Allison Donahue, Savannah Bressman, and Hannah White have all been pushing for sexism in the journalism workplace to be put to an end.

Allison Donahue

Allison Donahue, Michigan Advance. Courtesy of Donahue.

Grand Valley State University Alumni, Allison Donahue is a reporter for Michigan Advance. Donahue published a first-person story on January 15 about her encounter with Senator Peter Lucido.

Donahue went to the state capital to interview Senator Lucido and while she was trying to question him, the Senator told her that a group of schoolboys nearby could “have a lot of fun” with her. The boys instantly burst into laughter.

“I was immediately so embarrassed,” says Donahue. “I think it was clear that what he was saying was sexist and that he intended to embarrass me.”

Donahue immediately contacted her editor and told her that she planned to give the Senator a chance to apologize. She told the Senator that she thought his comment was “unprofessional.”

Lucido did not apologize but assured her that it was nothing personal and that that was just how he talks to young women.

After Donahue had gotten the statements from Lucido, she went home and wrote a first-person story about her experience because she believes that by speaking up she can prevent this from happening to anyone else.

Allison Donahue’s story on Sen. Lucido after it was shared on Twitter. Courtesy of Michigan Advance’s Twitter page.

Donahue believes that in order to prevent things like this from happening to other women, boys should be taught how not to treat people. “I think we need to start younger; boys aren’t taught how to be great men until it’s too late. Until they have seen men treat women poorly. Starting earlier is always a good solution,” she says.

“I think the other thing is we need to stop whispering between women or holding in the things that happen to us. It’s when we start talking to each other, then we realize the issue. It is really important to speak up to the person that offended them but also to other women. We can eliminate the guilt if we start speaking up about it and we can protect other women. We need to speak up for ourselves and other women,” she says.

Savannah Bressman

Savannah Bressman, WTXL-ABC 27. Courtesy of Bressman.

Similar to Allison Donahue, another Grand Valley State University Alumni, Savannah Bressman works as a photographer/videographer and editor for WTXL-ABC 27 in Tallahassee, Florida.

She has not had an encounter with sexism yet, but she expects it is something she will have to deal with more than once in the future. “I have definitely heard stories from my coworkers, especially our women in our sports department,” says Bressman.

“I don’t know how long I will be in the journalism field because I want to make the switch to sports [where] I have a feeling [sexism] will be more frequent even more than news,” says Bressman.

Bressman has noticed a lot of women are starting to speak up about sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. “I feel like a lot of women are starting to call it out when they see it and grow a backbone! I know especially one reporter at my station doesn’t put up with anything and will call anything out when she sees it!” says Bressman. “I think [speaking up] will definitely help decrease [sexism] in the future!”

Hannah White*

Hannah White, a Grand Valley journalism student, was working on a project for school when she had a similar experience to Allison Donahue. White was interviewing a source for a story she was putting together when things became uncomfortable.

“I was on a shoot for a story that I was doing in Grand Rapids where a higher profile actor was coming into town and I had managed to get an interview. I thankfully brought a colleague along with me in order to help set up shots and record them,” says White.

White and her assistant eventually ran into the actor’s manager. They exchanged names and small talk, and White and her assistant believed the manager wanted to help “guide [them] through what [they] were and were not allowed to shoot.”

However, after a few hours of speaking with the manager, the women became uncomfortable. “On numerous occasions, the manager approached me and my assistant to tell us about all of his success and the other clients that he represented, as well as place his hand around my waist and pull me in and make a few inappropriate comments to two females who were half his age,” says White. “One comment, in particular, included him letting us know about his love life. Later he found it important to let us know that he was going to be heading back to his hotel room later, as almost to insinuate something.”

Eventually, White and her assistant were able to interview the actor they originally came to meet with and they left without confronting the manager.

“Of course, I thought that our interactions were strange and highly uncomfortable, but at the time I didn’t really think that the situation was ‘extreme’ enough to really say anything. I didn’t want to come across as hypersensitive in a situation that I was trying to establish myself as a journalist,” says White.

“And that right there is the problem. Women in this industry, including myself, have become conditioned to excuse inappropriate behavior because ‘it wasn’t extreme enough,’” says White. “But, where is the scale that measures that?”

“In recent years… scenarios like the one I encountered are just your average day around here,” says White. “It has to be one of the most frustrating things too because I can’t help but think that if I had a man with me or if I myself was a male, things would have played out a little different that night.”

“Something that is so terrifying as a woman is that we have to think about ‘what would happen if I speak out and tell my story, what then?’ It’s so unfortunate but stories like that have a tendency of defining people, whether they intend to or not. I have seen too many situations where the victim of sexism didn’t come out on top, but rather face a world of scrutiny for saying anything at all,” says White.

“I think that by telling our stories is adding to a conversation that has been going on for a number of years. Hopefully, by sharing stories, it encourages other women to come forward and realize that sexism in this industry is real,” says White.

“I hate that as women, we have to think about how to stop a problem that quite frankly isn’t even our fault to begin with. I’m not sure that we will see sexism eradicated in our lifetime. It is something that has been going on for far too long,” says White. “As a woman, I can only hope that there are people out there who will stand with the people who have experienced it firsthand. Through shared experiences, hopefully, we can isolate the problem to the point where situations like these are far less than they are now.”

*This source has requested to remain anonymous.

Promoting Change – Susan Demas

Susan Demas, Michigan Advance. Courtesy of Demas.

Each of these female journalists believes the best solution to sexism is to never stay quiet. However, Susan Demas, editor-in-chief of Michigan Advance believes that it isn’t up to women to speak up and push for change, but rather up to men to be the change.

“… I do feel overall that the onus is on men to change as opposed to my responsibility to prepare reporters and to warn them. This really should be a larger, cultural change taking place,” says Demas.

Demas has been working on pushing male journalists to change publicly. In November of 2019, Demas published an article calling out men in the journalism field and telling them to call out sexism in politics.

According to Demas, it is the responsibility of men “to treat everybody respectfully rather than on women to be constantly trying to correct behavior or always hav[ing] to stand up for themselves.”

Demas and many other journalists are working to promote change and pushing men to be a part of that change. She hopes that one day all of their hard work can make sexism a thing of the past.