In media coverage of women’s issues such as abortion, birth control, and Planned Parenthood, men are doing most of the talking, a new study has found. Men are quoted around five times more than women in these stories, according to the research group The 4th Estate, which has been studying election coverage for the past six months.

Among 35 major national print publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, men had 81 percent of the quotes in stories about abortion, the research group said Thursday, while women had 12 percent, and organizations had 7 percent. In stories about birth control, men scored 75 percent of the quotes, with women getting 19 percent and organizations getting 6 percent. Stories about Planned Parenthood had a similar ratio, with men getting 67 percent, women getting 26 percent, and organizations getting 7 percent. Women fared a bit better in stories about women’s rights, getting 31 percent of the quotes compared with 52 percent for men and 17 percent for organizations.

Men didn’t just dominate stories on women’s issues, the study found, but stories on all election topics, including the economy and foreign policy. Men ruled the airwaves as well. In the report, called Silenced: Gender Gap in the 2012 ElectionCoverage, researchers studied a total of 2,750 print articles and TV segments in the six-month period from Nov. 1 to May 15, according to The 4th Estate.

Separately, a recent study calledThe OpEd Project found that men are writing the majority of opinion columns in the media.

Source: The Daily Beast, 31 May 2012 via The European Journalism Centre's daily media news service