Waiting for Prime Time: THE WOMEN OF TELEVISION NEWS

by Marlene Sanders, Marcia Rock

Describes the competition between men and women for air time and managerial positions in the television industry and looks at the history of women broadcast journalists

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1988

Reviews

[Sarah Toppins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book when I was a university professor of broadcast journalism after having worked in the field as a token woman. So I found this history of other early women in journalism compelling. I tried to do my own research on women in leadership at local stations. There were so few of them, I didn't get enough feedback to write anything. So discouraged, I quit reading this book. I returned to it as I was trying to cull books from my bookshelves before a move. And it brought back so many memories, I decided to finish and keep it. I've been disappointed that my sacrifices haven't been remembered. Marlene Sanders describes a similar disappointment by the early network women. If you care about women's history and early broadcast journalism, this is a good read.

[Kevyn]

"Still Waiting for Prime TIme" is about modern women in the film industry today. One of my favorite things about this book is the title. In American History class, we studied how men and women were treated unfairly in a lot of circumstances in American History. So this cover means that although women are allowed to be on television and broadcast now, there is still inequality because men still dominate the industry. Although it is more equal today, this book came out in 1988, so it offers an older opinion of the issue. Equality in the broadcasting business has changed a a lot in the past 23 years. 23 years ago television, broadcast and media was mostly men. However, this book tells us about some of the older broadcasters such as Barbara Walters, who have suffered unequality in the broadcasting business. We learn about their career and how they became successful in an industry dominated by men. Overall this was a great book for women even though it offers and outdated viewpoint of the issue.