covering Wall Street firms during the financial crisis. As that period waned, we talked about how few women had been part of the story. Editor-in-chief Matt Winkler asked me to figure out how to address it, and we started by deciding that we should not create a “women’s team.” We wanted all of our reporters and editors to see the world a little differently and to find and report on women from the perspective of their own beats.
I think that’s the smartest thing we did. Almost four years later, we have incredible engagement from all of our colleagues around the world and still no “women’s team.” We did about 2,000 print stories last year that can be attributed to this initiative.
Matt is very involved, and his enthusiasm for the project and for getting to know and understand woman leaders’ point of view has made an enormous difference, too. We’ve had dozens of editorial board meetings with people ranging from top woman bankers and political figures to Gloria Steinem.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges?
LK: Everyone can agree that equality matters, but changing perceptions and habits takes a lot more time than I thought it would. We have to remind folks every day that women’s voices are critical to interpreting the news and to providing the best possible account of what’s happening in the world today. Investors and other Bloomberg customers will get, literally, better news as we keep pushing this.
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