New awards launched in response to “astonishing” absence of women on Press Awards shortlist
***Embargoed until 12:00 GMT, Friday 19th February***
Entries are now open for the Words by Women Awards, the only general UK awards for women journalists. Judges include columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Janine Gibson, VICE UK editor-in-chief Rebecca Nicholson, Independent on Sunday editor Lisa Markwell, Sky News presenter Kay Burley, Guardian executive editor Mary Hamilton, ITV presenter Charlene White and more. A full list of judges and categories is included below.
Women journalists are consistently under-represented at industry awards.
This year’s Press Awards shortlist features just 20 women in a list of 114 nominees. Six categories had just one woman nominee, and a further six had none at all.
The Words by Women Awards seeks to redress that balance.
Applicants can enter, for free, free by emailing two press clippings or article links to WBWAwards@gmail.com before midday on Saturday 27th February. Readers are also encouraged to make nominations using the same process. Please see our website for exact specifications.
The shortlist will be announced on Monday 29th February, with an awards ceremony to be held at the Groucho Club on Monday 21st March.
Words by Women particularly encourage women from minority backgrounds to nominate themselves.
Words by Women was founded by journalists Mollie Goodfellow, Marie Le Conte, Ellie Mae O’Hagan, Emily Reynolds and Robyn Vinter as a response to the Press Awards shortlist.
“There’s an incredibly diverse range of voices working in every area of the media, so it was really disappointing to see the Press Awards shortlist,” says Emily Reynolds, co-founder. “Words by Women is our attempt to give women the kind of attention, recognition and celebration that they’re not getting elsewhere.”
“Some of the highest calibre reporting in this country is being done by women and it’s simply startling that we’re not seeing that reflected in the shortlists for awards,” says award co-founder Robyn Vinter. “Every day women are producing ground-breaking journalism and, in 2016, it’s about time they’re recognised fairly.”
“They say if you want something done right to do it yourself, and so here we are. It’s time for women to stand up and say ‘Hey, I do good work and I deserve to be recognised’ and my hope is that the Words by Women awards will give women the confidence to do just that.” says co-founder Mollie Goodfellow.
“Though the lack of women in the Press Awards shortlist isn’t exactly the biggest thing in the world, it is symptomatic of a wider industry problem, where women may get into journalism, but will struggle to get into senior positions at the same rate as men, and often won’t get recognition for their - often brilliant - work. We’re here and we’re not planning to go anywhere, so you know what? We’re going to make ourselves heard. Sausage fests are so passé anyway,” says co-founder Marie Le Conte.
“The underrepresentation of women in the press awards shortlist this year is frankly astonishing, especially considering how much attention has been paid to the diversity of shortlists of other award ceremonies,” says co-founder Ellie Mae O’Hagan.
“Women are continually marginalised in the media industry and the fact that the WBWA have attracted so much attention shows how necessary they are,” she adds.
For more information, please email wbwawards@gmail.com or get in touch at the Words By Women Twitter account. Direct messages are welcomed and we respond to them as soon as we can.
General admission tickets for the event will be available after the shortlist has been announced.
Judging Panel
- Anne Alexander, political producer at ITV Daybreak
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, journalist at The Guardian, New York Times and more
- Emma Barnett, Women’s Editor at The Telegraph
- Marisa Bate, Deputy News Editor at The Pool
- Kay Burley, Presenter at Sky News
- Reni Eddo-Lodge, freelance journalist and author
- Janine Gibson, Editor at BuzzFeed UK
- Horatia Harrod, commissioning editor at The Telegraph
- Mary Hamilton, Executive Editor at The Guardian
- Jess Hurd, photojournalist and founder of PHNAT
- Sima Kotecha, Senior Reporter at BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme
- Helen Lewis, Deputy Editor at the New Statesman
- Joy Lo Dico, Editor of the Londoner’s Diary at the Evening Standard
- Phoebe Luckhurst, National Editor at The Tab
- Lisa Markwell, Editor at the Independent on Sunday
- Sinead McIntyre, Editor of Fabulous Magazine at The Sun
- Jane Merrick, political columnist at The Independent
- Madhu Murgia, Technology Editor at The Telegraph
- Lia Nicholls, Entertainment Editor at JOE.co.uk
- Rebecca Nicholson, Editor at VICE UK
- Jenny Stevens, Managing Editor at VICE UK
- Zing Tsjeng, Editor at Broadly UK
- Terri White, Editor at Empire Magazine
- Charlene White, Presenter at ITV News
- Hannah Strange - Foreign Editor, Telegraph
Categories
- News Reporter of the Year
- Feature Writer of the Year
- Political Writer of the Year
- Business Writer of the Year
- Sports Writer of the Year
- Comment Writer of the Year
- Lifestyle Writer of the Year
- Foreign Reporter / Commentator of the Year
- Tech Writer of the Year
- Broadcaster of the Year
- Digital Writer of the Year - NOTE: This award is designed to celebrate journalists who are using the internet to ensure stories have a big impact
- Student Journalist of the Year
- Culture Writer of the Year
- Non Traditional Journalist of the Year - NOTE: This award is designed to celebrate journalists who have made it to the forefront of the media without following the “traditional” route of a private school/Oxbridge/City University education. Nominees perhaps followed an apprenticeship programme or broke into journalism through blogging or PR, for example.
About Words By Women
Ellie Mae O’Hagan moved to London five years ago with a Dick Whittington-inspired dream to make it as a writer. She got her first commission at the Guardian three months later. She writes mainly for the Guardian and Independent. She has also written for the Times, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, New Statesman, VICE and others. Ellie also works for the Centre for Labour and Social Studies, a think tank focusing upon the labour market and inequality. She is Welsh and proud. She is also a surprisingly good DJ.
She tweets as @MissEllieMae.
Emily Reynolds is a freelance journalist who can mainly be found at WIRED UK but has also written for the Observer, VICE, BuzzFeed, Dazed and Confused, the Metro, Gadgette and many more. She mainly writes about mental health and feminism; her first book, a non-fiction exploration of mental illness called A Beginner’s Guide To Losing Your Mind, is out in 2017 with Hodder and Stoughton.
She tweets as @rey_z.
Marie Le Conte was born and raised in France, and moved to London six years ago to study journalism at the University of Westminster. She never made it back to the other side of the Channel, and is now a political diarist at the Evening Standard. Before that, she was freelance for two years, working for the Telegraph and the Mirror among others. She also does stand-up, is writing a book and has a photography blog because sleeping is overrated.
She tweets as @youngvulgarian.
Mollie Goodfellow A non-graduate, Mollie worked her way through the worlds of social media and PR before landing a journalism apprenticeship with the Independent and Evening Standard. After two years of shorthand, she finished that and shortly moved on to be editorial assistant for the politics team at Sky News. Mother to one beautiful cat.
She tweets as @hansmollman.
Robyn Vinter is a journalist at London Loves Business. She writes mostly about business - particularly economics and entrepreneurialism - but has written for publications as diverse as the Daily Star and Farmers Weekly. She plays roller derby for Croydon under the name Nuclear Vinter #321. In the summer, Robyn is ditching London for Yorkshire to start her own website.
She tweets as
@RobynVinter.
