'Communications Daily' Special Report on Diversity Finds Shortcomings, Challenges

With national issues related to diversity having ramifications for media and telecom, Communications Daily has reported on that impact throughout this past year. The stories in this Special Report are the work of five Communications Daily journalists who spent part of 2020 covering those issues.

Monty Tayloe and Howard Buskirk write that the FCC has been losing female leaders. On the flip side, women are 51% of the agency's lawyers. But women are vastly outnumbered by men among economists at the commission. See Tayloe and Buskirk's story at 2012150039.

Debra Rubin's article shows how the communications bar has work to do for female communications lawyers to be proportionally represented at law firms and to be treated as fully equal to men. The industry's bar association, the FCBA, has been prioritizing such diversity work. Rubin's story is at 2012110021.

Adam Bender reports that state agencies regulating telecom are far less diverse than the population as a whole. Based on data provided to him from a utility diversity council, Bender wrote that more than half of those regulatory bodies had no people of color as commissioners, and several had no women. The association of state regulators says it's making diversity a major focus, and some of the group's members agree. Bender's report is at 2012150032.

Matt Daneman finds that boards in the telecom and media sector, while becoming more diverse, have further to go. His number crunching found that women on average make up a minority on such boards. Racial minorities also are underrepresented. Broadcasters were the least likely to have female directors among the industries analyzed. Read more at 2012130004.

You can also find this Special Report's stories online at communicationsdaily.com.