Career dissatisfaction in media has reached a four-year high for women.
According to the Women in Media Industry Insight Report 2025, 59% of women in the media industry report dissatisfaction with their careers.
Women in Media strategic advisor and author of the report, Petra Buchanan, told Mumbrella that dissatisfaction has increased consistently for the past four years since the report has existed.
“Fundamentally, there’s just this disconnect between what women are experiencing or hearing what should be happening, and what’s actually happening for them,” she said.
The report also found that one in three women are considering leaving their job, with half looking to exit the industry altogether. This is up from 3% considering leaving their jobs last year.
With most of these women being in mid-career or senior positions, Buchanan suggests this sends an unhelpful message to women early in their careers due to the lack of representation.
“Only 23% of women make it to senior management, and we’ve got to address that issue and empower more women to be ready to step into leadership roles,” she said.
“But that can’t happen with this growing career dissatisfaction and increasing numbers of women considering exiting the industry.”
Buchanan says there is only one CEO of an ASX-listed company and once she leaves in the latter half of this year, the industry will only be represented by male CEOs.
Pay is the top reason for women to leave their jobs, followed by lack of growth opportunities and disengagement.
When asked what issues need to be addressed, 63% of women said gender pay audits are the main issue employers need to address, followed by learning and development opportunities.
On top of this, 74% of women said their employer hadn't taken clear steps or communicated how they would address the gender pay gap, despite reforms like the WGEA pay gap data and Respect@Work legislation.
